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