1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.6
6 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
7 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
8 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
10 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
11 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
12 -Bsymbolic linker option.
14 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
15 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
18 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
19 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
21 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
22 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
24 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
26 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
27 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
28 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
30 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
31 automatically displayed as character or string data.
33 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
34 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
37 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
38 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
41 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
44 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
45 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
46 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
48 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
50 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
52 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
53 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
54 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
56 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
57 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
59 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
60 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
61 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
62 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
63 Windows and SymbianOS).
65 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
66 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
68 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
69 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
75 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
76 when debugging using remote targets.
78 set mem inaccessible-by-default
79 show mem inaccessible-by-default
80 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
81 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
82 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
83 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
84 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
86 set breakpoint auto-hw
87 show breakpoint auto-hw
88 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
89 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
90 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
91 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
92 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
93 including "next" and "finish".
96 catch exception unhandled
97 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
100 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
104 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
105 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
106 an alias to "set sysroot".
109 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
110 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
113 * New native configurations
115 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
120 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
121 not query the target for its built-in description.
125 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
126 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
127 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
132 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
133 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
136 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
141 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
142 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
144 qXfer:libraries:read:
145 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
146 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
147 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
148 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
152 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
161 i[34567]86-*-netware*
162 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
163 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
165 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
168 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
169 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
178 * Other removed features
185 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
192 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
197 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
198 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
203 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
204 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
206 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
208 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
209 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
210 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
211 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
215 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
216 in debugging information.
220 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
221 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
223 set mips stack-arg-size
224 set mips saved-gpreg-size
226 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
228 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
233 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
235 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
236 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
237 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
239 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
240 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
243 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
244 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
246 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
247 stub provides the required support.
249 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
250 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
255 unset substitute-path
257 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
258 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
259 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
260 between compilation and debugging.
264 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
265 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
266 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
270 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
272 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
273 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
275 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
280 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
281 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
282 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
283 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
287 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
288 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
290 qXfer:memory-map:read:
291 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
292 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
297 Erase and program a flash memory device.
299 * Removed remote packets
302 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
303 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
305 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
309 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
311 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
315 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
316 only if it doesn't already have a value.
318 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
320 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
322 restart <n> Return the program state to a
323 previously saved state.
325 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
327 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
329 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
330 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
332 info forks List forks of the user program that
333 are available to be debugged.
335 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
336 forks of the user program that are
337 available to be debugged.
339 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
340 that are available to be debugged (and
341 kill the forked process).
343 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
344 that are available to be debugged (and
345 allow the process to continue).
349 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
351 * Improved Windows host support
353 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
354 native console support, and remote communications using either
355 network sockets or serial ports.
357 * Improved Modula-2 language support
359 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
360 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
361 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
362 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
363 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
364 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
368 The ARM rdi-share module.
370 The Netware NLM debug server.
372 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
374 * New native configurations
376 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
377 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
381 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
383 * New command line options
385 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
386 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
387 the child (debugged) program exited with.
388 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
389 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
390 specified multiple times and in conjunction
391 with the --command (-x) option.
393 * Deprecated commands removed
395 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
399 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
400 othernames set arm disassembler
401 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
402 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
403 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
406 * New BSD user-level threads support
408 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
409 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
412 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
413 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
414 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
416 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
417 are not yet supported.
419 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
420 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
422 * REMOVED configurations and files
424 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
425 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
426 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
428 * New "set print array-indexes" command
430 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
431 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
434 * VAX floating point support
436 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
438 * User-defined command support
440 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
441 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
442 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
444 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
446 * New command line option
448 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
451 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
453 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
454 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
455 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
456 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
457 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
459 * Internationalization
461 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
462 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
463 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
467 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
468 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
469 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
471 * New native configurations
473 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
477 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
478 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
480 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
482 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
483 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
484 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
487 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
488 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
489 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
501 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
502 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
504 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
506 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
507 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
508 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
518 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
520 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
522 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
523 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
526 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
528 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
529 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
530 IRIX long double values).
534 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
535 command. This problem has been fixed.
537 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
539 * Fix for ``many threads''
541 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
542 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
545 ptrace: No such process.
