1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.2
6 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
7 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
10 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
11 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
12 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
15 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
18 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
19 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
20 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
22 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
23 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
25 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
26 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
27 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
28 in the GDB user manual.
30 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
33 * Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI
34 commands. These commands all now take a frame specification which
35 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
36 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
37 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
38 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
39 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
41 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
49 set debug compile-cplus-types
50 show debug compile-cplus-types
51 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
52 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
57 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
60 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
61 Apply a command to some frames.
62 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
63 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
66 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
67 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
70 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
71 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
74 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
76 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
78 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
79 maint show dwarf unwinders
80 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
83 Display a list of open files for a process.
87 target remote FILENAME
88 target extended-remote FILENAME
89 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
90 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
92 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
93 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
94 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
95 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
96 These commands can now print only the searched entities
97 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
98 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
99 printing headers or informations messages.
105 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
106 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
107 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
110 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
111 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
112 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
113 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
115 set tui tab-width NCHARS
116 show tui tab-width NCHARS
117 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
121 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
122 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
123 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
124 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
125 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
127 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
128 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
130 * New native configurations
132 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
133 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
137 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
139 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
140 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
144 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
145 space associated to that inferior.
147 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
148 of objfiles associated to that program space.
150 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
151 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
154 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
155 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
156 correct and did not work properly.
162 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
163 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
164 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
165 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
166 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
168 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
170 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
173 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
174 offset to all sections.
176 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
177 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
178 address of individual sections using '-s'.
180 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
181 (address of the text section).
183 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
184 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
185 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
186 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
189 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
190 for the rest of the current command.
192 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
193 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
195 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
196 files created on FreeBSD systems.
198 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
201 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
202 the vector length while the process is running.
208 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
210 set|show varsize-limit
211 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
212 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
213 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
215 set|show record btrace cpu
216 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
219 maint check libthread-db
220 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
223 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
224 maint show check-libthread-db
225 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
226 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
231 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
233 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
234 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
236 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
238 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
239 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
240 of convenience variables.
242 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
243 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
244 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
248 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
250 * Removed targets and native configurations
252 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
253 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
254 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
255 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
257 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
259 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
260 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
261 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
262 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
263 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
264 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
269 --enable-codesign=CERT
270 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
271 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
272 gdb to work properly.
274 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
275 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
277 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
279 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
280 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
281 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
283 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
284 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
286 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
287 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
288 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
289 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
290 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
292 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
293 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
294 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
295 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
297 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
298 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
300 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
301 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
302 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
304 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
305 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
306 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
308 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
309 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
310 environment" command.
312 * Completion improvements
314 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
315 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
316 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
317 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
320 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
321 (gdb) b function(int)
323 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
324 C++ anonymous namespaces:
327 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
328 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
329 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
331 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
332 completion support, that better understands what you're
333 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
334 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
335 setting a breakpoint.
337 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
339 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
341 * New command line options (gcore)
344 Dump all memory mappings.
346 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
348 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
349 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
350 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
352 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
357 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
360 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
361 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
362 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
363 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
364 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
365 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
366 a breakpoint from Python.
368 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
370 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
371 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
372 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
374 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
376 function[abi:cxx11](int)
379 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
382 (gdb) b function(int)
384 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
386 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
388 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
392 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
393 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
394 description of these.
396 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
397 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
398 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
400 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
401 manual for a further description of this feature.
404 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
406 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
407 specified initial working directory.
409 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
410 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
412 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
413 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
415 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
416 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
418 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
419 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
420 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
421 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
422 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
424 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
425 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
426 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
428 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
429 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
430 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
431 in the *stopped notification.
433 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
434 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
438 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
439 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
440 the inferior when starting it.
443 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
444 before starting the remote inferior.
447 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
448 user-set environment variables should be unset).
451 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
454 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
457 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
458 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
460 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
461 filter the tests to be run.
463 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
464 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
469 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
472 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
473 with the 'compile' commands.
475 set debug separate-debug-file
476 show debug separate-debug-file
477 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
479 set dump-excluded-mappings
480 show dump-excluded-mappings
481 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
482 dumped when generating a core file.
485 List the registered selftests.
488 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
491 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
493 set|show print type nested-type-limit
494 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
495 type printer will show.
497 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
500 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
502 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
505 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
506 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
507 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
508 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
510 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
511 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
512 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
513 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
514 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
515 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
517 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
518 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
519 unless you tell it the variable's type:
522 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
526 * New native configurations
528 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
529 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
533 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
534 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
535 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
537 * Removed targets and native configurations
539 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
541 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
543 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
544 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
545 available in future Intel CPUs.
547 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
551 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
552 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
554 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
557 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
559 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
561 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
562 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
565 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
567 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
568 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
570 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
572 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
573 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
574 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
575 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
578 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
580 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
581 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
584 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
586 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
587 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
589 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
591 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
596 eval "print $arg%d", $i
601 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
603 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
604 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
606 * New native configurations
608 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
612 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
613 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
615 * Removed targets and native configurations
617 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
618 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
623 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
625 maint print arc arc-instruction address
626 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
630 set disassembler-options
631 show disassembler-options
632 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
633 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
634 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
635 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
636 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
641 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
642 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
644 -file-list-shared-libraries
645 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
646 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
649 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
650 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
652 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
654 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
656 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
657 default. One must now explicitly configure with
658 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
659 option will be removed in a future release.
661 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
664 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
665 memory backward from the given address. For example:
668 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
669 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
670 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
671 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
672 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
673 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
674 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
675 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
676 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
678 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
679 arrays of dynamic types.
681 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
682 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
683 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
684 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
685 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
686 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
688 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
691 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
692 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
693 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
695 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
697 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
698 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
699 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
700 signal received and code location.
704 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
705 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
706 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
707 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
709 * Rust language support.
710 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
711 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
714 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
716 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
717 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
718 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
719 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
720 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
721 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
722 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
723 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
724 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
725 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
728 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
730 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
731 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
736 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
737 skip -function function
738 skip -rfunction regular-expression
739 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
740 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
741 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
743 maint info line-table REGEXP
744 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
747 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
750 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
751 using the TTY file for input/output.
755 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
756 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
757 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
758 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
759 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
762 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
763 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
764 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
765 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
768 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
769 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
770 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
772 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
775 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
776 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
777 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
778 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
779 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
780 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
782 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
783 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
784 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
785 bytecode into native code.
787 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
788 recording. For example:
790 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
792 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
794 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
798 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
800 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
802 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
804 * Per-inferior thread numbers
806 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
807 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
808 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
812 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
813 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
814 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
815 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
817 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
818 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
819 are no longer unique between inferiors.
