1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.2:
6 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
8 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
10 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
13 * New ``start'' command.
15 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
17 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
19 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
20 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
21 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
23 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
24 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
25 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
26 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
27 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
28 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
29 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
30 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
31 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
33 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
35 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
36 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
37 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
38 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
39 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
41 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
42 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
43 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
45 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
47 * New native configurations
49 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
50 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
51 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
52 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
53 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
54 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
55 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
57 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
59 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
60 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
61 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
62 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
63 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
64 work, was also included.
66 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
67 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
77 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
78 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
80 * REMOVED configurations and files
82 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
83 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
84 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
85 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
86 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
87 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
88 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
89 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
90 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
92 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
94 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
96 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
98 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
99 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
100 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
101 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
104 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
106 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
107 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
108 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
109 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
110 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
111 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
114 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
116 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
118 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
119 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
120 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
122 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
124 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
125 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
127 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
129 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
130 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
131 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
133 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
135 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
136 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
138 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
140 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
141 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
142 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
144 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
146 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
147 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
148 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
150 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
152 * Removed --with-mmalloc
154 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
155 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
157 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
159 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
160 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
161 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
162 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
164 * Revised SPARC target
166 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
167 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
168 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
169 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
170 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
174 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
175 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
176 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
179 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
181 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
182 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
185 * C++ nested types and namespaces
187 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
188 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
189 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
190 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
191 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
192 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
193 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
194 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
195 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
197 * New native configurations
199 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
200 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
201 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
202 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
203 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
205 * New debugging protocols
207 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
209 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
211 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
212 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
213 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
215 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
217 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
218 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
219 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
222 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
223 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
224 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
225 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
226 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
227 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
228 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
229 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
230 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
232 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
234 * REMOVED configurations and files
236 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
237 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
238 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
239 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
240 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
241 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
242 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
243 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
244 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
245 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
246 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
247 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
248 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
249 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
250 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
251 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
252 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
254 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
258 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
261 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
263 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
264 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
265 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
268 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
269 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
274 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
275 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
276 remote protocol documentation for details.
278 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
280 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
281 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
282 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
285 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
287 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
288 per-thread variables.
290 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
292 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
293 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
295 * Separate debug info.
297 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
298 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
299 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
300 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
301 and optional debug files.
303 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
305 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
306 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
309 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
310 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
314 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
315 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
316 considered "useable".
318 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
320 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
321 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
324 * GDB supports logging output to a file
326 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
327 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
329 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
331 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
332 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
335 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
337 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
338 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
342 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
343 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
344 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
345 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
346 data, for more informative profiling results.
348 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
350 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
351 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
352 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
354 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
357 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
358 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
359 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
360 in a subsequent -var-update.
362 * New native configurations.
364 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
366 * Multi-arched targets.
368 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
369 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
371 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
373 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
374 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
375 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
378 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
379 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
380 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
381 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
382 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
383 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
384 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
385 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
386 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
387 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
388 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
389 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
391 * REMOVED configurations and files
394 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
395 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
396 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
397 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
398 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
399 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
401 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
402 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
403 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
404 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
405 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
406 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
408 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
410 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
411 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
412 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
413 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
414 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
416 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
418 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
420 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
421 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
422 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
423 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
424 shared libs like mad''.
426 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
428 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
429 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
430 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
431 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
433 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
435 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
436 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
439 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
440 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
442 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
443 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
445 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
446 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
447 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
448 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
450 * Multi-arched targets.
452 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
453 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
455 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
456 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
457 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
461 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
464 * New native configurations
466 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
467 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
468 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
469 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
471 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
473 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
474 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
475 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
478 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
479 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
480 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
481 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
482 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
483 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
484 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
485 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
486 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
487 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
489 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
490 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
494 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
496 * REMOVED configurations and files
498 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
499 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
500 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
501 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
502 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
504 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
506 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
508 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
509 commands. The default is 1024.
511 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
513 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
515 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
517 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
518 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
519 from a file into memory (restore).
521 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
523 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
524 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
525 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
527 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
535 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
536 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
537 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
539 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
540 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
541 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
543 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
544 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
545 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
547 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
548 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
549 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
551 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
553 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
555 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
556 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
557 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
558 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
559 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
560 (notably embedded) targets.