546 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
548 This problem has been fixed.
550 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
552 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
555 * New ``start'' command.
557 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
559 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
561 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
562 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
563 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
565 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
566 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
567 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
568 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
569 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
570 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
571 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
572 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
573 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
575 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
577 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
578 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
579 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
580 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
581 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
583 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
584 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
585 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
587 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
589 * New native configurations
591 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
592 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
593 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
594 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
595 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
596 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
597 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
599 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
601 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
602 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
603 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
604 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
605 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
606 work, was also included.
608 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
609 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
619 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
620 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
622 * REMOVED configurations and files
624 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
625 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
626 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
627 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
628 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
629 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
630 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
631 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
632 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
634 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
636 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
638 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
640 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
641 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
642 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
643 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
646 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
648 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
649 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
650 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
651 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
652 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
653 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
656 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
658 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
660 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
661 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
662 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
664 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
666 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
667 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
669 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
671 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
672 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
673 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
675 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
677 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
678 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
680 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
682 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
683 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
684 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
686 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
688 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
689 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
690 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
692 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
694 * Removed --with-mmalloc
696 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
697 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
699 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
701 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
702 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
703 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
704 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
706 * Revised SPARC target
708 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
709 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
710 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
711 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
712 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
716 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
717 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
718 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
721 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
723 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
724 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
727 * C++ nested types and namespaces
729 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
730 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
731 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
732 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
733 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
734 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
735 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
736 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
737 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
739 * New native configurations
741 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
742 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
743 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
744 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
745 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
747 * New debugging protocols
749 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
751 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
753 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
754 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
755 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
757 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
759 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
760 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
761 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
764 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
765 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
766 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
767 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
768 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
769 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
770 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
771 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
772 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
774 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
776 * REMOVED configurations and files
778 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
779 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
780 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
781 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
782 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
783 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
784 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
785 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
786 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
787 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
788 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
789 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
790 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
791 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
792 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
793 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
794 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
796 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
800 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
803 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
805 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
806 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
807 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
810 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
811 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
816 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
817 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
818 remote protocol documentation for details.
820 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
822 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
823 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
824 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
827 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
829 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
830 per-thread variables.
832 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
834 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
835 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
837 * Separate debug info.
839 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
840 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
841 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
842 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
843 and optional debug files.
845 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
847 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
848 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
851 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
852 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
856 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
857 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
858 considered "useable".
860 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
862 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
863 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
866 * GDB supports logging output to a file
868 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
869 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
871 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
873 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
874 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
877 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
879 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
880 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
884 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
885 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
886 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
887 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
888 data, for more informative profiling results.
890 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
892 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
893 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
894 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
896 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
899 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
900 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
901 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
902 in a subsequent -var-update.
904 * New native configurations.
906 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
908 * Multi-arched targets.
910 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
911 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
913 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
915 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
916 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
917 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
920 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
921 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
922 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
923 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
924 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
925 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
926 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
927 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
928 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
929 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
930 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
931 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
933 * REMOVED configurations and files
936 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
937 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
938 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
939 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
940 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
941 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
943 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
944 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
945 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
946 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
947 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
948 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
950 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
952 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
953 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
954 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
955 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
956 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
958 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
960 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
962 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
963 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
964 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
965 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
966 shared libs like mad''.
968 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
970 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
971 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
972 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
973 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
975 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
977 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
978 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
981 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
982 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
984 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
985 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
987 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
988 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
989 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
990 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
992 * Multi-arched targets.
994 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
995 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
997 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
998 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
999 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1003 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1006 * New native configurations
1008 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1009 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1010 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1011 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1013 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1015 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1016 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1017 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1018 permanently REMOVED.
1020 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1021 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1022 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1023 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1024 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1025 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1026 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1027 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1028 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1029 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1031 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1032 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1034 * OBSOLETE languages
1036 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1038 * REMOVED configurations and files
1040 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1041 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1042 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1043 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1044 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1046 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1048 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1050 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1051 commands. The default is 1024.
1053 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1055 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1057 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1059 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1060 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1061 from a file into memory (restore).
