1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.3
7 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
9 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
11 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
12 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
13 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
14 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
15 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
17 * Internationalization
19 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
20 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
21 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
25 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
26 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
27 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
29 * New native configurations
31 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
35 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
36 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
38 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
40 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
41 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
42 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
45 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
46 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
47 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
59 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
60 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
62 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
64 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
65 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
66 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
76 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
78 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
80 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
81 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
84 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
86 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
87 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
88 IRIX long double values).
92 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
93 command. This problem has been fixed.
95 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
97 * Fix for ``many threads''
99 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
100 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
103 ptrace: No such process.
104 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
106 This problem has been fixed.
108 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
110 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
113 * New ``start'' command.
115 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
117 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
119 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
120 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
121 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
123 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
124 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
125 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
126 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
127 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
128 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
129 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
130 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
131 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
133 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
135 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
136 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
137 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
138 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
139 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
141 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
142 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
143 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
145 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
147 * New native configurations
149 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
150 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
151 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
152 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
153 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
154 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
155 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
157 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
159 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
160 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
161 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
162 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
163 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
164 work, was also included.
166 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
167 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
177 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
178 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
180 * REMOVED configurations and files
182 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
183 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
184 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
185 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
186 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
187 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
188 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
189 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
190 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
192 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
194 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
196 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
198 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
199 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
200 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
201 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
204 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
206 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
207 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
208 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
209 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
210 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
211 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
214 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
216 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
218 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
219 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
220 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
222 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
224 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
225 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
227 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
229 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
230 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
231 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
233 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
235 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
236 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
238 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
240 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
241 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
242 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
244 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
246 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
247 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
248 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
250 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
252 * Removed --with-mmalloc
254 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
255 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
257 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
259 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
260 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
261 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
262 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
264 * Revised SPARC target
266 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
267 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
268 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
269 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
270 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
274 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
275 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
276 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
279 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
281 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
282 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
285 * C++ nested types and namespaces
287 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
288 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
289 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
290 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
291 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
292 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
293 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
294 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
295 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
297 * New native configurations
299 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
300 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
301 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
302 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
303 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
305 * New debugging protocols
307 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
309 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
311 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
312 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
313 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
315 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
317 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
318 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
319 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
322 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
323 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
324 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
325 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
326 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
327 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
328 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
329 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
330 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
332 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
334 * REMOVED configurations and files
336 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
337 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
338 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
339 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
340 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
341 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
342 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
343 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
344 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
345 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
346 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
347 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
348 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
349 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
350 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
351 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
352 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
354 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
358 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
361 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
363 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
364 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
365 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
368 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
369 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
374 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
375 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
376 remote protocol documentation for details.
378 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
380 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
381 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
382 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
385 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
387 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
388 per-thread variables.
390 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
392 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
393 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
395 * Separate debug info.
397 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
398 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
399 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
400 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
401 and optional debug files.
403 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
405 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
406 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
409 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
410 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
414 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
415 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
416 considered "useable".
418 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
420 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
421 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
424 * GDB supports logging output to a file
426 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
427 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
429 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
431 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
432 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
435 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
437 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
438 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
442 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
443 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
444 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
445 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
446 data, for more informative profiling results.
448 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
450 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
451 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
452 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
454 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
457 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
458 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
459 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
460 in a subsequent -var-update.
462 * New native configurations.
464 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
466 * Multi-arched targets.
468 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
469 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
471 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
473 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
474 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
475 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
478 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
479 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
480 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
481 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
482 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
483 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
484 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
485 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
486 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
487 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
488 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
489 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
491 * REMOVED configurations and files
494 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
495 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
496 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
497 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
498 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
499 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
501 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
502 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
503 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
504 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
505 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
506 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
508 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
510 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
511 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
512 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
513 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
514 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
516 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
518 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
520 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
521 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
522 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
523 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
524 shared libs like mad''.
526 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
528 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
529 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
530 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
531 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
533 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
535 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
536 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
539 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
540 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
542 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
543 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
545 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
546 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
547 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
548 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
550 * Multi-arched targets.