821 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
822 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
823 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
825 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
828 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
829 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
832 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
835 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
836 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
837 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
838 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
841 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
844 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
847 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
850 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
851 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
854 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
855 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
857 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
859 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
861 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
862 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
864 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
865 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
868 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
869 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
872 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
873 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
876 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
878 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
879 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
880 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
882 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
883 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
887 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
888 maint show target-non-stop
889 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
890 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
891 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
893 maint set bfd-sharing
894 maint show bfd-sharing
895 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
899 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
903 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
905 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
906 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
907 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
909 set remote thread-events
910 show remote thread-events
911 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
913 set ada print-signatures on|off
914 show ada print-signatures"
915 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
916 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
920 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
921 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
922 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
924 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
925 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
926 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
927 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
928 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
929 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
931 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
932 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
934 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
935 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
937 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
939 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
940 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
941 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
942 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
943 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
944 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
946 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
947 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
950 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
955 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
957 exec-events feature in qSupported
958 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
959 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
960 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
961 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
964 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
967 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
968 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
970 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
971 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
974 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
975 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
976 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
977 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
978 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
979 stop for that same thread.
982 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
983 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
984 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
987 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
988 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
990 syscall_entry stop reason
991 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
993 syscall_return stop reason
994 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
996 * Extended-remote exec events
998 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
999 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1000 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1002 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1003 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1004 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1006 * Thread names in remote protocol
1008 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1011 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1013 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1014 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1015 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1016 fork and exec catchpoints.
1018 * Remote syscall events
1020 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1021 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1023 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1024 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1025 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1029 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1030 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1035 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1036 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1037 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1038 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1039 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1040 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1042 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1044 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1045 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1046 including advance SIMD instructions.
1048 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1050 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1051 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1052 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1053 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1054 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1055 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1056 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1058 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1060 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1062 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1063 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1066 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1067 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1068 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1070 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1071 is now available on all platforms.
1073 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1074 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1075 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1076 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1077 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1078 backward compatibility.
1080 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1081 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1082 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1083 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1085 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1086 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1087 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1088 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1091 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1093 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1095 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1096 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1097 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1098 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1099 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1100 See "New remote packets" below.
1102 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1103 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1105 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1106 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1107 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1108 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1113 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1117 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1118 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1119 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1120 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1121 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1122 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1123 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1124 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1125 "const" version of the value respectively.
1129 maint print symbol-cache
1130 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1132 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1133 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1135 maint flush-symbol-cache
1136 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1140 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1143 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1147 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1150 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1151 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1155 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1158 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1160 maint btrace packet-history
1161 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1163 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1164 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1167 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1168 anew by the next "record" command.
1173 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1174 show debug dwarf-die
1175 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1177 set debug dwarf-read
1178 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1179 show debug dwarf-read
1180 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1182 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1183 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1184 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1185 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1187 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1188 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1189 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1190 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1192 set debug dwarf-line
1193 show debug dwarf-line
1194 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1197 show max-completions
1198 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1199 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1200 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1201 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1203 set history remove-duplicates
1204 show history remove-duplicates
1205 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1207 maint set symbol-cache-size
1208 maint show symbol-cache-size
1209 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1211 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1212 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1214 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1215 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1217 set debug linux-namespaces
1218 show debug linux-namespaces
1219 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1221 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1222 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1223 Intel Processor Trace format.
1224 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1225 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1227 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1228 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1231 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1232 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1234 * Python/Guile scripting
1236 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1237 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1239 * New remote packets
1241 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1242 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1244 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1245 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1248 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1249 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1252 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1253 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1257 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1258 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1259 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1263 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1264 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1267 Return information about files on the remote system.
1269 qXfer:exec-file:read
1270 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1271 create a process running on the remote system.
1274 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1275 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1276 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1277 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1280 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1283 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1285 vforkdone stop reason
1286 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1287 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1289 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1290 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1291 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1292 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1293 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1294 whether these features are enabled.
1296 * Extended-remote fork events
1298 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1299 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1300 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1301 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1303 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1304 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1305 the btrace record target.
1306 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1308 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1309 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1311 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1314 * Removed command line options
1316 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1318 * Removed targets and native configurations
1320 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1321 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1323 * New configure options
1326 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1327 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1329 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1330 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1331 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1332 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1334 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1338 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1340 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1342 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1346 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1347 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1348 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1349 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1350 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1351 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1352 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1353 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1354 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1355 selecting a new file to debug.
1356 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1357 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1359 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1362 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1363 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1364 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1365 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1367 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1369 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1370 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1371 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1372 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1374 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1375 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1376 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1377 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1378 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1379 interface with this new feature are:
1381 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1382 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1386 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1387 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1388 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1389 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1390 as "maint demangler-warning".
1392 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1393 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1395 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1396 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1399 maint print user-registers
1400 List all currently available "user" registers.
1402 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1403 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1404 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1406 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1407 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1408 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1411 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1412 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1413 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1414 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1417 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1418 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1419 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1420 switched threads meanwhile.
1422 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1424 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1425 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1426 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1427 is now the default mode.
1431 set debug symbol-lookup
1432 show debug symbol-lookup
1433 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1437 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1438 inferiors that have exited.
1442 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1446 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1448 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1449 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1450 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1451 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1452 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1454 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1455 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1456 its alias "share", instead.
1458 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1460 * New command line options
1463 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1465 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1466 as specified in ISO C99.
1468 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1469 with or without disassembly.
1473 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1474 available is determined at configure time.
1475 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1476 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1478 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1482 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1486 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1488 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1489 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1491 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1492 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1496 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1497 show print symbol-loading
1498 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1499 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1500 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1501 becomes less useful.
1503 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1504 show guile print-stack
1505 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1507 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1508 show auto-load guile-scripts
1509 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1511 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1512 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1513 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1514 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1515 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1516 usage of this option.
1518 set auto-connect-native-target
1520 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1521 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1522 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1524 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1525 show record btrace replay-memory-access
1526 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1528 maint set target-async (on|off)
1529 maint show target-async
1530 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1531 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1532 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1533 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1535 set mi-async (on|off)
1537 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1538 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1540 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1541 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1543 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1544 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1545 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1546 "set target-async on" command.
1548 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1550 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1551 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1552 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1553 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1554 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1556 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1557 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1558 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1560 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1561 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1562 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1563 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1564 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1565 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1566 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1568 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1569 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1571 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1572 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1573 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1575 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1576 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1577 memory or registers.
1579 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1581 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1582 remote. It now works with all targets.
1584 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1585 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1586 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1587 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1588 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1589 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1590 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1591 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1592 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1595 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1596 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1597 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1599 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1601 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1602 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1603 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1605 * New remote packets
1607 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1608 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1609 branch trace incrementally.
1613 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1614 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1616 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1617 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1618 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1619 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1620 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
1623 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1625 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1626 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1627 its alias "share", instead.
1629 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1630 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1635 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1636 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1637 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1638 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1639 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1640 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1641 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1642 commands and CLI execution commands.