1063 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1065 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1066 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1067 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1069 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1077 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1078 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1079 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1081 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1082 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1083 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1085 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1086 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1087 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1089 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1090 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1091 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1093 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1095 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1097 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1098 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1099 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1100 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1101 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1102 (notably embedded) targets.
1104 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1106 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1107 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1108 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1109 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1111 * New command line option
1113 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1115 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1117 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1118 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1119 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1120 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1121 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1122 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1123 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1124 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1125 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1126 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1128 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1130 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1131 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1133 * New native configurations
1135 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1136 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1137 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1138 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1142 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1144 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1146 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1147 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1148 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1149 permanently REMOVED.
1151 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1152 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1153 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1154 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1155 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1157 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1159 * REMOVED configurations and files
1161 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1163 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1164 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1165 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1166 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1167 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1168 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1169 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1170 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1171 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1172 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1173 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1175 * Changes to command line processing
1177 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1178 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1180 * Changes to key bindings
1182 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1184 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1186 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1188 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1191 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1193 Numerous documentation fixes.
1195 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1197 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1199 * New native configurations
1201 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1202 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1203 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1204 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1205 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1206 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1210 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1212 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1214 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1216 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1217 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1218 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1219 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1220 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1222 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1223 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1224 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1225 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1226 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1227 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1228 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1229 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1231 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1232 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1234 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1235 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1236 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1237 permanently REMOVED.
1239 * REMOVED configurations and files
1241 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1242 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1244 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1248 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1250 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1251 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1256 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1258 * The MI enabled by default.
1260 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1261 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1262 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1263 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1264 which is now deprecated.
1266 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1268 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1269 main features are supported:
1271 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1273 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1276 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1278 - a Pascal expression parser.
1280 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1282 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1284 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1286 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1287 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1289 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1291 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1293 * Changes in completion.
1295 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1296 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1297 users expect at the shell prompt.
1299 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1300 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1301 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1302 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1303 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1304 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1305 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1307 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1309 * New platform-independent commands:
1311 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1312 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1313 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1315 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1317 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1318 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1319 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1321 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1323 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1324 multi-threaded programs though.
1326 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1328 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1330 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1331 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1334 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1336 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1337 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1338 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1339 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1340 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1343 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1344 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1345 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1347 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1349 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1350 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1352 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1353 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1356 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1357 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1358 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1359 a given linear address.
1361 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1362 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1363 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1365 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1367 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1369 * Changes in documentation.
1371 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1372 Documentation License.
1374 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1377 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1379 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1382 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1383 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1384 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1386 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1388 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1389 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1390 contents of this file.
1394 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1396 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1398 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1400 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1401 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1402 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1403 greater level of detail.
1405 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1407 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1408 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1409 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1412 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1414 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1415 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1416 machines ``out of the box''.
1418 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1419 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1420 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1421 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1422 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1424 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1425 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1426 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1427 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1428 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1430 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1431 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1434 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1437 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1438 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1439 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1440 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1442 * New native configurations
1444 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1445 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1449 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1450 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1451 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1452 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1454 * OBSOLETE configurations
1456 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1457 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1459 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1462 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1463 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1464 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1465 be permanently REMOVED.
1467 * Gould support removed
1469 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1471 * New features for SVR4
1473 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1474 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1475 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1477 * Many C++ enhancements
1479 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1480 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1482 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1484 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1485 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1486 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1487 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1489 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1490 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1492 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1494 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1495 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1496 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1498 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1499 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1501 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1503 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1504 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1505 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1507 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1509 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1510 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1511 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1513 * ``apropos'' command added.
1515 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1516 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1517 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1521 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1522 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1523 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1524 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1525 enabled by configuring with:
1527 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1529 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1531 * New native configurations
1533 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1534 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1535 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1539 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1540 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1541 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1543 * OBSOLETE configurations
1545 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1547 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1548 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1549 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1550 be permanently REMOVED.
1554 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1555 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1556 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1557 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1558 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1559 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1560 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1565 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1567 * set extension-language
1569 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1570 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1571 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1572 set extension-language .c c++
1573 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1574 and their associated languages.