552 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
553 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
555 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
556 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
557 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
561 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
564 * New native configurations
566 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
567 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
568 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
569 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
571 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
573 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
574 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
575 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
578 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
579 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
580 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
581 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
582 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
583 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
584 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
585 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
586 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
587 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
589 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
590 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
594 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
596 * REMOVED configurations and files
598 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
599 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
600 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
601 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
602 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
604 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
606 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
608 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
609 commands. The default is 1024.
611 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
613 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
615 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
617 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
618 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
619 from a file into memory (restore).
621 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
623 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
624 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
625 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
627 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
635 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
636 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
637 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
639 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
640 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
641 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
643 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
644 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
645 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
647 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
648 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
649 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
651 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
653 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
655 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
656 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
657 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
658 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
659 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
660 (notably embedded) targets.
662 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
664 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
665 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
666 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
667 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
669 * New command line option
671 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
673 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
675 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
676 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
677 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
678 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
679 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
680 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
681 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
682 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
683 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
684 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
686 * Changes in ARM configurations.
688 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
689 configuration is fully multi-arch.
691 * New native configurations
693 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
694 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
695 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
696 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
700 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
702 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
704 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
705 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
706 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
709 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
710 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
711 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
712 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
713 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
715 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
717 * REMOVED configurations and files
719 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
721 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
722 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
723 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
724 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
725 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
726 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
727 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
728 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
729 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
730 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
731 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
733 * Changes to command line processing
735 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
736 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
738 * Changes to key bindings
740 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
742 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
744 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
746 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
749 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
751 Numerous documentation fixes.
753 Numerous testsuite fixes.
755 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
757 * New native configurations
759 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
760 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
761 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
762 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
764 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
768 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
770 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
772 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
774 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
775 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
776 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
777 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
778 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
780 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
781 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
782 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
783 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
784 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
785 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
786 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
787 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
789 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
790 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
792 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
793 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
794 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
797 * REMOVED configurations and files
799 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
800 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
802 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
806 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
808 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
809 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
814 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
816 * The MI enabled by default.
818 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
819 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
820 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
821 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
822 which is now deprecated.
824 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
826 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
827 main features are supported:
829 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
831 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
834 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
836 - a Pascal expression parser.
838 However, some important features are not yet supported.
840 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
842 - there are some problems with boolean types;
844 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
845 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
847 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
849 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
851 * Changes in completion.
853 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
854 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
855 users expect at the shell prompt.
857 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
858 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
859 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
860 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
861 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
862 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
863 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
865 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
867 * New platform-independent commands:
869 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
870 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
871 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
873 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
875 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
876 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
877 many threads as your system allows you to have.
879 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
881 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
882 multi-threaded programs though.
884 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
886 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
888 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
889 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
892 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
894 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
895 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
896 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
897 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
898 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
901 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
902 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
903 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
905 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
907 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
908 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
910 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
911 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
914 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
915 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
916 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
917 a given linear address.
919 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
920 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
921 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
923 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
925 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
927 * Changes in documentation.
929 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
930 Documentation License.
932 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
935 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
937 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
940 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
941 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
942 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
944 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
946 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
947 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
948 contents of this file.
952 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
954 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
956 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
958 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
959 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
960 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
961 greater level of detail.
963 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
965 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
966 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
967 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
970 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
972 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
973 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
974 machines ``out of the box''.
976 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
977 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
978 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
979 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
980 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
982 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
983 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
984 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
985 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
986 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
988 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
989 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
992 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
995 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
996 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
997 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
998 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1000 * New native configurations
1002 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1003 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1007 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1008 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1009 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1010 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1012 * OBSOLETE configurations
1014 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1015 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1017 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1020 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1021 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1022 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1023 be permanently REMOVED.
1025 * Gould support removed
1027 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1029 * New features for SVR4
1031 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1032 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1033 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1035 * Many C++ enhancements
1037 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1038 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1040 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1042 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1043 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1044 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1045 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1047 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1048 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1050 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1052 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1053 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1054 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1056 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1057 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1059 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1061 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1062 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1063 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1065 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1067 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1068 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1069 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1071 * ``apropos'' command added.
1073 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1074 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1075 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1079 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1080 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1081 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1082 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1083 enabled by configuring with:
1085 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1087 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1089 * New native configurations
1091 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1092 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1093 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1097 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1098 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1099 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1101 * OBSOLETE configurations
1103 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1105 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1106 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1107 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1108 be permanently REMOVED.
