1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.3
6 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
7 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
8 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
11 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
12 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
13 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
14 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
15 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
17 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
18 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
20 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
21 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
22 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
23 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
24 use this option to specify where to find it.
26 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
27 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
28 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
29 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
30 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
31 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
32 section in the user manual for more details.
34 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
35 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
36 become available after that.
40 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
41 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
42 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
44 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
45 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
46 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
48 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
49 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
50 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
51 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
52 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
59 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
63 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
65 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
67 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
68 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
69 matches the given regular expression.
71 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
73 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
74 dumping the instruction opcodes.
76 * New command line options
78 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
79 This is mostly for testing purposes.
81 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
82 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
84 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
85 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
86 source path list instead of augmenting it.
88 * GDB now understands thread names.
90 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
91 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
93 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
94 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
97 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
98 has been integrated into GDB.
102 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
103 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
104 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
106 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
107 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
108 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
109 and allows for more dynamic content.
111 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
112 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
113 have an is_valid method.
115 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
116 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
117 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
119 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
121 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
122 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
123 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
124 that function like so:
126 result = some_value (10,20)
128 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
129 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
130 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
132 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
133 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
134 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
135 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
136 New function: register_pretty_printer.
138 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
139 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
141 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
143 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
146 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
147 holds the thread's name.
149 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
150 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
151 occurring in the process being debugged.
152 The following events are currently supported:
153 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
154 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
155 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
159 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
160 instantiation. For example, if you have:
162 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
164 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
165 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
166 was added to GCC 4.5.
168 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
169 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
170 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
171 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
172 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
173 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
175 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
176 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
177 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
178 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
179 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
181 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
182 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
183 execution to a label.
185 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
186 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
187 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
188 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
190 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
191 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
192 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
195 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
197 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
198 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
199 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
200 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
201 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
202 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
205 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
207 While now you see this:
210 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
212 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
215 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
216 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
217 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
218 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
220 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
221 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
222 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
223 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
224 section in the user manual for more details.
226 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
228 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
229 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
231 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
233 * New native configurations
235 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
239 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
241 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
242 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
243 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
244 in the GDB user manual.
246 * Guile support was removed.
248 * New features in the GNU simulator
250 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
252 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
254 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
256 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
258 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
259 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
260 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
261 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
262 was always disabled for such configurations.
266 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
268 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
269 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
279 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
280 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
281 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
283 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
285 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
286 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
287 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
288 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
290 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
291 mentioned flavors of operators.
293 ** static const class members
295 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
296 class definition has been fixed.
298 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
300 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
301 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
302 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
303 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
304 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
305 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
309 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
310 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
311 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
312 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
313 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
314 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
315 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
316 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
317 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
318 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
319 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
320 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
321 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
322 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
323 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
324 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
325 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
326 the "New remote packets" section below.
328 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
330 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
331 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
332 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
333 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
337 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
338 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
339 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
340 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
341 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
342 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
343 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
345 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
352 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
356 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
357 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
358 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
359 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
360 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
361 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
365 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
369 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
372 qXfer:statictrace:read
374 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
375 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
376 to gdb's qSupported query.
380 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
384 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
385 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
387 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
388 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
391 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
393 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
394 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
395 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
396 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
398 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
399 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
400 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
401 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
402 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
403 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
404 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
406 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
407 for static tracepoints support.
409 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
411 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
412 it understands register description.
414 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
416 * X86 general purpose registers
418 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
419 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
420 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
421 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
422 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
424 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
425 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
426 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
427 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
428 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
429 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
431 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
432 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
433 in the specified file.
435 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
436 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
437 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
438 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
439 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
440 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
441 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
442 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
443 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
444 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
448 eval template, expressions...
449 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
450 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
452 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
453 show target-file-system-kind
454 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
457 save breakpoints <filename>
458 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
459 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
460 definitions, use the `source' command.
462 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
465 info static-tracepoint-markers
466 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
468 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
469 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
470 function, line, address, or marker ID.
474 Enable and disable observer mode.
476 set may-write-registers on|off
477 set may-write-memory on|off
478 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
479 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
480 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
481 set may-interrupt on|off
482 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
483 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
484 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
485 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
486 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
487 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
488 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
490 set record memory-query on|off
491 show record memory-query
492 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
493 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
498 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
502 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
503 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
504 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
505 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
506 GDB using Python' in the manual.
508 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
509 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
510 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
511 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
513 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
514 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
516 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
518 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
520 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
522 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
523 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
524 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
526 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
527 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
528 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
533 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
535 * D language support.
536 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
539 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
540 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
541 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
542 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
543 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
545 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
546 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
547 conditions of the form:
549 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
551 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
552 interface mentioned above.