1576 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1578 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1579 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1580 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1584 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1585 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1587 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1588 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1590 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1591 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1592 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1593 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1594 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1595 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1596 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1597 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1599 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1600 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1601 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1602 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1606 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1607 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1608 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1609 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1610 for xdb and dbx commands.
1614 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1615 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1616 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1618 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1619 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1620 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1622 * Debugging across forks
1624 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1629 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1630 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1631 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1633 * GDB remote protocol additions
1635 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1636 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1637 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1638 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1640 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1641 full 64-bit address. The command
1643 set remoteaddresssize 32
1645 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1646 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1649 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1650 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1652 maint packet heythere
1654 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1655 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1658 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1659 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1660 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1662 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1664 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1665 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1666 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1668 * mask-address variable for Mips
1670 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1671 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1672 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1674 * Higher serial baud rates
1676 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1677 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1678 to achieve all of these rates.)
1682 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1683 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1686 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1688 * New native configurations
1690 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1691 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1692 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1693 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1694 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1695 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1696 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1700 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1701 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1702 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1703 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1704 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1705 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1706 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1707 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1708 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1709 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1710 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1712 * New debugging protocols
1714 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1715 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1716 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1717 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1718 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1719 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1723 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1724 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1729 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1730 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1732 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1734 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1735 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1736 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1738 * Live range splitting
1740 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1741 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1742 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1746 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1747 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1751 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1752 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1753 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1758 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1763 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1764 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1765 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1766 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1767 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1768 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1772 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1773 the symbol at the specified address.
1777 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1778 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1779 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1780 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1781 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1785 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1786 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1787 of most MIPS variants.
1791 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1792 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1793 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1797 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1798 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1799 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1800 the possible architectures.
1802 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1804 * New native configurations
1806 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1807 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1808 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1809 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1810 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1811 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1815 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1816 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1817 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1818 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1819 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1821 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1825 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1826 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1827 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1828 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1829 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1833 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1835 * Windows 95/NT native
1837 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1838 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1839 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1840 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1841 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1843 * dont-repeat command
1845 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1846 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1847 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1848 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1850 * Send break instead of ^C
1852 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1853 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1854 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1856 * Remote protocol timeout
1858 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1859 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1860 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1862 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1864 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1865 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1866 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1867 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1868 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1870 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1871 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1872 automatically on hpux10.
1874 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1876 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1878 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1880 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1881 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1882 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1883 every character. The default value is 1050.
1885 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1887 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1888 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1889 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1890 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1891 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1892 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1894 * Speedups for remote debugging
1896 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1897 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1898 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1900 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1902 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1903 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1905 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1907 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1909 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1910 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1912 * Remote targets use caching
1914 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1915 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1916 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1917 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1918 off' turns the the data cache off.
1920 * Remote targets may have threads
1922 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1923 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1924 gdb/remote.c for details.
1928 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1929 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1930 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1931 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1932 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1933 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1934 sequence is something like
1936 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1938 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1942 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1943 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1944 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1945 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1946 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1947 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1948 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1949 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1953 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1954 but does simplify configuration and building.
1958 GDB now supports hpux10.
1960 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1962 * New native configurations
1964 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1965 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1966 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1967 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1971 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1972 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1973 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1974 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1977 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1979 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1980 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1981 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1982 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1983 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1985 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1987 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1988 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1991 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1993 To execute the command use:
1996 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1997 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1998 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2000 * New `if' and `while' commands
2002 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2003 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2004 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2005 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2006 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2007 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2008 if the expression is zero.
2010 * Fortran source language mode
2012 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2013 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2014 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2015 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2018 * Better HPUX support
2020 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2021 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2022 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2023 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2024 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2030 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2031 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2037 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2038 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2041 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2042 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2044 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2046 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2047 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2048 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2049 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2050 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2051 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2053 * New DOS host serial code
2055 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2056 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2059 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2061 * New "complete" command
2063 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2064 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2066 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2068 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2069 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2071 * Breakpoint hit counts
2073 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2074 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2075 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2076 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2077 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2080 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2082 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2083 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2084 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2086 * Shared library breakpoints
2088 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2089 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2091 * Hardware watchpoints
2093 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2094 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2096 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2100 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2101 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2103 * Improved Irix 5 support
2105 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2107 * Improved HPPA support
2109 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2111 * New native configurations
2113 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2114 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2115 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2116 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2120 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2121 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2124 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2126 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2127 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2131 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2132 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2134 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2136 * Irix 5 is now supported
2140 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2141 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2142 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2143 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2144 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2147 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2149 * User visible changes:
2153 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2154 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2155 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2156 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2157 debugging info for the mips target).