1644 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
1646 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1647 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1648 recording has been added.
1650 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1652 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1653 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1655 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1656 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1657 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1658 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1659 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1660 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1663 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1665 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1667 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1668 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1669 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1670 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1675 (gdb) info registers rax
1678 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1679 "*value not available*".
1681 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1686 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1687 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1688 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1689 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1690 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1691 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1695 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1696 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1697 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1699 * Removed native configurations
1701 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1702 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1704 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1705 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1706 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1707 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1708 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1709 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1710 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1714 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1715 maint check-psymtabs
1716 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1718 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1719 maint expand-symtabs
1720 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1723 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1725 maint set|show per-command
1726 maint set|show per-command space
1727 maint set|show per-command time
1728 maint set|show per-command symtab
1729 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1731 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1732 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1733 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1734 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1735 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1738 info exceptions REGEXP
1739 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1740 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1745 set debug symfile off|on
1747 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1748 symbol tables within those files
1750 set print raw frame-arguments
1751 show print raw frame-arguments
1752 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1753 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1755 set remote trace-status-packet
1756 show remote trace-status-packet
1757 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1761 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1765 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1767 set startup-with-shell
1768 show startup-with-shell
1769 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1774 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1775 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1777 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1778 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1779 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1780 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1783 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1784 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1785 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1787 * New command-line options
1789 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1791 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1792 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1794 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1797 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1799 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1800 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1802 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1803 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1805 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1806 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1807 due to an uncaught signal.
1811 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1812 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1813 command, which should contain "language-option".
1815 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1816 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1818 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1819 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1820 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1821 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1822 "undefined-command-error-code".
1824 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1827 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1829 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1830 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1833 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1834 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1836 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1837 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1838 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1840 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1841 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1842 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1843 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1844 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1845 "exec-run-start-option".
1847 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1848 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1850 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1851 the new "info exceptions" command.
1853 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1854 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1855 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1859 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1860 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1861 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1864 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1865 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1867 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1868 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1869 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1871 * New remote packets
1875 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1876 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1877 involvemement at each single-step.
1879 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1880 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1881 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1882 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1883 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1884 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1887 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1889 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1890 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1892 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1893 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1894 trace state variables.
1896 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1899 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1900 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1902 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1904 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1905 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1906 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1907 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1909 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1911 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1912 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1913 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1914 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1916 set|show record full insn-number-max
1917 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1918 set|show record full memory-query
1920 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1921 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1922 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1923 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1924 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1928 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1929 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1931 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1932 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1933 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1935 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1936 instruction granularity
1938 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1939 function granularity
1941 * New native configurations
1943 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1944 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1945 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1946 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1950 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1951 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1952 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1953 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1954 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1956 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1957 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1958 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1959 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1960 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1961 --data-directory command-line option.
1963 * New command line options:
1965 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1966 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1968 * Removed command line options
1970 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1973 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1976 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1980 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1982 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1984 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1986 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1988 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1989 of architecture in the Python API.
1991 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1992 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1994 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1996 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1997 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1999 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2001 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2004 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2005 default for GCC since November 2000.
2007 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2009 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2010 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2012 * New configure options
2014 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2015 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2016 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2017 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2018 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2019 options allow the user to override that default.
2020 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2021 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2022 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2024 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2027 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2028 conditions to be attached.
2031 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2033 python-interactive [command]
2035 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2036 and print the result of expressions.
2039 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2041 enable type-printer [name]...
2042 disable type-printer [name]...
2043 Enable or disable type printers.
2047 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2048 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2053 set print type methods (on|off)
2054 show print type methods
2055 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2056 The default is to show them.
2058 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2059 show print type typedefs
2060 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2061 The default is to show them.
2063 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2064 show filename-display
2065 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2066 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2068 set trace-buffer-size
2069 show trace-buffer-size
2070 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2072 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2073 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2074 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2078 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2081 set debug coff-pe-read
2082 show debug coff-pe-read
2083 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2088 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2091 set debug notification
2092 show debug notification
2093 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2097 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2098 "=cmd-param-changed".
2099 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2100 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2101 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2102 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2103 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2104 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2105 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2106 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2108 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2109 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2110 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2111 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2112 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2113 library load/unload events.
2114 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2115 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2116 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2117 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2118 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2119 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2120 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2121 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2123 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2124 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2125 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2126 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2128 * New remote packets
2131 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2132 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2135 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2136 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2140 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2141 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2144 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2145 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2147 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2149 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2150 for more x32 ABI info.
2152 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2154 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2156 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2157 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2158 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2159 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2160 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2161 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2162 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2163 "info os msg" lists message queues
2164 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2166 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2167 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2168 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2169 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2170 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2171 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2173 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2174 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2175 record/replay support.
2177 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2181 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2184 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2186 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2187 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2189 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2191 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2192 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2194 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2195 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2196 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2199 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2200 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2202 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2203 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2204 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2206 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2207 object associated with a PC value.
2209 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2210 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2212 * Go language support.
2213 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2216 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2217 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2219 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2220 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2222 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2223 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2224 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2225 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2226 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2229 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2230 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2231 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2232 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2234 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2235 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2237 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2238 since December 2007.
2240 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2241 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2242 command does. For instance:
2244 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2246 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2247 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2248 created, using the "condition" command.
2250 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2251 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2253 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2255 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2256 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2257 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2258 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2259 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2260 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2261 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2262 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2264 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2265 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2266 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2267 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2268 the .gdb_index section.
2270 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2272 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2277 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2279 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2283 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2284 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2285 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2287 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2288 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2290 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2293 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2294 C++ and Java objects.
2296 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2297 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2298 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2299 configured with '--with-python'.
2301 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2302 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2303 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2304 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2305 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2306 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2307 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2309 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2310 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2311 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2312 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2314 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2315 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2316 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2317 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2319 ** "set print symbol"
2321 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2322 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2323 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2325 * Deprecated commands
2327 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2328 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2332 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2333 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2335 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2336 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2337 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2338 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2343 set mips compression
2344 show mips compression
2345 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2346 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2349 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2351 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2352 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2353 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2354 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2356 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2360 Disable auto-loading globally.
2363 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2365 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2366 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2367 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2369 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2370 show auto-load python-scripts
2371 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2373 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2374 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2375 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2377 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2378 show auto-load libthread-db
2379 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2381 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2382 show auto-load scripts-directory
2383 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2384 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2385 of the directories listed by this option.
2386 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2388 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2389 show auto-load safe-path
2390 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2391 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2393 set debug auto-load on|off
2394 show debug auto-load
2395 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2397 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2399 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2400 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2401 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2402 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2404 set dprintf-function <expr>
2405 show dprintf-function
2406 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2407 show dprintf-channel
2408 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2409 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2411 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2412 show disconnected-dprintf
2413 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2414 after GDB disconnects.
2416 * New configure options
2418 --with-auto-load-dir
2419 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2420 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2421 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2422 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2423 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2425 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2426 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2427 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2429 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2430 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2433 * New remote packets
2435 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2437 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2438 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2439 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2440 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2444 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2445 program without GDB involvement.
2447 * New command line options
2449 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2450 before loading inferior.
2451 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2452 execute it before loading inferior.
2454 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2456 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2457 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2458 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2459 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2462 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2463 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2465 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2466 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2467 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2468 target hardware watchpoint.
2470 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2471 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2472 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2473 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2477 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2478 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2481 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2482 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2483 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2484 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2485 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2488 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2491 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2492 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2493 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2494 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2495 corresponding value.
2497 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2498 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2499 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2502 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2503 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2504 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2505 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2507 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2509 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2512 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2513 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2514 available in the CLI.
2516 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2517 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2518 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2519 "some_type.items()".
2521 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2524 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2525 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2526 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2527 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2528 any anonymous fields.
2532 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2535 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2536 "=breakpoint-modified".
2538 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2540 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2541 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2542 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2545 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2546 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2547 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2548 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2549 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2551 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2552 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2554 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2555 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2556 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2557 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2558 use this option to specify where to find it.
2560 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2561 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2562 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2563 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2564 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2565 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2566 section in the user manual for more details.
2568 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2569 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2570 become available after that.
2572 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2574 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2575 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2581 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2582 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2586 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2587 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2588 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2590 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2591 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2592 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2594 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2595 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2596 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2597 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2598 name starts with a hyphen.
2600 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2601 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2602 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2603 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2604 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2605 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2606 number of bytes that will be collected.
2609 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2610 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2611 setting the variable trace-notes.
2614 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2615 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2616 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2619 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2620 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2621 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2622 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2623 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2626 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2627 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2628 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2632 set debug dwarf2-read
2633 show debug dwarf2-read
2634 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2635 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2637 set debug symtab-create
2638 show debug symtab-create
2639 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2640 creation. The default is off.
2643 show extended-prompt
2644 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2645 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2646 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2647 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2648 prompt is displayed.
2650 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2651 show print entry-values
2652 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2653 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2654 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2656 set debug entry-values
2657 show debug entry-values
2658 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2659 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2661 set basenames-may-differ
2662 show basenames-may-differ
2663 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2664 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2665 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2666 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2667 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2668 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2669 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2670 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2676 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2677 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2678 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2679 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2681 set trace-stop-notes
2682 show trace-stop-notes
2683 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2684 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2685 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2686 started by someone else.
2688 * New remote packets
2692 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2696 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2700 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2704 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2708 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2711 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2712 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2716 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2720 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2722 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2724 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2726 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2728 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2729 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2730 matches the given regular expression.
2732 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2734 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2735 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2737 * New command line options
2739 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2740 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2742 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2743 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2745 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2746 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2747 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2749 * GDB now understands thread names.
2751 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2752 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2754 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2755 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2758 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2759 has been integrated into GDB.
2763 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2764 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2765 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2767 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2768 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2769 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2770 and allows for more dynamic content.
2772 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2773 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2774 have an is_valid method.
2776 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2777 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2778 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2780 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2782 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2783 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2784 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2785 that function like so:
2787 result = some_value (10,20)
2789 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2790 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2791 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2793 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2794 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2795 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2796 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2797 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2799 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2800 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2802 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2804 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2807 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2808 holds the thread's name.
2810 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2811 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2812 occurring in the process being debugged.
2813 The following events are currently supported:
2814 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2815 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2816 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2820 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2821 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2823 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2825 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2826 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2827 was added to GCC 4.5.
2829 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2830 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2831 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2832 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2833 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2834 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2836 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2837 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2838 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2839 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2840 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2842 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2843 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2844 execution to a label.
2846 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2847 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2848 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2849 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2851 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2852 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2853 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2856 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2858 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2859 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2860 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2861 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2862 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2863 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2866 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2868 While now you see this:
2871 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2873 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2876 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2877 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2878 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2879 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2881 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2882 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2883 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2884 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2885 section in the user manual for more details.
2887 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2889 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2890 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2892 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2894 * New native configurations
2896 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2900 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2902 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2903 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2904 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2905 in the GDB user manual.
2907 * Guile support was removed.
2909 * New features in the GNU simulator
2911 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2913 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2915 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2917 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2919 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2920 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2921 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2922 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2923 was always disabled for such configurations.
2927 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2929 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2930 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2940 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2941 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2942 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2944 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2946 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2947 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2948 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2949 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2951 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2952 mentioned flavors of operators.
2954 ** static const class members
2956 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2957 class definition has been fixed.
2959 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2961 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2962 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2963 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2964 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2965 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2966 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2968 * Static tracepoints
2970 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2971 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2972 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2973 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2974 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2975 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2976 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2977 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2978 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2979 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2980 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2981 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2982 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2983 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2984 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2985 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2986 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2987 the "New remote packets" section below.
2989 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2991 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2992 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2993 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2994 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2998 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2999 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3000 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3001 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3002 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3003 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3004 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3006 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3009 * New remote packets
3013 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3017 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3018 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3019 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3020 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3021 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3022 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3026 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3030 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3033 qXfer:statictrace:read
3035 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3036 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3037 to gdb's qSupported query.
3041 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3045 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3046 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3048 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3049 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3052 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3054 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3055 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3056 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3057 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3059 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3060 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3061 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3062 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3063 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3064 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3065 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3067 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3068 for static tracepoints support.
3070 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3072 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3073 it understands register description.
3075 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3077 * X86 general purpose registers
3079 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3080 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3081 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3082 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3083 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3085 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3086 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3087 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3088 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3089 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3090 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3092 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3093 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3094 in the specified file.
3096 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3097 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3098 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3099 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3100 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3101 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3102 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3103 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3104 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3105 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3109 eval template, expressions...
3110 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3111 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3113 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3114 show target-file-system-kind
3115 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3118 save breakpoints <filename>
3119 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3120 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3121 definitions, use the `source' command.
3123 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3126 info static-tracepoint-markers
3127 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3129 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3130 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3131 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3135 Enable and disable observer mode.
3137 set may-write-registers on|off
3138 set may-write-memory on|off
3139 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3140 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3141 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3142 set may-interrupt on|off
3143 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3144 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3145 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3146 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3147 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3148 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3149 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3151 set record memory-query on|off
3152 show record memory-query
3153 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3154 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3159 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3163 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3164 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3165 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3166 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3167 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3169 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3170 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3171 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3172 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3174 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3175 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3177 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3179 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3181 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3183 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3184 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3185 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3187 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3188 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3189 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3190 regular breakpoints.
3194 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3196 * D language support.
3197 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3200 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3201 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3202 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3203 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3204 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3206 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3207 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3208 conditions of the form:
3210 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3212 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3213 interface mentioned above.