1112 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1113 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1114 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1115 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1116 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1117 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1118 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1123 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1125 * set extension-language
1127 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1128 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1129 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1130 set extension-language .c c++
1131 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1132 and their associated languages.
1134 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1136 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1137 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1138 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1142 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1143 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1145 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1146 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1148 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1149 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1150 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1151 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1152 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1153 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1154 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1155 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1157 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1158 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1159 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1160 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1164 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1165 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1166 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1167 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1168 for xdb and dbx commands.
1172 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1173 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1174 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1176 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1177 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1178 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1180 * Debugging across forks
1182 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1187 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1188 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1189 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1191 * GDB remote protocol additions
1193 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1194 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1195 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1196 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1198 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1199 full 64-bit address. The command
1201 set remoteaddresssize 32
1203 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1204 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1207 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1208 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1210 maint packet heythere
1212 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1213 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1216 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1217 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1218 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1220 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1222 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1223 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1224 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1226 * mask-address variable for Mips
1228 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1229 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1230 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1232 * Higher serial baud rates
1234 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1235 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1236 to achieve all of these rates.)
1240 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1241 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1244 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1246 * New native configurations
1248 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1249 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1250 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1251 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1252 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1253 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1254 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1258 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1259 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1260 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1261 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1262 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1263 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1264 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1265 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1266 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1267 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1268 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1270 * New debugging protocols
1272 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1273 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1274 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1275 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1276 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1277 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1281 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1282 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1287 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1288 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1290 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1292 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1293 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1294 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1296 * Live range splitting
1298 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1299 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1300 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1304 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1305 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1309 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1310 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1311 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1316 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1321 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1322 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1323 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1324 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1325 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1326 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1330 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1331 the symbol at the specified address.
1335 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1336 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1337 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1338 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1339 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1343 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1344 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1345 of most MIPS variants.
1349 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1350 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1351 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1355 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1356 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1357 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1358 the possible architectures.
1360 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1362 * New native configurations
1364 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1365 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1366 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1367 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1368 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1369 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1373 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1374 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1375 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1376 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1377 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1379 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1383 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1384 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1385 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1386 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1387 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1391 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1393 * Windows 95/NT native
1395 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1396 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1397 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1398 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1399 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1401 * dont-repeat command
1403 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1404 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1405 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1406 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1408 * Send break instead of ^C
1410 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1411 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1412 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1414 * Remote protocol timeout
1416 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1417 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1418 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1420 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1422 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1423 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1424 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1425 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1426 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1428 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1429 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1430 automatically on hpux10.
1432 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1434 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1436 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1438 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1439 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1440 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1441 every character. The default value is 1050.
1443 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1445 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1446 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1447 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1448 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1449 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1450 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1452 * Speedups for remote debugging
1454 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1455 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1456 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1458 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1460 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1461 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1463 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1465 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1467 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1468 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1470 * Remote targets use caching
1472 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1473 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1474 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1475 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1476 off' turns the the data cache off.
1478 * Remote targets may have threads
1480 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1481 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1482 gdb/remote.c for details.
1486 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1487 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1488 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1489 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1490 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1491 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1492 sequence is something like
1494 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1496 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1500 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1501 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1502 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1503 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1504 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1505 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1506 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1507 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1511 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1512 but does simplify configuration and building.
1516 GDB now supports hpux10.
1518 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1520 * New native configurations
1522 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1523 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1524 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1525 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1529 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1530 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1531 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1532 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1535 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1537 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1538 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1539 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1540 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1541 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1543 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1545 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1546 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1549 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1551 To execute the command use:
1554 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1555 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1556 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1558 * New `if' and `while' commands
1560 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1561 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1562 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1563 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1564 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1565 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1566 if the expression is zero.