2159 * DEC Alpha native support
2161 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2162 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2163 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2164 Alpha-specific notes.
2166 * Preliminary thread implementation
2168 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2170 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2172 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2173 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2176 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2178 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2179 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2180 call methods, ...etc.
2182 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2184 * User visible changes:
2186 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2187 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2188 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2189 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2191 Filename completion now works.
2193 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2194 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2195 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2197 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2198 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2199 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2200 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2201 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2205 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2206 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2209 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2213 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2214 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2215 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2219 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2220 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2221 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2222 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2223 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2227 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2228 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2229 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2231 * New targets supported
2233 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2234 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2235 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2236 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2237 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2239 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2240 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2241 GO32 memory extender.
2243 * New remote protocols
2245 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2247 * New source languages supported
2249 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2250 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2251 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2254 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2256 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2258 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2259 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2260 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2261 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2262 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2263 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2265 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2267 * Faster and better demangling
2269 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2270 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2271 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2272 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2273 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2274 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2277 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2278 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2279 compiler does not actually implement.
2281 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2283 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2284 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2285 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2286 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2287 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2288 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2291 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2292 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2294 * Improved configure script
2296 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2297 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2298 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2299 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2301 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2302 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2303 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2304 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2305 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2306 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2308 * Documentation improvements
2310 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2311 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2312 before submitting changes.
2314 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2315 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2316 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2317 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2318 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2320 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2321 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2322 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2323 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2324 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2325 around this problem.
2329 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2330 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2331 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2334 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2335 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2337 * New native hosts supported
2339 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2340 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2342 * New targets supported
2344 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2346 * New file formats supported
2348 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2349 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2353 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2355 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2356 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2358 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2359 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2360 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2362 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2363 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2365 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2366 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2367 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2370 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2371 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2372 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2373 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2374 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2376 * Internal improvements
2378 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2379 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2381 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2382 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2383 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2384 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2385 shared code that handles any of them.
2387 * New command line options
2389 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2393 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2394 General Public License.
2396 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2398 * Host/native/target split
2400 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2401 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2402 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2403 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2404 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2406 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2407 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2408 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2409 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2410 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2411 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2412 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2414 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2415 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2416 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2418 * New hosts supported
2420 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2421 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2422 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2424 * New targets supported
2426 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2427 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2429 * New native hosts supported
2431 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2432 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2433 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2435 * New file formats supported
2437 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2438 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2439 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2443 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2444 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2445 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2447 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2449 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2450 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2451 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2452 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2456 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2457 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2458 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2460 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2464 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2465 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2468 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2469 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2471 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2472 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2473 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2474 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2475 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2476 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2478 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2479 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2480 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2481 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2485 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2486 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2487 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2488 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2489 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2491 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2492 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2493 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2494 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2498 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2499 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2500 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2501 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2502 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2503 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2504 each instruction being stepped through.
2506 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2507 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2509 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2510 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2511 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2512 processor with a serial port.
2516 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2517 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2518 supported, and what files each one uses.
2522 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2523 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2524 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2525 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2527 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2528 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2529 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2530 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2534 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2535 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2536 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2537 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2538 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2539 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2541 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2544 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2546 * Better support for C++ function names
2548 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2549 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2550 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2551 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2552 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2554 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2555 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2556 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2557 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2558 for the list of formats.
2560 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2562 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2563 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2564 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2565 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2566 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2567 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2570 * New 'maintenance' command
2572 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2573 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2574 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2576 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2577 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2578 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2579 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2580 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2581 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2583 The following commands are new:
2585 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2586 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2587 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2589 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2591 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2592 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2593 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2594 read after argv processing.
2596 * New hosts supported
2598 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2600 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2602 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2603 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2604 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2605 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2606 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2609 * New targets supported
2611 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2613 * More smarts about finding #include files
2615 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2616 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2617 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2618 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2619 the one that contains your sources.
