What has changed in GDB?
(Organized release by release)
-*** Changes since GDB 8.0
+*** Changes since GDB 8.1
+
+* 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
+ files created on FreeBSD systems.
+
+* New commands
+
+set debug fbsd-nat
+show debug fbsd-nat
+ Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
+
+set|show varsize-limit
+ This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
+ objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
+ instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
+
+* New targets
+
+RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
+
+*** Changes in GDB 8.1
+
+* GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
+ in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
+ registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
+
+* The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
+ offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
+
+* New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
+ symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
+ but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
+ This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
+ not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
+
+* GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
+ floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
+ uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
+ 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
+
+* GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
+ software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
* On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
environment" command.
+* Completion improvements
+
+ ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
+ explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
+ quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
+ generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
+ correctly:
+
+ (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
+ (gdb) b function(int)
+
+ Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
+ C++ anonymous namespaces:
+
+ (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
+ (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
+ (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
+ (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
+
+ ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
+ completion support, that better understands what you're
+ completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
+ longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
+ setting a breakpoint.
+
+ ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
+
+ ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
+
+* New command line options (gcore)
+
+-a
+ Dump all memory mappings.
+
+* Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
+
+ By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
+ specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
+ leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
+
+ For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
+
+ A::B::func()
+ B::func()
+
+ both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
+ on both symbols.
+
+ You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
+ GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
+ fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
+ program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
+ "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
+ gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
+ a breakpoint from Python.
+
+* Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
+
+ GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
+ (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
+ https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
+
+ Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
+
+ function[abi:cxx11](int)
+ ^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+ You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
+ no tag, like:
+
+ (gdb) b function(int)
+
+ Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
+
+ (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
+
+ Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
+
* Python Scripting
** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
description of these.
+ ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
+ This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
+ via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
+
+ ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
+ manual for a further description of this feature.
+
+
* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
+ ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
+ specified initial working directory.
+
+ The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
+ GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
+
** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
+* When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
+ the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
+ information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
+ in the *stopped notification.
+
+* Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
+ requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
+
* New remote packets
QEnvironmentHexEncoded
QStartupWithShell
Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
+QSetWorkingDir
+ Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
+ working directory.
+
* The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
argument which is the file name of XML target description.
* The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
filter the tests to be run.
+* The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
+ breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
+
* New commands
+set|show cwd
+ Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
+
set|show compile-gcc
Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
with the 'compile' commands.
show debug separate-debug-file
Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
+set dump-excluded-mappings
+show dump-excluded-mappings
+ Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
+ dumped when generating a core file.
+
maint info selftests
List the registered selftests.
starti
Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
+set|show debug or1k
+ Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
+
+set|show print type nested-type-limit
+ Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
+ type printer will show.
+
* TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
`o' for nexti.
* New native configurations
FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
+FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
* New targets
FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
+FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
+OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
+
+* Removed targets and native configurations
+
+Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
*** Changes in GDB 8.0
List the shared libraries in the program. This is
equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
+-catch-handlers
+ Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
+ handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
+
*** Changes in GDB 7.12
* GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
* Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
+catch handlers
+ Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
+
* New remote packets
exec stop reason