3215 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3219 ** Namespace Support
3221 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3222 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3223 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3224 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3225 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3229 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3230 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3235 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3236 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3240 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3245 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3248 * Multi-program debugging.
3250 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3251 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3252 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3253 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3254 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3255 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3256 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3257 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3259 * New tracing features
3261 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3263 ** Trace state variables
3265 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3266 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3267 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3268 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3269 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3270 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3271 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3272 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3273 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3274 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3278 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3279 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3280 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3281 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3282 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3283 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3284 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3285 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3286 the regular trace command.
3288 ** Disconnected tracing
3290 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3291 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3292 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3293 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3294 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3298 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3299 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3300 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3301 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3302 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3303 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3306 ** Circular trace buffer
3308 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3309 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3310 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3311 not be available for all target agents.
3316 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3317 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3320 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3321 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3324 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3325 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3328 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3329 "set script-extension" (see below).
3331 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3333 record save [<FILENAME>]
3334 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3335 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3337 record restore <FILENAME>
3338 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3339 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3341 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3344 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3345 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3346 inferior has loaded.
3351 maint info program-spaces
3352 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3354 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3355 show remote interrupt-sequence
3356 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3357 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3358 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3359 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3360 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3362 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3363 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3364 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3365 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3368 set remotebreak [on | off]
3370 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3372 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3373 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3376 List trace state variables and their values.
3378 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3379 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3382 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3383 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3385 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3386 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3388 * New expression syntax
3390 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3391 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3395 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3396 show follow-exec-mode
3397 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3398 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3399 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3401 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3402 show default-collect
3403 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3404 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3405 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3407 set disconnected-tracing
3408 show disconnected-tracing
3409 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3410 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3413 set circular-trace-buffer
3414 show circular-trace-buffer
3415 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3416 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3417 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3418 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3420 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3421 show script-extension
3422 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3423 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3424 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3425 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3427 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3429 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3430 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3431 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3432 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3433 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3434 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3435 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3438 * Python API Improvements
3440 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3441 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3442 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3444 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3445 `is_base_class' attribute.
3447 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3449 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3450 evaluate an expression.
3452 * New remote packets
3455 Define a trace state variable.
3458 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3461 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3464 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3467 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3471 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3473 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3474 much more reliable. In particular:
3475 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3476 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3477 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3478 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3479 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3480 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3481 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3482 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3483 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3484 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3485 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3486 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3487 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3488 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3489 non-threaded programs.
3491 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3492 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3493 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3496 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
3498 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3499 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3500 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3501 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3502 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3504 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3505 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3506 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3507 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3508 for tracepoint actions.
3510 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3511 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3512 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
3514 * Process record and replay
3516 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3517 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3518 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3521 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3522 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3523 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3526 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3527 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3530 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3531 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3532 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3533 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3534 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3535 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3536 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3537 the installation instructions for more information.
3539 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3540 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3541 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3542 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3544 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3545 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3547 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3548 now complete on file names.
3550 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3551 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3552 For instance, consider:
3554 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3555 # struct example variable;
3558 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3559 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3561 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3562 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3564 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3565 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3568 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3569 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3570 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3572 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3573 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3574 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3575 and simulator targets may also provide them.
3577 * New remote packets
3580 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3583 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3584 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3585 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3588 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3589 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3592 Obtains additional operating system information
3596 Read or write additional signal information.
3598 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3600 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3601 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3602 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3604 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3605 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3607 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3608 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3609 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
3611 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3612 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3614 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3616 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3618 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3619 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3621 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
3622 list of section offsets.
3624 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3625 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3626 have also been fixed.
3628 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3629 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3630 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3632 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3635 template<typename T> class C { };
3638 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3640 ptype C<char const *>
3641 ptype C<char const*>
3642 ptype C<const char *>
3643 ptype C<const char*>
3645 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3647 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3648 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3650 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3651 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3652 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3654 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3655 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3657 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3660 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3661 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3663 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3664 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3669 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3670 available is determined at configure time.
3672 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3674 * Ada tasking support
3676 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3680 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3682 Print detailed information about task number N.
3684 Print the task number of the current task.
3686 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3688 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3689 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3691 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3693 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3694 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3695 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3696 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3697 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3698 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3701 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3702 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3705 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3706 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3707 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3708 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3711 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3713 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3714 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3715 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3716 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3717 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3719 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3720 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3721 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3722 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3723 --enable-targets configure option.
3725 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3727 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3728 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3729 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3730 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3731 section in the user manual for more information.
3733 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3734 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3735 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3736 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3737 extensions on linux targets.
3739 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3741 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3742 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3743 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3744 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3745 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3746 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3747 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3748 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3749 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3751 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3753 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3755 maint set python print-stack
3756 maint show python print-stack
3757 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3760 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3765 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3769 Show operating system information about processes.
3772 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3775 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3778 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3781 Kill inferior number NUM.
3785 set spu stop-on-load
3786 show spu stop-on-load
3787 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3789 set spu auto-flush-cache
3790 show spu auto-flush-cache
3791 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3792 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3794 set sh calling-convention
3795 show sh calling-convention
3796 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3799 show debug timestamp
3800 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3802 set disassemble-next-line
3803 show disassemble-next-line
3804 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3807 set remote noack-packet
3808 show remote noack-packet
3809 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3810 under "New remote packets."
3812 set remote query-attached-packet
3813 show remote query-attached-packet
3814 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3816 set remote read-siginfo-object
3817 show remote read-siginfo-object
3818 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3821 set remote write-siginfo-object
3822 show remote write-siginfo-object
3823 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3826 set remote reverse-continue
3827 show remote reverse-continue
3828 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3830 set remote reverse-step
3831 show remote reverse-step
3832 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3834 set displaced-stepping
3835 show displaced-stepping
3836 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3837 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3838 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3841 show debug displaced
3842 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3844 maint set internal-error
3845 maint show internal-error
3846 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3848 maint set internal-warning
3849 maint show internal-warning
3850 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3855 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3857 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3858 show multiple-symbols
3859 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3860 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3861 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3863 set breakpoint always-inserted
3864 show breakpoint always-inserted
3865 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3866 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3867 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3869 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3870 show arm fallback-mode
3871 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3873 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3874 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3875 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3876 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3878 set disable-randomization
3879 show disable-randomization
3880 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3881 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3882 multiple debugging sessions.
3886 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3891 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3892 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3893 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3894 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3896 set target-wide-charset
3897 show target-wide-charset
3898 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3899 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3901 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3903 set tcp connect-timeout
3904 show tcp connect-timeout
3905 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3906 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3907 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3909 set libthread-db-search-path
3910 show libthread-db-search-path
3911 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3914 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3915 show schedule-multiple
3916 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3917 the current process.
