1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.0:
6 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
8 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
9 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
12 * New native configurations
14 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
16 * New debugging protocols
18 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
20 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
22 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
23 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
24 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
26 * REMOVED configurations and files
28 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
29 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
30 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
31 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
32 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
33 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
34 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
35 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
36 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
37 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
38 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
39 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
40 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
41 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
43 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
47 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
50 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
52 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
53 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
54 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
57 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
58 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
63 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
64 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
65 remote protocol documentation for details.
67 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
69 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
70 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
71 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
74 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
76 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
79 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
81 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
82 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
84 * Separate debug info.
86 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
87 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
88 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
89 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
90 and optional debug files.
92 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
94 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
95 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
98 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
99 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
103 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
104 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
105 considered "useable".
107 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
109 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
110 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
113 * GDB supports logging output to a file
115 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
116 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
118 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
120 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
121 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
124 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
126 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
127 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
131 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
132 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
133 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
134 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
135 data, for more informative profiling results.
137 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
139 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
140 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
141 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
143 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
146 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
147 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
148 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
149 in a subsequent -var-update.
151 * New native configurations.
153 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
155 * Multi-arched targets.
157 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
158 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
160 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
162 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
163 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
164 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
167 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
168 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
169 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
170 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
171 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
172 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
173 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
174 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
175 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
176 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
177 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
178 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
180 * REMOVED configurations and files
183 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
184 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
185 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
186 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
187 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
188 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
190 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
191 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
192 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
193 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
194 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
195 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
197 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
199 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
200 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
201 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
202 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
203 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
205 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
207 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
209 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
210 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
211 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
212 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
213 shared libs like mad''.
215 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
217 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
218 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
219 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
220 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
222 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
224 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
225 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
228 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
229 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
231 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
232 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
234 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
235 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
236 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
237 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
239 * Multi-arched targets.
241 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
242 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
244 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
245 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
246 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
250 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
253 * New native configurations
255 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
256 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
257 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
258 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
260 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
262 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
263 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
264 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
267 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
268 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
269 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
270 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
271 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
272 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
273 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
274 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
275 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
276 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
278 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
279 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
283 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
285 * REMOVED configurations and files
287 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
288 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
289 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
290 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
291 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
293 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
295 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
297 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
298 commands. The default is 1024.
300 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
302 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
304 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
306 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
307 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
308 from a file into memory (restore).
310 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
312 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
313 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
314 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
316 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
324 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
325 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
326 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
328 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
329 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
330 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
332 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
333 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
334 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
336 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
337 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
338 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
340 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
342 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
344 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
345 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
346 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
347 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
348 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
349 (notably embedded) targets.
351 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
353 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
354 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
355 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
356 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
358 * New command line option
360 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
362 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
364 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
365 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
366 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
367 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
368 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
369 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
370 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
371 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
372 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
373 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
375 * Changes in ARM configurations.
377 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
378 configuration is fully multi-arch.
380 * New native configurations
382 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
383 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
384 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
385 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
389 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
391 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
393 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
394 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
395 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
398 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
399 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
400 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
401 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
402 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
404 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
406 * REMOVED configurations and files
408 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
410 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
411 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
412 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
413 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
414 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
415 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
416 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
417 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
418 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
419 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
420 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
422 * Changes to command line processing
424 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
425 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
427 * Changes to key bindings
429 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
431 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
433 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
435 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
438 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
440 Numerous documentation fixes.
442 Numerous testsuite fixes.
444 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
446 * New native configurations
448 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
449 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
450 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
451 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
453 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
457 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
459 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
461 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
463 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
464 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
465 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
466 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
467 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
469 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
470 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
471 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
472 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
473 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
474 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
475 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
476 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
478 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
479 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
481 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
482 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
483 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
486 * REMOVED configurations and files
488 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
489 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
491 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
495 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
497 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
498 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
503 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
505 * The MI enabled by default.
507 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
508 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
509 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
510 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
511 which is now deprecated.
513 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
515 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
516 main features are supported:
518 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
520 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
523 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
525 - a Pascal expression parser.
527 However, some important features are not yet supported.
529 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
531 - there are some problems with boolean types;
533 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
534 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
536 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
538 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
540 * Changes in completion.
542 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
543 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
544 users expect at the shell prompt.
546 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
547 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
548 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
549 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
550 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
551 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
552 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
554 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
556 * New platform-independent commands:
558 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
559 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
560 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
562 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
564 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
565 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
566 many threads as your system allows you to have.
568 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
570 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
571 multi-threaded programs though.
573 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
575 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
577 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
578 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
581 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
583 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
584 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
585 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
586 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
587 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
590 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
591 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
592 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
594 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
596 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
597 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
599 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
600 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
603 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
604 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
605 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
606 a given linear address.