554 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
560 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
561 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
562 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
563 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
564 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
568 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
569 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
574 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
575 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
579 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
584 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
587 * Multi-program debugging.
589 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
590 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
591 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
592 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
593 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
594 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
595 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
596 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
598 * New tracing features
600 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
602 ** Trace state variables
604 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
605 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
606 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
607 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
608 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
609 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
610 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
611 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
612 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
613 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
617 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
618 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
619 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
620 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
621 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
622 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
623 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
624 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
625 the regular trace command.
627 ** Disconnected tracing
629 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
630 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
631 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
632 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
633 connection is lost unexpectedly.
637 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
638 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
639 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
640 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
641 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
642 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
645 ** Circular trace buffer
647 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
648 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
649 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
650 not be available for all target agents.
655 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
656 the arguments to be comma-separated.
659 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
660 which only declare a variable are not shown.
663 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
664 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
667 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
668 "set script-extension" (see below).
670 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
672 record save [<FILENAME>]
673 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
674 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
676 record restore <FILENAME>
677 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
678 earlier time, for replay debugging.
680 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
683 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
684 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
690 maint info program-spaces
691 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
693 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
694 show remote interrupt-sequence
695 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
696 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
697 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
698 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
699 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
701 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
702 show remote interrupt-on-connect
703 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
704 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
707 set remotebreak [on | off]
709 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
711 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
712 Create or modify a trace state variable.
715 List trace state variables and their values.
717 delete tvariable $NAME ...
718 Delete one or more trace state variables.
721 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
722 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
724 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
725 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
727 * New expression syntax
729 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
730 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
734 set follow-exec-mode new|same
735 show follow-exec-mode
736 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
737 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
738 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
740 set default-collect EXPR, ...
742 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
743 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
744 such as registers or a critical global variable.
746 set disconnected-tracing
747 show disconnected-tracing
748 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
749 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
752 set circular-trace-buffer
753 show circular-trace-buffer
754 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
755 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
756 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
757 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
759 set script-extension off|soft|strict
760 show script-extension
761 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
762 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
763 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
764 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
766 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
768 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
769 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
770 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
771 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
772 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
773 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
774 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
777 * Python API Improvements
779 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
780 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
781 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
783 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
784 `is_base_class' attribute.
786 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
788 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
789 evaluate an expression.
794 Define a trace state variable.
797 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
800 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
803 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
806 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
810 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
812 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
813 much more reliable. In particular:
814 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
815 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
816 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
817 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
818 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
819 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
820 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
821 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
822 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
823 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
824 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
825 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
826 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
827 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
828 non-threaded programs.
830 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
831 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
832 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
835 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
837 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
838 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
839 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
840 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
841 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
843 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
844 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
845 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
846 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
847 for tracepoint actions.
849 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
850 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
851 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
853 * Process record and replay
855 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
856 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
857 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
860 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
861 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
862 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
865 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
866 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
869 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
870 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
871 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
872 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
873 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
874 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
875 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
876 the installation instructions for more information.
878 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
879 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
880 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
881 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
883 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
884 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
886 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
887 now complete on file names.
889 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
890 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
891 For instance, consider:
893 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
894 # struct example variable;
897 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
898 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
900 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
901 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
903 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
904 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
907 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
908 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
909 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
911 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
912 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
913 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
914 and simulator targets may also provide them.
919 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
922 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
923 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
924 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
927 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
928 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
931 Obtains additional operating system information
935 Read or write additional signal information.
937 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
939 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
940 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
941 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
943 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
944 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
946 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
947 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
948 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
950 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
951 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
953 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
955 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
957 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
958 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
960 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
961 list of section offsets.
963 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
964 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
965 have also been fixed.
967 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
968 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
969 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
971 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
974 template<typename T> class C { };
977 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
979 ptype C<char const *>
981 ptype C<const char *>
984 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
986 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
987 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
989 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
990 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
991 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
993 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
994 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
996 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
999 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1000 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1002 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1003 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1008 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1009 available is determined at configure time.
1011 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1013 * Ada tasking support
1015 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1019 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1021 Print detailed information about task number N.
1023 Print the task number of the current task.
1025 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1027 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1028 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1030 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1032 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1033 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1034 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1035 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1036 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1037 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1040 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1041 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1044 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1045 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1046 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1047 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1050 * Multi-architecture debugging.
1052 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1053 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1054 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1055 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1056 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1058 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1059 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1060 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1061 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1062 --enable-targets configure option.
1064 * Non-stop mode debugging.
1066 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1067 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1068 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1069 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1070 section in the user manual for more information.
1072 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1073 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1074 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1075 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1076 extensions on linux targets.
1078 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1080 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1081 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1082 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1083 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1084 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1085 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1086 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1087 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1088 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1090 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1092 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1094 maint set python print-stack
1095 maint show python print-stack
1096 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1099 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1104 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1108 Show operating system information about processes.