2621 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2622 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2623 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2625 * Interesting infernals change
2627 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2628 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2629 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2630 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2632 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2634 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2635 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2636 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2638 See the ChangeLog for details.
2640 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2642 * New machines supported (host and target)
2644 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2646 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2648 * New malloc package
2650 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2651 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2652 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2653 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2654 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2655 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2659 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2660 'help info proc' for details.
2662 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2664 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2665 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2668 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2670 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2671 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2672 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2673 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2674 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2675 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2677 * Cross byte order fixes
2679 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2680 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2682 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2684 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2685 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2686 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2687 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2688 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2689 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2690 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2691 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2692 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2693 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2695 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2696 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2697 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2698 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2700 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2701 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2702 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2705 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2707 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2708 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2709 shared across multiple host platforms.
2711 * longjmp() handling
2713 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2714 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2715 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2716 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2720 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2721 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2726 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2727 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2728 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2730 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2732 * New machines supported (host and target)
2734 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2736 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2737 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2739 * New machines supported (target)
2741 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2745 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2746 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2747 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2749 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2750 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2751 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2752 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2753 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2756 * New features for SVR4
2758 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2759 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2760 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2762 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2763 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2764 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2766 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2767 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2769 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2771 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2772 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2773 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2774 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2775 same code linked statically.
2779 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2780 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2781 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2782 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2783 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2784 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2788 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2789 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2790 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2793 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2795 * New machines supported (host and target)
2797 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2798 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2799 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2801 * Almost SCO Unix support
2803 We had hoped to support:
2804 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2805 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2806 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2807 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2809 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2811 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2812 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2813 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2814 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2819 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2820 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2821 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2825 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2826 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2827 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2829 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2831 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2832 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2833 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2835 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2836 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2837 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2838 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2841 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2842 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2843 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2844 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2847 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2848 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2851 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2852 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2853 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2856 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2858 * Improved configuration
2860 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2861 Porting BFD is simpler.
2865 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2866 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2867 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2868 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2872 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2874 * New host supported (not target)
2876 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2879 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2881 * Multiple source language support
2883 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2884 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2885 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2886 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2887 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2888 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2892 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2893 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2894 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2895 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2897 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2898 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2899 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2901 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2902 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2906 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2907 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2908 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2909 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2912 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2914 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2915 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2916 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2917 examining core files.
2921 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2924 * New machines supported (host and target)
2926 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2927 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2928 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2930 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2932 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2934 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2936 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2937 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2938 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2940 * New remote interfaces
2946 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2950 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2952 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2953 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2954 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2955 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2956 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2957 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2958 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2959 stub on the target system.
2961 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2963 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2964 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2965 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2967 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2968 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2971 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2973 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2974 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2976 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2977 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2978 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2980 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2981 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2982 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2983 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2985 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2986 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2987 it is already running. Default is ON.
2989 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2990 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2991 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2992 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2995 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2996 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2997 or the value of the environment variable
3000 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3001 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3004 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3005 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3006 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3008 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3009 history expansion will be performed on
3010 command line input. The default is OFF.
3012 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3013 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3014 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3016 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3017 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3018 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3021 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3022 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3023 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3026 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3027 ``set width'' instead.
3029 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3030 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3031 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3032 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3034 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3037 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3040 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3043 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3046 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3048 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3049 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3050 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3054 * Support for Shared Libraries
3056 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3057 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3058 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3059 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3060 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3061 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3062 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3063 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3065 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3066 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3067 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3069 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3074 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3075 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3076 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3077 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3078 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3079 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3081 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3083 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3085 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3086 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3087 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3090 * C++ multiple inheritance
3092 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3095 * C++ exception handling
3097 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3098 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3099 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3102 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3103 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3104 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3106 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3107 current stack frame.
3110 * Minor command changes
3112 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3113 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3114 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3116 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3117 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3118 frames without printing.
3120 * New directory command
3122 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3123 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3124 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3125 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3126 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3128 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3130 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3133 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3134 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3135 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3136 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / platform / upstream / binutils.git / blob