608 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
609 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
610 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
612 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
614 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
616 * Changes in documentation.
618 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
619 Documentation License.
621 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
624 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
626 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
629 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
630 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
631 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
633 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
635 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
636 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
637 contents of this file.
641 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
643 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
645 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
647 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
648 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
649 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
650 greater level of detail.
652 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
654 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
655 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
656 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
659 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
661 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
662 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
663 machines ``out of the box''.
665 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
666 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
667 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
668 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
669 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
671 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
672 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
673 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
674 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
675 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
677 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
678 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
681 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
684 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
685 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
686 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
687 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
689 * New native configurations
691 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
692 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
696 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
697 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
698 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
699 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
701 * OBSOLETE configurations
703 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
704 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
706 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
709 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
710 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
711 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
712 be permanently REMOVED.
714 * Gould support removed
716 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
718 * New features for SVR4
720 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
721 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
722 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
724 * Many C++ enhancements
726 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
727 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
729 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
731 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
732 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
733 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
734 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
736 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
737 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
739 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
741 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
742 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
743 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
745 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
746 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
748 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
750 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
751 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
752 include ``set remote P-packet''.
754 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
756 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
757 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
758 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
760 * ``apropos'' command added.
762 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
763 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
764 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
768 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
769 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
770 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
771 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
772 enabled by configuring with:
774 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
776 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
778 * New native configurations
780 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
781 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
782 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
786 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
787 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
788 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
790 * OBSOLETE configurations
792 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
794 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
795 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
796 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
797 be permanently REMOVED.
801 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
802 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
803 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
804 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
805 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
806 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
807 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
812 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
814 * set extension-language
816 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
817 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
818 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
819 set extension-language .c c++
820 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
821 and their associated languages.
823 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
825 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
826 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
827 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
831 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
832 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
834 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
835 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
837 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
838 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
839 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
840 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
841 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
842 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
843 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
844 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
846 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
847 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
848 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
849 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
853 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
854 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
855 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
856 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
857 for xdb and dbx commands.
861 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
862 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
863 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
865 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
866 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
867 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
869 * Debugging across forks
871 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
876 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
877 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
878 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
880 * GDB remote protocol additions
882 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
883 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
884 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
885 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
887 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
888 full 64-bit address. The command
890 set remoteaddresssize 32
892 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
893 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
896 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
897 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
899 maint packet heythere
901 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
902 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
905 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
906 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
907 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
909 * Tracing can collect general expressions
911 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
912 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
913 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
915 * mask-address variable for Mips
917 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
918 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
919 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
921 * Higher serial baud rates
923 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
924 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
925 to achieve all of these rates.)
929 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
930 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
933 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
935 * New native configurations
937 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
938 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
939 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
940 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
941 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
942 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
943 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
947 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
948 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
949 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
950 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
951 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
952 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
953 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
954 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
955 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
956 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
957 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
959 * New debugging protocols
961 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
962 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
963 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
964 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
965 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
966 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
970 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
971 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
976 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
977 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
979 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
981 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
982 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
983 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
985 * Live range splitting
987 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
988 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
989 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
993 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
994 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
998 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
999 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1000 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1005 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1010 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1011 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1012 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1013 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1014 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1015 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1019 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1020 the symbol at the specified address.
1024 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1025 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1026 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1027 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1028 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1032 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1033 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1034 of most MIPS variants.
1038 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1039 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1040 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1044 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1045 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1046 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1047 the possible architectures.
1049 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1051 * New native configurations
1053 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1054 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1055 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1056 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1057 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1058 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1062 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1063 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1064 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1065 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1066 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1068 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1072 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1073 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1074 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1075 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1076 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1080 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1082 * Windows 95/NT native
1084 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1085 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1086 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1087 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1088 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1090 * dont-repeat command
1092 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1093 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1094 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1095 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1097 * Send break instead of ^C
1099 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1100 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1101 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1103 * Remote protocol timeout
1105 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1106 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1107 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1109 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1111 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1112 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1113 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1114 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1115 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1117 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1118 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1119 automatically on hpux10.
1121 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1123 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1125 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1127 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1128 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1129 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1130 every character. The default value is 1050.
1132 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1134 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1135 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1136 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1137 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1138 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1139 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1141 * Speedups for remote debugging
1143 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1144 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1145 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1147 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1149 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1150 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1152 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1154 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1156 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1157 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1159 * Remote targets use caching
1161 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1162 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1163 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1164 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1165 off' turns the the data cache off.
1167 * Remote targets may have threads
1169 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1170 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1171 gdb/remote.c for details.
1175 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1176 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1177 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1178 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1179 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1180 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1181 sequence is something like
1183 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1185 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1189 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1190 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1191 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1192 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1193 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1194 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1195 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1196 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1200 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1201 but does simplify configuration and building.