562 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
564 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
565 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
566 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
567 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
569 * New command line option
571 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
573 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
575 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
576 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
577 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
578 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
579 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
580 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
581 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
582 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
583 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
584 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
586 * Changes in ARM configurations.
588 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
589 configuration is fully multi-arch.
591 * New native configurations
593 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
594 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
595 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
596 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
600 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
602 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
604 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
605 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
606 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
609 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
610 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
611 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
612 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
613 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
615 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
617 * REMOVED configurations and files
619 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
621 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
622 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
623 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
624 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
625 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
626 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
627 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
628 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
629 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
630 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
631 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
633 * Changes to command line processing
635 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
636 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
638 * Changes to key bindings
640 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
642 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
644 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
646 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
649 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
651 Numerous documentation fixes.
653 Numerous testsuite fixes.
655 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
657 * New native configurations
659 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
660 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
661 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
662 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
664 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
668 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
670 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
672 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
674 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
675 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
676 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
677 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
678 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
680 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
681 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
682 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
683 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
684 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
685 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
686 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
687 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
689 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
690 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
692 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
693 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
694 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
697 * REMOVED configurations and files
699 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
700 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
702 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
706 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
708 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
709 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
714 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
716 * The MI enabled by default.
718 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
719 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
720 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
721 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
722 which is now deprecated.
724 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
726 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
727 main features are supported:
729 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
731 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
734 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
736 - a Pascal expression parser.
738 However, some important features are not yet supported.
740 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
742 - there are some problems with boolean types;
744 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
745 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
747 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
749 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
751 * Changes in completion.
753 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
754 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
755 users expect at the shell prompt.
757 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
758 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
759 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
760 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
761 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
762 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
763 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
765 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
767 * New platform-independent commands:
769 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
770 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
771 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
773 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
775 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
776 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
777 many threads as your system allows you to have.
779 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
781 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
782 multi-threaded programs though.
784 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
786 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
788 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
789 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
792 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
794 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
795 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
796 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
797 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
798 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
801 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
802 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
803 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
805 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
807 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
808 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
810 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
811 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
814 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
815 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
816 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
817 a given linear address.
819 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
820 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
821 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
823 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
825 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
827 * Changes in documentation.
829 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
830 Documentation License.
832 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
835 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
837 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
840 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
841 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
842 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
844 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
846 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
847 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
848 contents of this file.
852 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
854 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
856 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
858 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
859 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
860 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
861 greater level of detail.
863 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
865 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
866 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
867 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
870 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
872 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
873 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
874 machines ``out of the box''.
876 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
877 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
878 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
879 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
880 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
882 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
883 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
884 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
885 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
886 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
888 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
889 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
892 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
895 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
896 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
897 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
898 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
900 * New native configurations
902 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
903 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
907 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
908 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
909 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
910 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
912 * OBSOLETE configurations
914 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
915 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
917 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
920 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
921 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
922 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
923 be permanently REMOVED.
925 * Gould support removed
927 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
929 * New features for SVR4
931 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
932 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
933 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
935 * Many C++ enhancements
937 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
938 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
940 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
942 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
943 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
944 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
945 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
947 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
948 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
950 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
952 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
953 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
954 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
956 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
957 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
959 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
961 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
962 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
963 include ``set remote P-packet''.
965 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
967 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
968 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
969 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
971 * ``apropos'' command added.
973 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
974 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
975 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
979 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
980 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
981 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
982 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
983 enabled by configuring with:
985 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
987 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
989 * New native configurations
991 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
992 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
993 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
997 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
998 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
999 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1001 * OBSOLETE configurations
1003 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1005 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1006 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1007 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1008 be permanently REMOVED.
1012 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1013 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1014 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1015 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1016 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1017 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1018 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1023 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1025 * set extension-language
1027 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1028 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1029 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1030 set extension-language .c c++
1031 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1032 and their associated languages.
1034 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1036 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1037 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1038 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1042 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1043 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1045 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1046 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1048 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1049 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1050 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1051 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1052 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1053 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1054 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1055 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1057 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1058 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1059 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1060 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1064 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1065 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1066 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1067 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1068 for xdb and dbx commands.
1072 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1073 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1074 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1076 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1077 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1078 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1080 * Debugging across forks
1082 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1087 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1088 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1089 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1091 * GDB remote protocol additions
1093 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1094 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1095 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1096 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1098 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1099 full 64-bit address. The command
1101 set remoteaddresssize 32
1103 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1104 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1107 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1108 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1110 maint packet heythere
1112 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1113 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1116 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1117 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1118 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1120 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1122 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1123 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1124 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1126 * mask-address variable for Mips
1128 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1129 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1130 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1132 * Higher serial baud rates
1134 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1135 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1136 to achieve all of these rates.)
1140 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1141 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1144 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1146 * New native configurations
1148 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1149 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1150 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1151 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1152 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1153 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1154 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1158 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1159 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1160 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1161 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1162 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1163 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1164 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1165 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1166 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1167 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1168 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1170 * New debugging protocols
1172 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1173 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1174 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1175 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1176 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1177 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1181 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1182 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1187 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1188 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1190 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1192 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1193 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1194 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1196 * Live range splitting
1198 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1199 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1200 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1204 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1205 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1209 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1210 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1211 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1216 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1221 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1222 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1223 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1224 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1225 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1226 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1230 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1231 the symbol at the specified address.
1235 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1236 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1237 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1238 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1239 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1243 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1244 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1245 of most MIPS variants.
1249 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1250 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1251 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1255 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1256 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1257 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1258 the possible architectures.
1260 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1262 * New native configurations
1264 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1265 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1266 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1267 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1268 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1269 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1273 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1274 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1275 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1276 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1277 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1279 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1283 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1284 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1285 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1286 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1287 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1291 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1293 * Windows 95/NT native
1295 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1296 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1297 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1298 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1299 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1301 * dont-repeat command
1303 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1304 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1305 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1306 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1308 * Send break instead of ^C
1310 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1311 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1312 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1314 * Remote protocol timeout
1316 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1317 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1318 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1320 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1322 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1323 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1324 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1325 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1326 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1328 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1329 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1330 automatically on hpux10.
1332 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1334 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1336 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1338 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1339 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1340 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1341 every character. The default value is 1050.
1343 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1345 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1346 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1347 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1348 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1349 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1350 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1352 * Speedups for remote debugging
1354 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1355 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1356 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1358 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1360 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1361 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1363 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1365 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1367 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1368 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1370 * Remote targets use caching
1372 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1373 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1374 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1375 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1376 off' turns the the data cache off.
1378 * Remote targets may have threads
1380 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1381 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1382 gdb/remote.c for details.
1386 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1387 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1388 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1389 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1390 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1391 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1392 sequence is something like
1394 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1396 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1400 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1401 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1402 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1403 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1404 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1405 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1406 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1407 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1411 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1412 but does simplify configuration and building.
1416 GDB now supports hpux10.
1418 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1420 * New native configurations
1422 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1423 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1424 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1425 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1429 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1430 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1431 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1432 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1435 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1437 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1438 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1439 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1440 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1441 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1443 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1445 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1446 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1449 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1451 To execute the command use:
1454 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1455 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1456 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1458 * New `if' and `while' commands
1460 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1461 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1462 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1463 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1464 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1465 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1466 if the expression is zero.
1468 * Fortran source language mode
1470 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1471 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1472 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1473 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1476 * Better HPUX support
1478 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1479 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1480 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1481 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1482 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1488 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1489 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1495 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1496 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1499 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1500 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1502 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1504 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1505 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1506 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1507 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1508 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1509 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1511 * New DOS host serial code
1513 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1514 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1517 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1519 * New "complete" command
1521 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1522 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1524 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1526 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1527 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1529 * Breakpoint hit counts
1531 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1532 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1533 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1534 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1535 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1538 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1540 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1541 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1542 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1544 * Shared library breakpoints
1546 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1547 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1549 * Hardware watchpoints
1551 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1552 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1554 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1558 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1559 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1561 * Improved Irix 5 support
1563 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1565 * Improved HPPA support
1567 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1569 * New native configurations
1571 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1572 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1573 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1574 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1578 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1579 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1582 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1584 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1585 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1589 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1590 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1592 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1594 * Irix 5 is now supported
1598 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1599 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1600 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1601 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1602 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1605 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1607 * User visible changes:
1611 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1612 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1613 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1614 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1615 debugging info for the mips target).
1617 * DEC Alpha native support
1619 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1620 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1621 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1622 Alpha-specific notes.
1624 * Preliminary thread implementation
1626 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1628 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1630 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1631 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1634 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1636 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1637 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1638 call methods, ...etc.
1640 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1642 * User visible changes:
1644 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1645 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1646 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1647 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1649 Filename completion now works.
1651 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1652 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1653 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1655 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1656 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1657 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1658 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1659 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1663 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1664 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1667 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1671 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1672 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1673 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1677 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1678 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1679 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1680 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1681 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1685 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1686 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1687 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1689 * New targets supported
1691 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1692 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1693 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1694 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1695 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1697 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1698 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1699 GO32 memory extender.
1701 * New remote protocols
1703 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1705 * New source languages supported
1707 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1708 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1709 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1712 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1714 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1716 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1717 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1718 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1719 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1720 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1721 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1723 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1725 * Faster and better demangling
1727 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1728 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1729 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1730 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1731 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1732 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1735 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1736 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1737 compiler does not actually implement.
1739 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1741 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1742 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1743 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1744 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1745 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1746 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1749 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1750 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1752 * Improved configure script
1754 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1755 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1756 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1757 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1759 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1760 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1761 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1762 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1763 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1764 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1766 * Documentation improvements
1768 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1769 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1770 before submitting changes.
1772 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1773 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1774 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1775 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1776 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1778 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1779 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1780 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1781 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1782 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1783 around this problem.
1787 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1788 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1789 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1792 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1793 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1795 * New native hosts supported
1797 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1798 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1800 * New targets supported
1802 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1804 * New file formats supported
1806 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1807 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1811 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1813 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1814 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1816 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1817 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1818 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1820 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1821 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1823 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1824 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1825 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1828 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1829 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1830 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1831 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1832 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1834 * Internal improvements
1836 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1837 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1839 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1840 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1841 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1842 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1843 shared code that handles any of them.
1845 * New command line options
1847 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1851 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1852 General Public License.
1854 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1856 * Host/native/target split
1858 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1859 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1860 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1861 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1862 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1864 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1865 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1866 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1867 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1868 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1869 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1870 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1872 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1873 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1874 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1876 * New hosts supported
1878 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1879 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1880 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1882 * New targets supported
1884 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1885 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1887 * New native hosts supported
1889 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1890 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1891 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1893 * New file formats supported
1895 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1896 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1897 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1901 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1902 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1903 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1905 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1907 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1908 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1909 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1910 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1914 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1915 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1916 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1918 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1922 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1923 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1926 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1927 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1929 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1930 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1931 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1932 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1933 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1934 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1936 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1937 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1938 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1939 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1943 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1944 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1945 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1946 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1947 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1949 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1950 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1951 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1952 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1956 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1957 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1958 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1959 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1960 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1961 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1962 each instruction being stepped through.
1964 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1965 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1967 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1968 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1969 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1970 processor with a serial port.
1974 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1975 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1976 supported, and what files each one uses.
1980 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1981 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1982 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1983 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1985 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1986 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1987 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1988 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1992 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1993 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1994 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1995 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1996 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1997 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1999 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2002 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2004 * Better support for C++ function names
2006 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2007 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2008 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2009 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2010 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2012 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2013 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2014 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2015 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2016 for the list of formats.
2018 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2020 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2021 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2022 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2023 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2024 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2025 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2028 * New 'maintenance' command
2030 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2031 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2032 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2034 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2035 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2036 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2037 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2038 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2039 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2041 The following commands are new:
2043 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2044 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2045 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2047 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2049 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2050 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2051 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2052 read after argv processing.
2054 * New hosts supported
2056 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2058 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2060 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2061 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2062 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2063 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2064 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2067 * New targets supported
2069 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2071 * More smarts about finding #include files
2073 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2074 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2075 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2076 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2077 the one that contains your sources.
2079 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2080 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2081 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2083 * Interesting infernals change
2085 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2086 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2087 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2088 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2090 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2092 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2093 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2094 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2096 See the ChangeLog for details.
2098 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2100 * New machines supported (host and target)
2102 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2104 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2106 * New malloc package
2108 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2109 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2110 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2111 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2112 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2113 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2117 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2118 'help info proc' for details.
2120 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2122 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2123 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2126 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2128 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2129 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2130 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2131 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2132 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2133 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2135 * Cross byte order fixes
2137 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2138 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2140 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2142 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2143 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2144 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2145 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2146 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2147 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2148 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2149 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2150 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2151 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2153 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2154 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2155 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2156 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2158 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2159 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2160 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2163 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2165 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2166 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2167 shared across multiple host platforms.
2169 * longjmp() handling
2171 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2172 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2173 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2174 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2178 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2179 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2184 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2185 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2186 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2188 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2190 * New machines supported (host and target)
2192 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2194 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2195 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2197 * New machines supported (target)
2199 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2203 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2204 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2205 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2207 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2208 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2209 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2210 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2211 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2214 * New features for SVR4
2216 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2217 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2218 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2220 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2221 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2222 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2224 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2225 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2227 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2229 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2230 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2231 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2232 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2233 same code linked statically.
2237 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2238 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2239 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2240 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2241 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2242 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2246 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2247 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2248 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2251 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2253 * New machines supported (host and target)
2255 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2256 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2257 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2259 * Almost SCO Unix support
2261 We had hoped to support:
2262 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2263 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2264 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2265 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2267 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2269 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2270 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2271 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2272 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2277 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2278 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2279 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2283 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2284 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2285 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2287 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2289 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2290 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2291 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2293 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2294 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2295 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2296 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2299 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2300 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2301 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2302 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2305 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2306 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2309 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2310 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2311 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2314 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2316 * Improved configuration
2318 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2319 Porting BFD is simpler.
2323 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2324 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2325 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2326 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2330 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2332 * New host supported (not target)
2334 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2337 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2339 * Multiple source language support
2341 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2342 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2343 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2344 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2345 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2346 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2350 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2351 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2352 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2353 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2355 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2356 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2357 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2359 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2360 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2364 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2365 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2366 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2367 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2370 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2372 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2373 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2374 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2375 examining core files.
2379 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2382 * New machines supported (host and target)
2384 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2385 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2386 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2388 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2390 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2392 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2394 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2395 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2396 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2398 * New remote interfaces
2404 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2408 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2410 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2411 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2412 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2413 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2414 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2415 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2416 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2417 stub on the target system.
2419 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2421 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2422 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2423 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2425 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2426 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2429 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2431 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2432 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2434 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2435 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2436 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2438 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2439 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2440 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2441 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2443 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2444 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2445 it is already running. Default is ON.
2447 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2448 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2449 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2450 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2453 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2454 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2455 or the value of the environment variable
2458 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2459 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2462 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2463 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2464 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2466 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2467 history expansion will be performed on
2468 command line input. The default is OFF.
2470 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2471 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2472 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2474 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2475 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2476 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2479 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2480 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2481 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2484 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2485 ``set width'' instead.
2487 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2488 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2489 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2490 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2492 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2495 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2498 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2501 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2504 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2506 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2507 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2508 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2512 * Support for Shared Libraries
2514 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2515 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2516 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2517 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2518 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2519 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2520 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2521 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2523 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2524 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2525 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2527 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2532 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2533 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2534 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2535 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2536 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2537 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2539 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2541 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2543 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2544 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2545 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2548 * C++ multiple inheritance
2550 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2553 * C++ exception handling
2555 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2556 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2557 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2560 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2561 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2562 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2564 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2565 current stack frame.
2568 * Minor command changes
2570 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2571 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2572 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2574 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2575 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2576 frames without printing.
2578 * New directory command
2580 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2581 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2582 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2583 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2584 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2586 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2588 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2591 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2592 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2593 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2594 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / platform / upstream / binutils.git / blob