3921 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3922 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3923 affecting correctness.
3925 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3926 show interactive-mode
3927 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3928 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3929 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3930 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3931 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3936 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3937 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3938 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3942 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3943 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3944 alias for the `fork' command.
3947 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3948 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3949 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3952 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3953 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3954 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3958 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3959 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3960 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3963 * New native configurations
3965 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3967 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3971 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3972 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3973 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3976 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3977 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3983 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3985 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3987 * New native configurations
3989 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3990 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3994 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3995 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3997 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3999 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4000 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4001 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4002 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4004 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4005 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4007 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4010 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4011 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4012 and in inlined functions.
4014 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4015 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4016 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4018 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4020 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4021 registers on PowerPC targets.
4023 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4024 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4026 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4027 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4029 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4030 extended-remote mode.
4032 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4033 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4034 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4035 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4037 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4038 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4039 target architectures.
4041 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4042 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4043 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4044 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4046 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4049 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4050 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4052 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4053 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4054 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4055 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4057 - Improved command completion in Ada
4060 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4065 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4066 show print frame-arguments
4067 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4068 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4073 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4080 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4082 * New remote packets
4089 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4092 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4096 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4098 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4100 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4101 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4102 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4104 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4105 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4106 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4108 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4109 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4112 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4113 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4115 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4116 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4118 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4120 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4121 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4122 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4124 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4125 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4127 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4128 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4131 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4132 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4133 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4135 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4138 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4139 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4140 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4142 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4144 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4146 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4147 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4148 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4150 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4151 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4153 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4154 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4155 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4156 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4157 Windows and SymbianOS).
4159 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4160 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4162 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4163 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4169 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4170 when debugging using remote targets.
4172 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4173 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4174 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4175 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4176 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4177 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4178 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4180 set breakpoint auto-hw
4181 show breakpoint auto-hw
4182 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4183 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4184 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4185 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4186 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4187 including "next" and "finish".
4190 catch exception unhandled
4191 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4194 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4198 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4199 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4200 an alias to "set sysroot".
4203 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4204 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4207 * New native configurations
4209 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4212 unset tdesc filename
4214 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4215 not query the target for its built-in description.
4219 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4220 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4221 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4223 * New remote packets
4226 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4227 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4229 qXfer:features:read:
4230 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4235 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4236 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4238 qXfer:libraries:read:
4239 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4240 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4241 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4242 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4246 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4254 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4255 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4256 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4257 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4259 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4262 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4263 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4272 * Other removed features
4279 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4286 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4291 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4292 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4297 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4298 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4300 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4302 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4303 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4304 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4305 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4307 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4309 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4310 in debugging information.
4314 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4315 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4317 set mips stack-arg-size
4318 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4320 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4322 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4327 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4329 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4330 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4331 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4333 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4334 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4337 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4338 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4340 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4341 stub provides the required support.
4343 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4344 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4349 unset substitute-path
4350 show substitute-path
4351 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4352 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4353 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4354 between compilation and debugging.
4358 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4359 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4360 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4364 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4366 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4367 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4369 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4371 * New remote packets
4374 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4375 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4376 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4377 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4381 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4382 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4384 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4385 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4386 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4391 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4393 * Removed remote packets
4396 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4397 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4399 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4403 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4405 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4409 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4410 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4412 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4414 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4416 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4417 previously saved state.
4419 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4421 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4423 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4424 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4426 info forks List forks of the user program that
4427 are available to be debugged.
4429 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4430 forks of the user program that are
4431 available to be debugged.
4433 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4434 that are available to be debugged (and
4435 kill the forked process).
4437 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4438 that are available to be debugged (and
4439 allow the process to continue).
4443 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4445 * Improved Windows host support
4447 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4448 native console support, and remote communications using either
4449 network sockets or serial ports.
4451 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4453 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4454 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4455 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4456 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4457 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4458 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4462 The ARM rdi-share module.
4464 The Netware NLM debug server.
4466 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4468 * New native configurations
4470 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4471 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4475 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4477 * New command line options
4479 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4480 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4481 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4482 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4483 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4484 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4485 with the --command (-x) option.
4487 * Deprecated commands removed
4489 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4493 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4494 othernames set arm disassembler
4495 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4496 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4497 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4500 * New BSD user-level threads support
4502 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4503 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4506 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4507 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4508 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4510 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4511 are not yet supported.
4513 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4514 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4516 * REMOVED configurations and files
4518 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4519 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4520 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4522 * New "set print array-indexes" command
4524 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4525 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4528 * VAX floating point support
4530 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4532 * User-defined command support
4534 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4535 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4536 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4538 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4540 * New command line option
4542 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4545 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4547 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4548 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4549 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4550 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4551 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4553 * Internationalization
4555 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4556 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4557 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4561 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4562 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4563 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4565 * New native configurations
4567 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4571 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4572 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4574 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4576 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4577 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4578 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4581 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4582 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4583 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4593 powerpc bdm protocol
4595 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4596 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4598 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4600 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4601 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4602 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4603 permanently REMOVED.
4612 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4614 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4616 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4617 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4620 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4622 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4623 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4624 IRIX long double values).
4628 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4629 command. This problem has been fixed.
4631 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4633 * Fix for ``many threads''
4635 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4636 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4639 ptrace: No such process.
4640 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4642 This problem has been fixed.
4644 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4646 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4649 * New ``start'' command.
4651 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4653 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4655 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4656 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4657 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4659 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4660 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4661 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4662 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4663 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4664 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4665 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4666 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4667 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4669 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
4671 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4672 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4673 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4674 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4675 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4677 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4678 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4679 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4681 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4683 * New native configurations
4685 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4686 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4687 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4688 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4689 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4690 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4691 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4693 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4695 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4696 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4697 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4698 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4699 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4700 work, was also included.
4702 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4703 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4713 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4714 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4716 * REMOVED configurations and files
4718 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4719 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4720 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4721 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4722 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4723 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4724 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4725 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4726 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4727 sonymips mips-sony-*
4728 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4730 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4732 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4734 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4735 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4736 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4737 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4740 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4742 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4743 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4744 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4745 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4746 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4747 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4750 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4752 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4754 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4755 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4756 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4758 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4760 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4761 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4763 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4765 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4766 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4767 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4769 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4771 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4772 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4774 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4776 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4777 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4778 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4780 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4782 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4783 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4784 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4786 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4788 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4790 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4791 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4793 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4795 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4796 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4797 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4798 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4800 * Revised SPARC target
4802 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4803 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4804 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4805 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4806 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4810 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4811 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4812 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4815 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4817 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4818 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4821 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4823 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4824 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4825 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4826 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4827 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4828 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4829 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4830 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4831 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4833 * New native configurations
4835 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4836 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4837 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4838 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4839 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4841 * New debugging protocols
4843 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4845 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4847 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4848 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4849 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4851 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4853 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4854 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4855 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4856 permanently REMOVED.