1205 GDB now supports hpux10.
1207 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1209 * New native configurations
1211 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1212 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1213 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1214 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1218 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1219 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1220 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1221 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1224 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1226 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1227 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1228 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1229 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1230 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1232 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1234 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1235 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1238 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1240 To execute the command use:
1243 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1244 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1245 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1247 * New `if' and `while' commands
1249 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1250 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1251 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1252 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1253 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1254 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1255 if the expression is zero.
1257 * Fortran source language mode
1259 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1260 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1261 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1262 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1265 * Better HPUX support
1267 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1268 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1269 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1270 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1271 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1277 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1278 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1284 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1285 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1288 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1289 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1291 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1293 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1294 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1295 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1296 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1297 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1298 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1300 * New DOS host serial code
1302 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1303 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1306 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1308 * New "complete" command
1310 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1311 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1313 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1315 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1316 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1318 * Breakpoint hit counts
1320 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1321 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1322 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1323 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1324 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1327 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1329 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1330 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1331 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1333 * Shared library breakpoints
1335 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1336 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1338 * Hardware watchpoints
1340 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1341 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1343 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1347 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1348 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1350 * Improved Irix 5 support
1352 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1354 * Improved HPPA support
1356 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1358 * New native configurations
1360 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1361 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1362 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1363 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1367 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1368 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1371 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1373 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1374 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1378 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1379 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1381 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1383 * Irix 5 is now supported
1387 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1388 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1389 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1390 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1391 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1394 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1396 * User visible changes:
1400 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1401 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1402 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1403 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1404 debugging info for the mips target).
1406 * DEC Alpha native support
1408 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1409 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1410 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1411 Alpha-specific notes.
1413 * Preliminary thread implementation
1415 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1417 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1419 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1420 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1423 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1425 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1426 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1427 call methods, ...etc.
1429 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1431 * User visible changes:
1433 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1434 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1435 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1436 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1438 Filename completion now works.
1440 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1441 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1442 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1444 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1445 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1446 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1447 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1448 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1452 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1453 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1456 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1460 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1461 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1462 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1466 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1467 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1468 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1469 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1470 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1474 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1475 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1476 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1478 * New targets supported
1480 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1481 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1482 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1483 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1484 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1486 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1487 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1488 GO32 memory extender.
1490 * New remote protocols
1492 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1494 * New source languages supported
1496 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1497 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1498 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1501 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1503 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1505 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1506 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1507 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1508 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1509 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1510 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1512 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1514 * Faster and better demangling
1516 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1517 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1518 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1519 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1520 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1521 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1524 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1525 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1526 compiler does not actually implement.
1528 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1530 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1531 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1532 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1533 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1534 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1535 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1538 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1539 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1541 * Improved configure script
1543 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1544 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1545 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1546 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1548 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1549 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1550 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1551 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1552 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1553 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1555 * Documentation improvements
1557 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1558 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1559 before submitting changes.
1561 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1562 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1563 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1564 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1565 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1567 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1568 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1569 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1570 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1571 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1572 around this problem.
1576 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1577 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1578 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1581 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1582 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1584 * New native hosts supported
1586 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1587 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1589 * New targets supported
1591 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1593 * New file formats supported
1595 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1596 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1600 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1602 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1603 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1605 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1606 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1607 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1609 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1610 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1612 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1613 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1614 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1617 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1618 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1619 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1620 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1621 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1623 * Internal improvements
1625 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1626 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1628 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1629 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1630 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1631 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1632 shared code that handles any of them.
1634 * New command line options
1636 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1640 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1641 General Public License.
1643 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1645 * Host/native/target split
1647 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1648 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1649 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1650 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1651 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1653 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1654 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1655 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1656 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1657 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1658 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1659 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1661 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1662 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1663 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1665 * New hosts supported
1667 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1668 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1669 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1671 * New targets supported
1673 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1674 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1676 * New native hosts supported
1678 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1679 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1680 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1682 * New file formats supported
1684 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1685 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1686 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1690 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1691 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1692 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1694 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1696 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1697 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1698 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1699 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1703 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1704 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1705 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1707 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1711 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1712 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1715 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1716 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1718 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1719 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1720 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1721 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1722 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1723 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1725 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1726 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1727 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1728 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1732 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1733 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1734 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1735 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1736 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1738 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1739 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1740 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1741 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1745 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1746 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1747 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1748 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1749 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1750 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1751 each instruction being stepped through.
1753 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1754 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1756 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1757 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1758 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1759 processor with a serial port.
1763 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1764 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1765 supported, and what files each one uses.