1111 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1114 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1117 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1120 Kill inferior number NUM.
1124 set spu stop-on-load
1125 show spu stop-on-load
1126 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1128 set spu auto-flush-cache
1129 show spu auto-flush-cache
1130 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1131 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1133 set sh calling-convention
1134 show sh calling-convention
1135 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1138 show debug timestamp
1139 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1141 set disassemble-next-line
1142 show disassemble-next-line
1143 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1146 set remote noack-packet
1147 show remote noack-packet
1148 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1149 under "New remote packets."
1151 set remote query-attached-packet
1152 show remote query-attached-packet
1153 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1155 set remote read-siginfo-object
1156 show remote read-siginfo-object
1157 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1160 set remote write-siginfo-object
1161 show remote write-siginfo-object
1162 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1165 set remote reverse-continue
1166 show remote reverse-continue
1167 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1169 set remote reverse-step
1170 show remote reverse-step
1171 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1173 set displaced-stepping
1174 show displaced-stepping
1175 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1176 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1177 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1180 show debug displaced
1181 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1183 maint set internal-error
1184 maint show internal-error
1185 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1187 maint set internal-warning
1188 maint show internal-warning
1189 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1194 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1196 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1197 show multiple-symbols
1198 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1199 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1200 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1202 set breakpoint always-inserted
1203 show breakpoint always-inserted
1204 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1205 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1206 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1208 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1209 show arm fallback-mode
1210 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1212 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1213 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1214 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1215 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1217 set disable-randomization
1218 show disable-randomization
1219 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1220 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1221 multiple debugging sessions.
1225 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1230 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1231 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1232 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1233 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1235 set target-wide-charset
1236 show target-wide-charset
1237 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1238 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1240 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1242 set tcp connect-timeout
1243 show tcp connect-timeout
1244 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1245 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1246 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1248 set libthread-db-search-path
1249 show libthread-db-search-path
1250 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1253 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1254 show schedule-multiple
1255 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1256 the current process.
1260 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1261 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1262 affecting correctness.
1264 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1265 show interactive-mode
1266 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1267 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1268 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1269 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1270 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1275 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1276 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1277 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1281 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1282 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1283 alias for the `fork' command.
1286 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1287 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1288 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1291 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1292 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1293 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1297 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1298 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1299 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1302 * New native configurations
1304 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1306 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1310 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1311 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1312 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1315 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1316 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1322 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1324 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1326 * New native configurations
1328 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1329 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1333 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1334 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1336 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1338 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1339 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1340 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1341 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1343 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1344 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1346 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1349 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1350 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1351 and in inlined functions.
1353 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1354 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1355 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1357 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1359 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1360 registers on PowerPC targets.
1362 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1363 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1365 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1366 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1368 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1369 extended-remote mode.
1371 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1372 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1373 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1374 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1376 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1377 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1378 target architectures.
1380 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1381 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1382 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1383 stored in two consecutive float registers.
1385 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1388 * Improved support for debugging Ada
1389 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1391 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1392 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1393 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1394 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1396 - Improved command completion in Ada
1399 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1404 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1405 show print frame-arguments
1406 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1407 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1412 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1419 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1421 * New remote packets
1428 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1431 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1435 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1437 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
1439 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1440 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1441 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1443 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1444 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1445 -Bsymbolic linker option.
1447 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1448 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1451 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1452 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1454 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1455 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
1457 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1459 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1460 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1461 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1463 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1464 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1466 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1467 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1470 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1471 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1472 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1474 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1477 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1478 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1479 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1481 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1483 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1485 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1486 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1487 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1489 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1490 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1492 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1493 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1494 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1495 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1496 Windows and SymbianOS).
1498 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1499 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1501 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1502 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1508 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1509 when debugging using remote targets.
1511 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1512 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1513 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1514 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1515 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1516 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1517 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1519 set breakpoint auto-hw
1520 show breakpoint auto-hw
1521 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1522 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1523 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1524 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1525 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1526 including "next" and "finish".
1529 catch exception unhandled
1530 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1533 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1537 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1538 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1539 an alias to "set sysroot".
1542 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1543 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1546 * New native configurations
1548 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1551 unset tdesc filename
1553 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1554 not query the target for its built-in description.
1558 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1559 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1560 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1562 * New remote packets
1565 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1566 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1568 qXfer:features:read:
1569 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1574 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1575 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1577 qXfer:libraries:read:
1578 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1579 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1580 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1581 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1585 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1593 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1594 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1595 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1596 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1598 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1601 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1602 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1611 * Other removed features
1618 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1625 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1630 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1631 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1636 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1637 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1639 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1641 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1642 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1643 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1644 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1646 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1648 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1649 in debugging information.