4858 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4859 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4860 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4861 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4862 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4863 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4864 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4865 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4866 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4867 sonymips mips-sony-*
4868 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4870 * REMOVED configurations and files
4872 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4873 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4874 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4875 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4876 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4877 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4878 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4879 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4880 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4881 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4882 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4883 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4884 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4885 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4886 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4887 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4888 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4890 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4894 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4895 integrated into GDB.
4897 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4899 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4900 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4901 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4904 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4905 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4906 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4910 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4911 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4912 remote protocol documentation for details.
4914 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4916 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4917 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4918 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4921 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4923 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4924 per-thread variables.
4926 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4928 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4929 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4931 * Separate debug info.
4933 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4934 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4935 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4936 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4937 and optional debug files.
4939 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4941 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4942 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4945 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4946 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4950 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4951 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4952 considered "useable".
4954 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4956 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4957 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4960 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4962 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4963 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4965 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4967 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4968 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4971 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4973 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4974 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4978 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4979 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4980 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4981 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4982 data, for more informative profiling results.
4984 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4986 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4987 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4988 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4990 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4993 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4994 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4995 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4996 in a subsequent -var-update.
4998 * New native configurations.
5000 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5002 * Multi-arched targets.
5004 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5005 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5007 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5009 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5010 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5011 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5012 permanently REMOVED.
5014 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5015 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5016 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5017 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5018 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5019 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5020 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5021 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5022 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5023 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5024 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5025 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5027 * REMOVED configurations and files
5030 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5031 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5032 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5033 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5034 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5035 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5037 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5038 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5039 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5040 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5041 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5042 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5044 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5046 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5047 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5048 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5049 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5050 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5052 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5054 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5056 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5057 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5058 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5059 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5060 shared libs like mad''.
5062 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5064 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5065 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5066 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5067 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5069 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5071 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5072 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5075 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5076 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5078 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5079 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5081 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5082 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5083 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5084 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5086 * Multi-arched targets.
5088 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5089 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5091 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5092 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5093 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5097 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5100 * New native configurations
5102 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5103 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5104 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5105 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5107 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5109 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5110 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5111 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5112 permanently REMOVED.
5114 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5115 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5116 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5117 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5118 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5119 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5120 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5121 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5122 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5123 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5125 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5126 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5128 * OBSOLETE languages
5130 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5132 * REMOVED configurations and files
5134 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5135 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5136 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5137 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5138 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5140 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5142 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5144 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5145 commands. The default is 1024.
5147 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5149 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5151 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5153 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5154 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5155 from a file into memory (restore).
5157 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5159 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5160 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5161 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5163 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5171 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5172 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5173 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5175 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5176 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5177 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5179 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5180 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5181 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5183 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5184 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5185 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5187 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5189 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5191 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5192 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5193 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5194 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5195 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5196 (notably embedded) targets.
5198 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5200 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5201 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5202 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5203 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5205 * New command line option
5207 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5209 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5211 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5212 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5213 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5214 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5215 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5216 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5217 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5218 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5219 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5220 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5222 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5224 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5225 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5227 * New native configurations
5229 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5230 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5231 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5232 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5236 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5238 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5240 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5241 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5242 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5243 permanently REMOVED.
5245 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5246 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5247 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5248 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5249 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5251 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5253 * REMOVED configurations and files
5255 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5257 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5258 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5259 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5260 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5261 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5262 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5263 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5264 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5265 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5266 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5267 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5269 * Changes to command line processing
5271 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5272 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5274 * Changes to key bindings
5276 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5278 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5280 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5282 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5285 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5287 Numerous documentation fixes.
5289 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5291 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5293 * New native configurations
5295 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5296 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5297 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5298 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5299 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5300 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5304 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5306 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5308 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5310 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5311 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5312 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5313 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5314 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5316 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5317 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5318 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5319 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5320 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5321 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5322 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5323 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5325 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5326 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5328 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5329 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5330 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5331 permanently REMOVED.
5333 * REMOVED configurations and files
5335 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5336 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5338 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5342 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5344 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5345 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5350 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5352 * The MI enabled by default.
5354 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5355 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5356 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5357 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5358 which is now deprecated.
5360 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5362 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5363 main features are supported:
5365 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5367 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5370 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5372 - a Pascal expression parser.
5374 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5376 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5378 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5380 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5381 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5383 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5385 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5387 * Changes in completion.
5389 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5390 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5391 users expect at the shell prompt.
5393 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5394 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5395 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5396 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5397 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5398 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5399 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5401 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5403 * New platform-independent commands:
5405 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5406 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5407 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5409 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5411 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5412 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5413 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5415 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5417 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5418 multi-threaded programs though.
5420 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5422 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5424 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5425 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5428 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5430 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5431 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5432 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5433 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5434 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5437 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5438 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5439 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5441 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5443 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5444 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5446 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5447 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5450 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5451 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5452 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5453 a given linear address.
5455 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5456 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5457 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5459 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5461 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5463 * Changes in documentation.
5465 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5466 Documentation License.
5468 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5471 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5473 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5476 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5477 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5478 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5480 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5482 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5483 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5484 contents of this file.
5488 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5490 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5492 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5494 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5495 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5496 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5497 greater level of detail.
5499 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5501 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5502 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5503 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5506 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5508 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5509 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5510 machines ``out of the box''.
5512 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5513 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5514 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5515 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5516 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5518 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5519 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5520 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5521 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5522 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5524 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5525 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5528 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5531 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5532 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5533 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5534 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5536 * New native configurations
5538 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5539 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5543 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5544 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5545 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5546 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5548 * OBSOLETE configurations
5550 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5551 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5553 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5556 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5557 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5558 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5559 be permanently REMOVED.
5561 * Gould support removed
5563 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5565 * New features for SVR4
5567 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5568 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5569 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5571 * Many C++ enhancements
5573 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5574 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5576 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5578 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5579 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5580 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5581 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5583 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5584 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5586 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
5588 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5589 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5590 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5592 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5593 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5595 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5597 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5598 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5599 include ``set remote P-packet''.
5601 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5603 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5604 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5605 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5607 * ``apropos'' command added.
5609 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5610 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5611 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5615 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5616 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
5617 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5618 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5619 enabled by configuring with:
5621 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5623 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5625 * New native configurations
5627 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5628 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5629 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5633 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5634 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5635 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5637 * OBSOLETE configurations
5639 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5641 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5642 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5643 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5644 be permanently REMOVED.
5648 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5649 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5650 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5651 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5652 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5653 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5654 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5659 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5661 * set extension-language
5663 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5664 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5665 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5666 set extension-language .c c++
5667 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5668 and their associated languages.