1568 * Fortran source language mode
1570 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1571 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1572 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1573 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1576 * Better HPUX support
1578 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1579 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1580 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1581 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1582 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1588 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1589 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1595 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1596 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1599 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1600 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1602 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1604 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1605 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1606 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1607 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1608 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1609 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1611 * New DOS host serial code
1613 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1614 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1617 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1619 * New "complete" command
1621 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1622 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1624 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1626 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1627 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1629 * Breakpoint hit counts
1631 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1632 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1633 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1634 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1635 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1638 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1640 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1641 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1642 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1644 * Shared library breakpoints
1646 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1647 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1649 * Hardware watchpoints
1651 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1652 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1654 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1658 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1659 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1661 * Improved Irix 5 support
1663 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1665 * Improved HPPA support
1667 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1669 * New native configurations
1671 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1672 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1673 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1674 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1678 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1679 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1682 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1684 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1685 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1689 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1690 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1692 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1694 * Irix 5 is now supported
1698 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1699 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1700 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1701 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1702 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1705 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1707 * User visible changes:
1711 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1712 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1713 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1714 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1715 debugging info for the mips target).
1717 * DEC Alpha native support
1719 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1720 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1721 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1722 Alpha-specific notes.
1724 * Preliminary thread implementation
1726 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1728 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1730 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1731 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1734 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1736 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1737 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1738 call methods, ...etc.
1740 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1742 * User visible changes:
1744 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1745 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1746 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1747 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1749 Filename completion now works.
1751 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1752 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1753 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1755 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1756 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1757 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1758 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1759 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1763 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1764 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1767 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1771 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1772 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1773 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1777 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1778 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1779 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1780 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1781 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1785 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1786 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1787 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1789 * New targets supported
1791 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1792 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1793 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1794 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1795 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1797 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1798 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1799 GO32 memory extender.
1801 * New remote protocols
1803 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1805 * New source languages supported
1807 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1808 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1809 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1812 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1814 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1816 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1817 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1818 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1819 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1820 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1821 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1823 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1825 * Faster and better demangling
1827 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1828 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1829 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1830 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1831 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1832 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1835 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1836 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1837 compiler does not actually implement.
1839 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1841 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1842 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1843 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1844 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1845 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1846 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1849 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1850 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1852 * Improved configure script
1854 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1855 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1856 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1857 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1859 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1860 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1861 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1862 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1863 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1864 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1866 * Documentation improvements
1868 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1869 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1870 before submitting changes.
1872 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1873 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1874 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1875 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1876 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1878 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1879 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1880 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1881 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1882 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1883 around this problem.
1887 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1888 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1889 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1892 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1893 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1895 * New native hosts supported
1897 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1898 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1900 * New targets supported
1902 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1904 * New file formats supported
1906 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1907 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1911 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1913 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1914 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1916 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1917 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1918 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1920 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1921 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1923 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1924 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1925 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1928 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1929 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1930 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1931 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1932 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1934 * Internal improvements
1936 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1937 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1939 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1940 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1941 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1942 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1943 shared code that handles any of them.
1945 * New command line options
1947 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1951 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1952 General Public License.
1954 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1956 * Host/native/target split
1958 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1959 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1960 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1961 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1962 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1964 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1965 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1966 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1967 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1968 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1969 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1970 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1972 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1973 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1974 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1976 * New hosts supported
1978 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1979 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1980 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1982 * New targets supported
1984 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1985 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1987 * New native hosts supported
1989 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1990 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1991 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1993 * New file formats supported
1995 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1996 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1997 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2001 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2002 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2003 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2005 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2007 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2008 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2009 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2010 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2014 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2015 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2016 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2018 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2022 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2023 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2026 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2027 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2029 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2030 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2031 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2032 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2033 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2034 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2036 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2037 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2038 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2039 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2043 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2044 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2045 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2046 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2047 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2049 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2050 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2051 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2052 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2056 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2057 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2058 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2059 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2060 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2061 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2062 each instruction being stepped through.
2064 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2065 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2067 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2068 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2069 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2070 processor with a serial port.
2074 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2075 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2076 supported, and what files each one uses.
2080 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2081 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2082 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2083 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2085 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2086 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2087 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2088 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2092 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2093 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2094 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2095 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2096 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2097 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2099 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2102 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2104 * Better support for C++ function names
2106 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2107 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2108 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2109 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2110 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2112 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2113 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2114 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2115 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2116 for the list of formats.
2118 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2120 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2121 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2122 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2123 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2124 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2125 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2128 * New 'maintenance' command
2130 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2131 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2132 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2134 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2135 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2136 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2137 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2138 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2139 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2141 The following commands are new:
2143 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2144 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2145 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2147 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2149 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2150 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2151 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2152 read after argv processing.
2154 * New hosts supported
2156 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2158 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2160 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2161 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2162 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2163 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2164 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2167 * New targets supported
2169 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2171 * More smarts about finding #include files
2173 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2174 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2175 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2176 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2177 the one that contains your sources.
2179 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2180 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2181 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2183 * Interesting infernals change
2185 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2186 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2187 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2188 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2190 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2192 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2193 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2194 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2196 See the ChangeLog for details.
2198 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2200 * New machines supported (host and target)
2202 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2204 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2206 * New malloc package
2208 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2209 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2210 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2211 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2212 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2213 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2217 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2218 'help info proc' for details.
2220 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2222 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2223 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2226 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2228 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2229 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2230 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2231 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2232 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2233 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2235 * Cross byte order fixes
2237 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2238 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2240 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2242 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2243 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2244 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2245 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2246 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2247 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2248 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2249 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2250 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2251 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2253 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2254 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2255 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2256 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2258 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2259 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2260 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2263 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2265 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2266 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2267 shared across multiple host platforms.
2269 * longjmp() handling
2271 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2272 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2273 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2274 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2278 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2279 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2284 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2285 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2286 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2288 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2290 * New machines supported (host and target)
2292 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2294 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2295 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2297 * New machines supported (target)
2299 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2303 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2304 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2305 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2307 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2308 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2309 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2310 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2311 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2314 * New features for SVR4
2316 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2317 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2318 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2320 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2321 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2322 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2324 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2325 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2327 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2329 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2330 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2331 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2332 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2333 same code linked statically.
2337 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2338 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2339 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2340 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2341 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2342 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2346 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2347 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2348 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2351 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2353 * New machines supported (host and target)
2355 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2356 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2357 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2359 * Almost SCO Unix support
2361 We had hoped to support:
2362 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2363 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2364 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2365 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2367 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2369 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2370 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2371 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2372 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2377 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2378 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2379 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2383 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2384 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2385 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2387 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2389 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2390 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2391 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2393 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2394 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2395 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2396 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2399 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2400 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2401 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2402 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2405 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2406 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2409 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2410 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2411 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2414 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2416 * Improved configuration
2418 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2419 Porting BFD is simpler.
2423 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2424 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2425 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2426 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2430 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2432 * New host supported (not target)
2434 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2437 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2439 * Multiple source language support
2441 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2442 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2443 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2444 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2445 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2446 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2450 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2451 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2452 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2453 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2455 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2456 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2457 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2459 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2460 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2464 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2465 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2466 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2467 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2470 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2472 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2473 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2474 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2475 examining core files.
2479 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2482 * New machines supported (host and target)
2484 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2485 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2486 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2488 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2490 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2492 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2494 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2495 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2496 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2498 * New remote interfaces
2504 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2508 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2510 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2511 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2512 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2513 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2514 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2515 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2516 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2517 stub on the target system.
2519 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2521 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2522 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2523 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2525 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2526 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2529 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2531 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2532 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2534 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2535 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2536 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2538 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2539 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2540 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2541 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2543 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2544 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2545 it is already running. Default is ON.
2547 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2548 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2549 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2550 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2553 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2554 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2555 or the value of the environment variable
2558 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2559 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2562 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2563 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2564 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2566 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2567 history expansion will be performed on
2568 command line input. The default is OFF.
2570 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2571 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2572 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2574 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2575 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2576 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2579 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2580 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2581 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2584 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2585 ``set width'' instead.
2587 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2588 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2589 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2590 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2592 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2595 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2598 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2601 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2604 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2606 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2607 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2608 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2612 * Support for Shared Libraries
2614 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2615 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2616 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2617 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2618 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2619 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2620 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2621 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2623 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2624 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2625 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2627 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2632 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2633 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2634 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2635 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2636 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2637 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2639 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2641 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2643 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2644 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2645 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2648 * C++ multiple inheritance
2650 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2653 * C++ exception handling
2655 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2656 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2657 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2660 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2661 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2662 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2664 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2665 current stack frame.
2668 * Minor command changes
2670 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2671 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2672 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2674 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2675 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2676 frames without printing.
2678 * New directory command
2680 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2681 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2682 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2683 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2684 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2686 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2688 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2691 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2692 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2693 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2694 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob