What has changed in GDB?
(Organized release by release)
-*** Changes since GDB 7.0
+*** Changes since GDB 7.1
+
+* Windows Thread Information Block access.
+
+ On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
+ Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
+ by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
+ dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
+ thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
+ when remote debugging using GDBserver.
+
+* New remote packets
+
+qGetTIBAddr
+
+ Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
+
+qRelocInsn
+
+ In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
+ also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
+ packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
+ relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
+ is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
+ reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
+
+* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
+ script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
+ a directory.
+
+* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
+
+ - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints).
+ The feature is currently supported by the i386-linux and
+ amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support in gdbserver"
+ section in the manual for more information.
+
+ - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
+
+* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
+ it understands register description.
+
+* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
+
+* X86 general purpose registers
+
+ GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
+ general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
+ $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
+ 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
+ register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
+
+* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
+ A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
+ breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
+ applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
+ single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
+ breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
+
+* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
+ its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
+ in the specified file.
+
+* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
+ from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
+ understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
+ system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
+ use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
+ possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
+ solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
+ target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
+ target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
+ specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
+
+* New commands
+
+set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
+show target-file-system-kind
+ Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
+ names.
+
+save breakpoints <filename>
+ Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
+ in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
+ definitions, use the `source' command.
+
+`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
+is now deprecated.
+
+* Python scripting
+
+** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
+ tables, program spaces, and frame's code blocks. Additionally, GDB
+ Parameters can now be created from the API, and manipulated via
+ set/show in the CLI.
+
+** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
+ gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
+
+** New exception gdb.GdbError.
+
+** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
+
+** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
+
+** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
+ special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
+ for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
+
+* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
+there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
+tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
+regular breakpoints.
+
+* New targets
+
+ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
+
+* D language support.
+ GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
+ language.
+
+*** Changes in GDB 7.1
+
+* C++ Improvements
+
+ ** Namespace Support
+
+ GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
+ user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
+ namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
+ aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
+ print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
+
+ ** Bug Fixes
+
+ All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
+ fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
+ qualified name.
+
+ ** Cast Operators
+
+ The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
+ and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
* New targets
tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
connection is lost unexpectedly.
+ ** Trace files
+
+ GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
+ then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
+ corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
+ collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
+ tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
+ file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
+ <name>".
+
+ ** Circular trace buffer
+
+ You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
+ circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
+ newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
+ not be available for all target agents.
+
* Changed commands
disassemble
The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
which only declare a variable are not shown.
+source
+ The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
+ This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
+ support.
+
+ Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
+ "set script-extension" (see below).
+
* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
record save [<FILENAME>]
loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
upon disconnection.
+set circular-trace-buffer
+show circular-trace-buffer
+ If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
+ and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
+ to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
+ fills up. Some targets may not support this.
+
+set script-extension off|soft|strict
+show script-extension
+ If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
+ recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
+ If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
+ filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
+ evaluation failed.
+ If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
+
+set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
+show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
+ If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
+ generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
+ the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
+ PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
+ off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
+ is on.
+
+* Python API Improvements
+
+ ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
+ some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
+ provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
+
+ ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
+ `is_base_class' attribute.
+
+ ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
+
+ ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
+ evaluate an expression.
+
* New remote packets
QTDV
QTDisconnected
Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
+QTBuffer:circular
+ Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
+
qTfP, qTsP
Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
- GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
non-threaded programs.
+PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
+This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
+libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
+executable program.
+
*** Changes in GDB 7.0
* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
for tracepoint actions.
* "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
-in hex as well as in symbolic form."
+in hex as well as in symbolic form.
* Process record and replay
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blobdiff