1653 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1654 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1656 set mips stack-arg-size
1657 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1659 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1661 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1666 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1668 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1669 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1670 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1672 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1673 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1676 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1677 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1679 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1680 stub provides the required support.
1682 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1683 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1688 unset substitute-path
1689 show substitute-path
1690 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1691 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1692 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1693 between compilation and debugging.
1697 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1698 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1699 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1703 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1705 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1706 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1708 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1710 * New remote packets
1713 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1714 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1715 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1716 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1720 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1721 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1723 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1724 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1725 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1730 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1732 * Removed remote packets
1735 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1736 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1738 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1742 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1744 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1748 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1749 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1751 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1753 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1755 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1756 previously saved state.
1758 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1760 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1762 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1763 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1765 info forks List forks of the user program that
1766 are available to be debugged.
1768 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1769 forks of the user program that are
1770 available to be debugged.
1772 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1773 that are available to be debugged (and
1774 kill the forked process).
1776 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1777 that are available to be debugged (and
1778 allow the process to continue).
1782 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1784 * Improved Windows host support
1786 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1787 native console support, and remote communications using either
1788 network sockets or serial ports.
1790 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1792 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1793 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1794 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1795 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1796 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1797 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1801 The ARM rdi-share module.
1803 The Netware NLM debug server.
1805 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1807 * New native configurations
1809 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1810 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1814 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1816 * New command line options
1818 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1819 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1820 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1821 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1822 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1823 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1824 with the --command (-x) option.
1826 * Deprecated commands removed
1828 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1832 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1833 othernames set arm disassembler
1834 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1835 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1836 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1839 * New BSD user-level threads support
1841 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1842 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1845 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1846 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1847 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1849 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1850 are not yet supported.
1852 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1853 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1855 * REMOVED configurations and files
1857 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1858 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1859 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1861 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1863 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1864 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1867 * VAX floating point support
1869 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1871 * User-defined command support
1873 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1874 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1875 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1877 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1879 * New command line option
1881 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1884 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1886 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1887 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1888 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1889 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1890 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1892 * Internationalization
1894 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1895 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1896 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1900 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1901 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1902 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1904 * New native configurations
1906 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1910 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1911 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1913 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1915 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1916 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1917 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1920 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1921 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1922 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1932 powerpc bdm protocol
1934 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1935 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1937 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1939 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1940 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1941 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1942 permanently REMOVED.
1951 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1953 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1955 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1956 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1959 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1961 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1962 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1963 IRIX long double values).
1967 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1968 command. This problem has been fixed.
1970 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1972 * Fix for ``many threads''
1974 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1975 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1978 ptrace: No such process.
1979 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1981 This problem has been fixed.
1983 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1985 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1988 * New ``start'' command.
1990 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1992 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1994 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1995 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1996 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1998 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1999 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2000 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2001 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2002 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2003 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2004 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2005 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2006 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2008 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
2010 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2011 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2012 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2013 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2014 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2016 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2017 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2018 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2020 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2022 * New native configurations
2024 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2025 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2026 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2027 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2028 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2029 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2030 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2032 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2034 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2035 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2036 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2037 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2038 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2039 work, was also included.
2041 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2042 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2052 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2053 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2055 * REMOVED configurations and files
2057 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2058 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2059 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2060 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2061 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2062 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2063 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2064 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2065 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2066 sonymips mips-sony-*
2067 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2069 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2071 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2073 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2074 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2075 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2076 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2079 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2081 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2082 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2083 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2084 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2085 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2086 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2089 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2091 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
2093 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2094 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2095 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2097 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2099 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2100 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2102 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2104 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2105 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2106 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2108 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2110 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2111 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2113 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2115 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2116 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2117 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2119 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2121 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2122 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2123 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2125 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2127 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2129 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2130 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2132 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2134 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2135 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2136 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2137 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2139 * Revised SPARC target
2141 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2142 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2143 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2144 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2145 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2149 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2150 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2151 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2154 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2156 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2157 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2160 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2162 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2163 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2164 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2165 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2166 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2167 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2168 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2169 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2170 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2172 * New native configurations
2174 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2175 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2176 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2177 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2178 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2180 * New debugging protocols
2182 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2184 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2186 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2187 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2188 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2190 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2192 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2193 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2194 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2195 permanently REMOVED.
2197 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2198 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2199 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2200 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2201 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2202 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2203 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2204 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2205 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2206 sonymips mips-sony-*
2207 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2209 * REMOVED configurations and files
2211 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2212 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2213 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2214 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2215 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2216 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2217 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2218 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2219 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2220 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2221 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2222 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2223 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2224 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2225 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2226 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2227 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2229 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2233 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2234 integrated into GDB.
2236 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2238 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2239 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2240 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2243 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2244 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2245 DWARF 2 CFI support.
2249 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2250 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2251 remote protocol documentation for details.
2253 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
2255 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2256 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2257 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2260 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2262 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2263 per-thread variables.
2265 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2267 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2268 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2270 * Separate debug info.
2272 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2273 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2274 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2275 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2276 and optional debug files.
2278 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2280 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2281 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2284 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2285 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2289 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2290 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2291 considered "useable".
2293 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2295 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2296 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2299 * GDB supports logging output to a file
2301 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2302 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2304 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2306 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2307 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2310 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2312 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2313 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2317 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2318 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2319 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2320 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2321 data, for more informative profiling results.
2323 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2325 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2326 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2327 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2329 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2332 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2333 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2334 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2335 in a subsequent -var-update.
2337 * New native configurations.
2339 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2341 * Multi-arched targets.
2343 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2344 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2346 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2348 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2349 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2350 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2351 permanently REMOVED.
2353 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2354 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2355 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2356 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2357 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2358 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2359 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2360 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2361 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2362 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2363 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2364 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2366 * REMOVED configurations and files
2369 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2370 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2371 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2372 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2373 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2374 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2376 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2377 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2378 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2379 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2380 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2381 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2383 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
2385 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2386 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2387 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2388 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2389 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2391 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2393 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2395 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2396 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2397 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2398 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2399 shared libs like mad''.
2401 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2403 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2404 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2405 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2406 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2408 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2410 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2411 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2414 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2415 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2417 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2418 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2420 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2421 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2422 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2423 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2425 * Multi-arched targets.
2427 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2428 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2430 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2431 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2432 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2436 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2439 * New native configurations
2441 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2442 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2443 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2444 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2446 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2448 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2449 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2450 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2451 permanently REMOVED.
2453 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2454 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2455 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2456 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2457 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2458 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2459 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2460 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2461 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2462 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2464 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2465 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2467 * OBSOLETE languages
2469 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2471 * REMOVED configurations and files
2473 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2474 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2475 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2476 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2477 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2479 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2481 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2483 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2484 commands. The default is 1024.
2486 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2488 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2490 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2492 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2493 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2494 from a file into memory (restore).
2496 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2498 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2499 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2500 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2502 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2510 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2511 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2512 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2514 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2515 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2516 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2518 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2519 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2520 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2522 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2523 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2524 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2526 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2528 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2530 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2531 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2532 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2533 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2534 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2535 (notably embedded) targets.
2537 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2539 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2540 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2541 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2542 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2544 * New command line option
2546 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2548 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2550 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2551 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2552 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2553 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2554 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2555 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2556 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2557 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2558 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2559 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2561 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2563 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2564 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2566 * New native configurations
2568 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2569 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2570 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2571 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2575 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2577 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2579 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2580 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2581 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2582 permanently REMOVED.
2584 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2585 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2586 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2587 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2588 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2590 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2592 * REMOVED configurations and files
2594 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2596 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2597 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2598 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2599 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2600 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2601 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2602 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2603 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2604 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2605 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2606 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2608 * Changes to command line processing
2610 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2611 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2613 * Changes to key bindings
2615 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2617 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2619 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2621 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2624 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2626 Numerous documentation fixes.
2628 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2630 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2632 * New native configurations
2634 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2635 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2636 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2637 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2638 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2639 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2643 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2645 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2647 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2649 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2650 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2651 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2652 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2653 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2655 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2656 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2657 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2658 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2659 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2660 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2661 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2662 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2664 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2665 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2667 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2668 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2669 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2670 permanently REMOVED.
2672 * REMOVED configurations and files
2674 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2675 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2677 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2681 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2683 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2684 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2689 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2691 * The MI enabled by default.
2693 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2694 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2695 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2696 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2697 which is now deprecated.
2699 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2701 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2702 main features are supported:
2704 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2706 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2709 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2711 - a Pascal expression parser.
2713 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2715 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2717 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2719 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2720 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2722 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2724 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2726 * Changes in completion.
2728 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2729 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2730 users expect at the shell prompt.
2732 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2733 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2734 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2735 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2736 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2737 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2738 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2740 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2742 * New platform-independent commands:
2744 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2745 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2746 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2748 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2750 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2751 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2752 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2754 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2756 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2757 multi-threaded programs though.
2759 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2761 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2763 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2764 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2767 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2769 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2770 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2771 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2772 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2773 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2776 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2777 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2778 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2780 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2782 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2783 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2785 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2786 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2789 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2790 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2791 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2792 a given linear address.
2794 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2795 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2796 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2798 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2800 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2802 * Changes in documentation.
2804 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2805 Documentation License.
2807 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2810 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2812 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2815 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2816 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2817 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2819 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2821 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2822 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2823 contents of this file.
2827 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2829 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2831 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2833 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2834 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2835 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2836 greater level of detail.
2838 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2840 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2841 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2842 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2845 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2847 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2848 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2849 machines ``out of the box''.
2851 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2852 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2853 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2854 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2855 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2857 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2858 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2859 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2860 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2861 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2863 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2864 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2867 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2870 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2871 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2872 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2873 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2875 * New native configurations
2877 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2878 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2882 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2883 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2884 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2885 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2887 * OBSOLETE configurations
2889 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2890 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2892 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2895 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2896 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2897 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2898 be permanently REMOVED.
2900 * Gould support removed
2902 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2904 * New features for SVR4
2906 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2907 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2908 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2910 * Many C++ enhancements
2912 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2913 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2915 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2917 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2918 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2919 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2920 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2922 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2923 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2925 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2927 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2928 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2929 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2931 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2932 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2934 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2936 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2937 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2938 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2940 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2942 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2943 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2944 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2946 * ``apropos'' command added.
2948 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2949 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2950 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2954 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2955 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2956 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2957 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2958 enabled by configuring with:
2960 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2962 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2964 * New native configurations
2966 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2967 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2968 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2972 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2973 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2974 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2976 * OBSOLETE configurations
2978 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2980 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2981 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2982 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2983 be permanently REMOVED.
2987 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2988 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2989 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2990 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2991 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2992 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2993 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2998 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3000 * set extension-language
3002 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3003 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3004 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3005 set extension-language .c c++
3006 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3007 and their associated languages.
3009 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3011 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3012 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3013 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3017 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3018 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3020 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3021 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3023 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3024 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3025 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3026 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3027 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3028 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3029 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3030 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3032 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3033 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3034 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3035 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3039 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3040 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3041 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3042 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3043 for xdb and dbx commands.
3047 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3048 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3049 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3051 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3052 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3053 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3055 * Debugging across forks
3057 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3062 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3063 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3064 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3066 * GDB remote protocol additions
3068 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3069 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3070 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3071 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3073 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3074 full 64-bit address. The command
3076 set remoteaddresssize 32
3078 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3079 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3082 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3083 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3085 maint packet heythere
3087 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3088 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3091 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3092 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3093 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3095 * Tracing can collect general expressions
3097 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3098 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3099 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3101 * mask-address variable for Mips
3103 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3104 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3105 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3107 * Higher serial baud rates
3109 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3110 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3111 to achieve all of these rates.)
3115 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3116 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3119 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3121 * New native configurations
3123 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3124 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3125 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3126 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3127 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3128 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3129 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3133 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3134 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3135 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3136 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3137 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3138 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3139 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3140 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3141 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3142 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3143 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3145 * New debugging protocols
3147 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3148 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3149 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3150 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3151 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3152 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3156 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3157 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3162 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3163 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3165 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3167 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3168 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3169 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3171 * Live range splitting
3173 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3174 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3175 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3179 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3180 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3184 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3185 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3186 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3191 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3196 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3197 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3198 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3199 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3200 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3201 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3205 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3206 the symbol at the specified address.
3210 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3211 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3212 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3213 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3214 file tracepoint.c for more details.
3218 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3219 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3220 of most MIPS variants.
3224 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3225 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3226 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3230 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3231 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3232 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3233 the possible architectures.
3235 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3237 * New native configurations
3239 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3240 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3241 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3242 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3243 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3244 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3248 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3249 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3250 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3251 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3252 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3254 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3258 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3259 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3260 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3261 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3262 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3266 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3268 * Windows 95/NT native
3270 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3271 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3272 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3273 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3274 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3276 * dont-repeat command
3278 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3279 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3280 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3281 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3283 * Send break instead of ^C
3285 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3286 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3287 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3289 * Remote protocol timeout
3291 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3292 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3293 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3295 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3297 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3298 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3299 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3300 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3301 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3303 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3304 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3305 automatically on hpux10.
3307 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3309 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3311 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3313 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3314 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3315 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3316 every character. The default value is 1050.
3318 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3320 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3321 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3322 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3323 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3324 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3325 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3327 * Speedups for remote debugging
3329 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3330 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3331 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3333 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3335 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3336 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3338 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3340 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3342 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3343 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3345 * Remote targets use caching
3347 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3348 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3349 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3350 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3351 off' turns the the data cache off.
3353 * Remote targets may have threads
3355 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3356 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3357 gdb/remote.c for details.
3361 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3362 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3363 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3364 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3365 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3366 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3367 sequence is something like
3369 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3371 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3375 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3376 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3377 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3378 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3379 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3380 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3381 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3382 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3386 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3387 but does simplify configuration and building.
3391 GDB now supports hpux10.
3393 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3395 * New native configurations
3397 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3398 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3399 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3400 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3404 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3405 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3406 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3407 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3410 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3412 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3413 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3414 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3415 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3416 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3418 * Arguments to user-defined commands
3420 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3421 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3424 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3426 To execute the command use:
3429 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3430 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3431 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3433 * New `if' and `while' commands
3435 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3436 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3437 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3438 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3439 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3440 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3441 if the expression is zero.
3443 * Fortran source language mode
3445 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3446 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3447 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3448 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3451 * Better HPUX support
3453 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3454 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3455 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3456 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3457 that behavior do the following before running the program:
3463 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3464 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3470 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3471 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3474 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3475 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3477 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3479 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3480 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3481 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3482 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3483 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3484 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3486 * New DOS host serial code
3488 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3489 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3492 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3494 * New "complete" command
3496 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3497 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3499 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3501 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3502 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3504 * Breakpoint hit counts
3506 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3507 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3508 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3509 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3510 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3513 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3515 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3516 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3517 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3519 * Shared library breakpoints
3521 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3522 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3524 * Hardware watchpoints
3526 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3527 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3529 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3533 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3534 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3536 * Improved Irix 5 support
3538 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3540 * Improved HPPA support
3542 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3544 * New native configurations
3546 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3547 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3548 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3549 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3553 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3554 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3557 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3559 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3560 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3564 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3565 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3567 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3569 * Irix 5 is now supported
3573 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3574 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3575 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3576 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3577 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3580 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3582 * User visible changes:
3586 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3587 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3588 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3589 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3590 debugging info for the mips target).
3592 * DEC Alpha native support
3594 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3595 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3596 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3597 Alpha-specific notes.
3599 * Preliminary thread implementation
3601 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3603 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3605 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3606 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3609 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3611 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3612 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3613 call methods, ...etc.
3615 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3617 * User visible changes:
3619 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3620 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3621 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3622 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3624 Filename completion now works.
3626 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3627 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3628 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3630 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3631 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3632 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3633 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3634 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3638 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3639 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3642 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3646 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3647 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3648 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3652 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3653 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3654 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3655 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3656 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3660 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3661 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3662 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3664 * New targets supported
3666 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3667 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3668 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3669 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3670 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3672 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3673 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3674 GO32 memory extender.
3676 * New remote protocols
3678 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3680 * New source languages supported
3682 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3683 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3684 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3687 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3689 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3691 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3692 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3693 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3694 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3695 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3696 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3698 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3700 * Faster and better demangling
3702 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3703 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3704 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3705 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3706 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3707 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3710 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3711 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3712 compiler does not actually implement.
3714 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3716 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3717 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3718 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3719 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3720 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3721 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3724 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3725 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3727 * Improved configure script
3729 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3730 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3731 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3732 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3734 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3735 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3736 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3737 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3738 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3739 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3741 * Documentation improvements
3743 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3744 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3745 before submitting changes.
3747 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3748 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3749 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3750 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3751 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3753 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3754 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3755 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3756 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3757 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3758 around this problem.
3762 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3763 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3764 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3767 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3768 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3770 * New native hosts supported
3772 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3773 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3775 * New targets supported
3777 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3779 * New file formats supported
3781 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3782 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3786 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3788 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3789 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3791 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3792 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3793 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3795 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3796 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3798 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3799 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3800 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3803 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3804 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3805 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3806 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3807 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3809 * Internal improvements
3811 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3812 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3814 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3815 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3816 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3817 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3818 shared code that handles any of them.
3820 * New command line options
3822 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3826 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3827 General Public License.
3829 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3831 * Host/native/target split
3833 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3834 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3835 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3836 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3837 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3839 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3840 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3841 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3842 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3843 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3844 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3845 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3847 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3848 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3849 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3851 * New hosts supported
3853 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3854 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3855 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3857 * New targets supported
3859 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3860 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3862 * New native hosts supported
3864 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3865 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3866 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3868 * New file formats supported
3870 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3871 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3872 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3876 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3877 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3878 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3880 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3882 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3883 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3884 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3885 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3889 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3890 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3891 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3893 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3897 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3898 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3901 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3902 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3904 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3905 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3906 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3907 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3908 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3909 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3911 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3912 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3913 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3914 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3918 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3919 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3920 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3921 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3922 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3924 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3925 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3926 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3927 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3931 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3932 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3933 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3934 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3935 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3936 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3937 each instruction being stepped through.
3939 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3940 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3942 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3943 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3944 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3945 processor with a serial port.
3949 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3950 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3951 supported, and what files each one uses.
3955 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3956 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3957 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3958 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3960 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3961 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3962 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3963 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3967 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3968 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3969 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3970 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3971 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3972 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3974 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3977 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3979 * Better support for C++ function names
3981 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3982 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3983 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3984 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3985 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3987 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3988 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3989 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3990 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3991 for the list of formats.
3993 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3995 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3996 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3997 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3998 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3999 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4000 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4003 * New 'maintenance' command
4005 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4006 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4007 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4009 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4010 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4011 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4012 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4013 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4014 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4016 The following commands are new:
4018 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4019 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4020 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4022 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4024 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4025 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4026 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4027 read after argv processing.
4029 * New hosts supported
4031 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4033 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4035 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4036 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4037 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4038 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4039 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4042 * New targets supported
4044 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4046 * More smarts about finding #include files
4048 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4049 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4050 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4051 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4052 the one that contains your sources.
4054 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4055 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4056 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4058 * Interesting infernals change
4060 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4061 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4062 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4063 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4065 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4067 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4068 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4069 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4071 See the ChangeLog for details.
4073 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4075 * New machines supported (host and target)
4077 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4079 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4081 * New malloc package
4083 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4084 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4085 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4086 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4087 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4088 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4092 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4093 'help info proc' for details.
4095 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4097 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4098 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4101 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4103 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4104 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4105 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4106 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4107 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4108 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4110 * Cross byte order fixes
4112 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4113 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4115 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4117 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4118 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4119 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4120 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4121 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4122 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4123 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4124 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4125 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4126 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4128 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4129 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4130 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4131 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4133 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4134 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4135 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4138 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4140 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4141 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4142 shared across multiple host platforms.
4144 * longjmp() handling
4146 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4147 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4148 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4149 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4153 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4154 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4159 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4160 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4161 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4163 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4165 * New machines supported (host and target)
4167 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4169 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4170 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4172 * New machines supported (target)
4174 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4178 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4179 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4180 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4182 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4183 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4184 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4185 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4186 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4189 * New features for SVR4
4191 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4192 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4193 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4195 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4196 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4197 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4199 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4200 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4202 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4204 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4205 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4206 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4207 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4208 same code linked statically.
4212 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4213 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4214 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4215 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4216 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4217 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4221 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4222 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4223 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4226 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4228 * New machines supported (host and target)
4230 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4231 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4232 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4234 * Almost SCO Unix support
4236 We had hoped to support:
4237 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4238 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4239 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4240 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4242 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4244 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4245 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4246 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4247 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4252 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4253 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4254 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4258 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4259 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4260 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4262 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4264 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4265 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4266 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4268 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4269 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4270 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4271 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4274 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4275 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4276 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4277 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4280 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4281 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4284 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4285 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4286 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4289 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4291 * Improved configuration
4293 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4294 Porting BFD is simpler.
4298 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4299 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4300 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4301 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4305 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4307 * New host supported (not target)
4309 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4312 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4314 * Multiple source language support
4316 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4317 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4318 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4319 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4320 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4321 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4325 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4326 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4327 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4328 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4330 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4331 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4332 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4334 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4335 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4339 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4340 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4341 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4342 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4345 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4347 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4348 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4349 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4350 examining core files.
4354 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4357 * New machines supported (host and target)
4359 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4360 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4361 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4363 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4365 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4367 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4369 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4370 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4371 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4373 * New remote interfaces
4379 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4383 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4385 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4386 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4387 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4388 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4389 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4390 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4391 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4392 stub on the target system.
4394 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4396 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4397 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4398 object file types such as a.out and coff.
4400 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4401 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4404 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4406 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4407 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4409 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4410 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4411 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4413 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4414 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4415 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4416 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4418 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4419 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4420 it is already running. Default is ON.
4422 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4423 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4424 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4425 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4428 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4429 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4430 or the value of the environment variable
4433 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4434 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4437 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4438 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4439 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4441 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4442 history expansion will be performed on
4443 command line input. The default is OFF.
4445 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4446 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4447 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4449 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4450 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4451 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4454 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4455 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4456 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4459 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4460 ``set width'' instead.
4462 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4463 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4464 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4465 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4467 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4470 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4473 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4476 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4479 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4481 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4482 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4483 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4487 * Support for Shared Libraries
4489 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4490 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4491 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4492 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4493 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4494 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4495 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4496 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4498 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4499 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4500 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4502 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4507 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4508 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4509 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4510 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4511 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4512 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4514 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4516 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4518 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4519 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4520 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4523 * C++ multiple inheritance
4525 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4528 * C++ exception handling
4530 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4531 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4532 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4535 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4536 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4537 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4539 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4540 current stack frame.
4543 * Minor command changes
4545 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4546 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4547 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4549 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4550 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4551 frames without printing.
4553 * New directory command
4555 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4556 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4557 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4558 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4559 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4561 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4563 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4566 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4567 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4568 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4569 where the program that you are debugging will run.