1769 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1770 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1771 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1772 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1774 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1775 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1776 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1777 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1781 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1782 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1783 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1784 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1785 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1786 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1788 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1791 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1793 * Better support for C++ function names
1795 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1796 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1797 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1798 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1799 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1801 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1802 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1803 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1804 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1805 for the list of formats.
1807 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1809 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1810 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1811 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1812 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1813 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1814 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1817 * New 'maintenance' command
1819 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1820 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1821 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1823 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1824 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1825 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1826 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1827 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1828 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1830 The following commands are new:
1832 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1833 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1834 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1836 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1838 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1839 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1840 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1841 read after argv processing.
1843 * New hosts supported
1845 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1847 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1849 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1850 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1851 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1852 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1853 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1856 * New targets supported
1858 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1860 * More smarts about finding #include files
1862 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1863 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1864 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1865 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1866 the one that contains your sources.
1868 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1869 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1870 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1872 * Interesting infernals change
1874 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1875 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1876 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1877 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1879 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1881 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1882 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1883 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1885 See the ChangeLog for details.
1887 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1889 * New machines supported (host and target)
1891 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1893 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1895 * New malloc package
1897 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1898 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1899 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1900 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1901 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1902 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1906 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1907 'help info proc' for details.
1909 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1911 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1912 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1915 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1917 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1918 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1919 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1920 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1921 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1922 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1924 * Cross byte order fixes
1926 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1927 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1929 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1931 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1932 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1933 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1934 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1935 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1936 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1937 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1938 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1939 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1940 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1942 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1943 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1944 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1945 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1947 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1948 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1949 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1952 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1954 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1955 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1956 shared across multiple host platforms.
1958 * longjmp() handling
1960 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1961 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1962 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1963 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1967 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1968 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1973 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1974 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1975 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1977 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1979 * New machines supported (host and target)
1981 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1983 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1984 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1986 * New machines supported (target)
1988 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1992 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1993 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1994 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1996 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1997 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1998 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1999 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2000 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2003 * New features for SVR4
2005 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2006 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2007 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2009 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2010 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2011 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2013 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2014 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2016 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2018 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2019 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2020 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2021 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2022 same code linked statically.
2026 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2027 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2028 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2029 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2030 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2031 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2035 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2036 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2037 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2040 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2042 * New machines supported (host and target)
2044 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2045 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2046 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2048 * Almost SCO Unix support
2050 We had hoped to support:
2051 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2052 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2053 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2054 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2056 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2058 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2059 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2060 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2061 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2066 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2067 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2068 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2072 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2073 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2074 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2076 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2078 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2079 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2080 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2082 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2083 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2084 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2085 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2088 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2089 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2090 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2091 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2094 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2095 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2098 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2099 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2100 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2103 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2105 * Improved configuration
2107 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2108 Porting BFD is simpler.
2112 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2113 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2114 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2115 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2119 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2121 * New host supported (not target)
2123 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2126 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2128 * Multiple source language support
2130 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2131 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2132 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2133 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2134 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2135 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2139 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2140 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2141 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2142 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2144 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2145 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2146 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2148 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2149 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2153 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2154 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2155 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2156 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2159 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2161 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2162 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2163 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2164 examining core files.
2168 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2171 * New machines supported (host and target)
2173 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2174 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2175 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2177 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2179 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2181 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2183 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2184 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2185 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2187 * New remote interfaces
2193 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2197 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2199 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2200 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2201 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2202 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2203 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2204 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2205 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2206 stub on the target system.
2208 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2210 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2211 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2212 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2214 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2215 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2218 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2220 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2221 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2223 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2224 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2225 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2227 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2228 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2229 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2230 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2232 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2233 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2234 it is already running. Default is ON.
2236 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2237 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2238 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2239 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2242 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2243 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2244 or the value of the environment variable
2247 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2248 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2251 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2252 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2253 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2255 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2256 history expansion will be performed on
2257 command line input. The default is OFF.
2259 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2260 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2261 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2263 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2264 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2265 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2268 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2269 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2270 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2273 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2274 ``set width'' instead.
2276 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2277 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2278 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2279 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2281 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2284 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2287 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2290 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2293 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2295 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2296 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2297 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2301 * Support for Shared Libraries
2303 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2304 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2305 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2306 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2307 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2308 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2309 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2310 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2312 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2313 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2314 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2316 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2321 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2322 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2323 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2324 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2325 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2326 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2328 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2330 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2332 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2333 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2334 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2337 * C++ multiple inheritance
2339 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2342 * C++ exception handling
2344 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2345 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2346 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2349 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2350 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2351 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2353 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2354 current stack frame.
2357 * Minor command changes
2359 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2360 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2361 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2363 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2364 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2365 frames without printing.
2367 * New directory command
2369 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2370 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2371 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2372 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2373 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2375 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2377 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2380 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2381 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2382 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2383 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob