What has changed in GDB?
(Organized release by release)
-*** Changes since GDB 7.2
+*** Changes since GDB 7.3
+
+* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
+ $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
+ $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
+ lives.
+
+ GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
+ mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
+ directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
+ The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
+ systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
+
+ $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
+ $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
+
+* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
+ When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
+ library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
+ character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
+ use this option to specify where to find it.
+
+* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
+ a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
+ watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
+ The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
+ reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
+ by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
+ section in the user manual for more details.
+
+* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
+ the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
+ become available after that.
+
+* Changed commands
+
+watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
+ The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
+ of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
+
+info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
+ This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
+ It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
+
+* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
+ experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
+ commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
+ tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
+ begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
+ is running.
+
+* New remote packets
+
+QTEnable
+
+ Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
+
+QTDisable
+
+ Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
+
+*** Changes in GDB 7.3
+
+* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
+ It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
+ matches the given regular expression.
+
+* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
+
+* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
+ dumping the instruction opcodes.
+
+* New command line options
+
+-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
+ This is mostly for testing purposes.
+
+* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
+ "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
+
+* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
+ It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
+ source path list instead of augmenting it.
+
+* GDB now understands thread names.
+
+ On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
+ prctl or pthread_setname_np.
+
+ There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
+ assign a name internally for GDB to display.
+
+* OpenCL C
+ Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
+ has been integrated into GDB.
+
+* Python scripting
+
+ ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
+ This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
+ stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
+
+ ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
+ you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
+ This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
+ and allows for more dynamic content.
+
+ ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
+ Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
+ have an is_valid method.
+
+ ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
+ you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
+ the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
+
+ ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
+
+ ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
+ function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
+ takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
+ that function like so:
+
+ result = some_value (10,20)
+
+ ** Module gdb.types has been added.
+ It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
+ get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
+
+ ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
+ It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
+ New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
+ RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
+ New function: register_pretty_printer.
+
+ ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
+ "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
+
+ ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
+
+ ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
+ selected thread.
+
+ ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
+ holds the thread's name.
+
+ ** Python Support for Inferior events.
+ Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
+ occurring in the process being debugged.
+ The following events are currently supported:
+ - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
+ - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
+ - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
+
+* C++ Improvements:
+
+ ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
+ instantiation. For example, if you have:
+
+ template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
+
+ then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
+ feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
+ was added to GCC 4.5.
+
+ ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
+ work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
+ no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
+ stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
+ This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
+ code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
+
+* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
+ reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
+ One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
+ no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
+ now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
+* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
+ When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
+ expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
+ of scope.
+
+* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
+
+ GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
+ when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
+ live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
+ is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
+ threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
+ was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
+
+ (gdb) info threads
+ * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
+
+ While now you see this:
+
+ (gdb) info threads
+ * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
+
+ It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
+ dumps.
+
+ When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
+ used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
+ libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
+ command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
+
+* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
+ a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
+ which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
+ at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
+ section in the user manual for more details.
+
+* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
+
+ ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
+ and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
+
+ ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
+
+* New native configurations
+
+ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
+
+* New targets:
+
+Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
+
+* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
+ debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
+ see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
+ in the GDB user manual.
+
+* Guile support was removed.
+
+* New features in the GNU simulator
+
+ ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
+
+ ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
+
*** Changes in GDB 7.2
* Shared library support for remote targets by default
remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
the "New remote packets" section below.
+* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
+
+ GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
+ definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
+ upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
+ reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
+
+* Observer mode
+
+ You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
+ affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
+ breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
+ non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
+ to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
+ cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
+ tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
+
+* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
+ current thread.
+
* New remote packets
qGetTIBAddr
tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
to gdb's qSupported query.
+QAllow
+
+ Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
+
+QTDPsrc
+
+ Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
+ which includes location, conditional, and action list.
+
* 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.
Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
function, line, address, or marker ID.
+set observer on|off
+show observer
+ Enable and disable observer mode.
+
+set may-write-registers on|off
+set may-write-memory on|off
+set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
+set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
+set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
+set may-interrupt on|off
+ Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
+ some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
+ consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
+ For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
+ breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
+ even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
+ inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
+
+set record memory-query on|off
+show record memory-query
+ Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
+ by an instruction cannot be recorded.
+
* Changed commands
disassemble
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blobdiff