5670 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5672 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5673 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5674 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5678 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5679 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5681 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5682 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5684 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5685 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5686 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5687 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5688 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5689 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5690 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5691 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5693 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5694 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5695 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5696 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5700 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5701 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5702 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5703 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5704 for xdb and dbx commands.
5708 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5709 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5710 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5712 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5713 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5714 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5716 * Debugging across forks
5718 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5723 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5724 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5725 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5727 * GDB remote protocol additions
5729 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5730 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5731 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5732 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5734 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5735 full 64-bit address. The command
5737 set remoteaddresssize 32
5739 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5740 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5743 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5744 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5746 maint packet heythere
5748 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5749 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5752 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5753 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5754 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5756 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5758 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5759 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5760 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5762 * mask-address variable for Mips
5764 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5765 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5766 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5768 * Higher serial baud rates
5770 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5771 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5772 to achieve all of these rates.)
5776 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5777 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5780 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5782 * New native configurations
5784 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5785 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5786 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5787 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5788 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5789 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5790 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5794 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5795 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5796 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5797 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5798 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5799 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5800 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5801 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5802 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5803 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5804 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5806 * New debugging protocols
5808 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5809 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5810 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5811 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5812 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5813 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5817 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5818 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5823 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5824 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5826 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5828 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5829 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5830 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5832 * Live range splitting
5834 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5835 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5836 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5840 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5841 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5845 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5846 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5847 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5852 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5857 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5858 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5859 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5860 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5861 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5862 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5866 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5867 the symbol at the specified address.
5871 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5872 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5873 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5874 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5875 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5879 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5880 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5881 of most MIPS variants.
5885 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5886 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5887 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5891 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5892 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5893 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5894 the possible architectures.
5896 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5898 * New native configurations
5900 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5901 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5902 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5903 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5904 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5905 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5909 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5910 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5911 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5912 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5913 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5915 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5919 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5920 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5921 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5922 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5923 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5927 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5929 * Windows 95/NT native
5931 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5932 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5933 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5934 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5935 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5937 * dont-repeat command
5939 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5940 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5941 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5942 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5944 * Send break instead of ^C
5946 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5947 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5948 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5950 * Remote protocol timeout
5952 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5953 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5954 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5956 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5958 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5959 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5960 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5961 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5962 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5964 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5965 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5966 automatically on hpux10.
5968 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5970 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5972 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5974 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5975 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5976 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5977 every character. The default value is 1050.
5979 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5981 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5982 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5983 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5984 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5985 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5986 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5988 * Speedups for remote debugging
5990 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5991 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5992 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5994 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5996 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5997 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5999 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6001 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6003 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6004 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6006 * Remote targets use caching
6008 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6009 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6010 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6011 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6012 off' turns the the data cache off.
6014 * Remote targets may have threads
6016 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6017 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6018 gdb/remote.c for details.
6022 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6023 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6024 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6025 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6026 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6027 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6028 sequence is something like
6030 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6032 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6036 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6037 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6038 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6039 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6040 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6041 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6042 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6043 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6047 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6048 but does simplify configuration and building.
6052 GDB now supports hpux10.
6054 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6056 * New native configurations
6058 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6059 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6060 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6061 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6065 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6066 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6067 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6068 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6071 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6073 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6074 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6075 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6076 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6077 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6079 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6081 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6082 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6085 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6087 To execute the command use:
6090 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6091 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6092 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6094 * New `if' and `while' commands
6096 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6097 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6098 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6099 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6100 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6101 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6102 if the expression is zero.
6104 * Fortran source language mode
6106 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6107 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6108 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6109 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6112 * Better HPUX support
6114 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6115 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6116 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6117 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6118 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6124 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6125 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6131 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6132 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6135 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6136 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6138 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6140 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6141 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6142 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6143 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6144 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6145 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6147 * New DOS host serial code
6149 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6150 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6153 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6155 * New "complete" command
6157 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6158 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6160 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6162 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6163 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6165 * Breakpoint hit counts
6167 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6168 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6169 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6170 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6171 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6174 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6176 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6177 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6178 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6180 * Shared library breakpoints
6182 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6183 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6185 * Hardware watchpoints
6187 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6188 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6190 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6194 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6195 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6197 * Improved Irix 5 support
6199 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6201 * Improved HPPA support
6203 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6205 * New native configurations
6207 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6208 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6209 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6210 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6214 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6215 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6218 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6220 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6221 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6225 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6226 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6228 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6230 * Irix 5 is now supported
6234 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6235 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6236 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6237 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6238 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6241 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6243 * User visible changes:
6247 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6248 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6249 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6250 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6251 debugging info for the mips target).
6253 * DEC Alpha native support
6255 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6256 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6257 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6258 Alpha-specific notes.
6260 * Preliminary thread implementation
6262 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6264 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6266 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6267 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6270 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6272 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6273 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6274 call methods, ...etc.
6276 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6278 * User visible changes:
6280 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6281 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6282 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6283 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6285 Filename completion now works.
6287 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6288 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6289 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6291 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6292 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6293 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6294 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6295 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6299 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6300 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6303 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6307 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6308 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6309 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6313 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6314 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6315 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6316 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6317 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6321 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6322 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6323 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6325 * New targets supported
6327 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6328 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6329 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6330 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6331 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6333 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6334 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6335 GO32 memory extender.
6337 * New remote protocols
6339 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6341 * New source languages supported
6343 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6344 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6345 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6348 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6350 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6352 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6353 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6354 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6355 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6356 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6357 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6359 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6361 * Faster and better demangling
6363 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6364 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6365 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6366 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6367 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6368 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6371 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6372 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6373 compiler does not actually implement.
6375 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6377 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6378 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6379 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6380 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6381 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6382 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6385 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6386 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6388 * Improved configure script
6390 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6391 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6392 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6393 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6395 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6396 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6397 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6398 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6399 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6400 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6402 * Documentation improvements
6404 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6405 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6406 before submitting changes.
6408 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6409 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6410 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6411 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6412 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6414 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6415 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6416 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6417 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6418 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6419 around this problem.
6423 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6424 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6425 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6428 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6429 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6431 * New native hosts supported
6433 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6434 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6436 * New targets supported
6438 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6440 * New file formats supported
6442 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6443 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6447 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6449 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6450 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6452 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6453 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6454 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6456 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6457 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6459 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6460 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6461 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6464 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6465 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6466 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6467 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6468 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6470 * Internal improvements
6472 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6473 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6475 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6476 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6477 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6478 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6479 shared code that handles any of them.
6481 * New command line options
6483 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6487 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6488 General Public License.
6490 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6492 * Host/native/target split
6494 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6495 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6496 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6497 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6498 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6500 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6501 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6502 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6503 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6504 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6505 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6506 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6508 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6509 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6510 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6512 * New hosts supported
6514 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6515 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6516 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6518 * New targets supported
6520 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6521 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6523 * New native hosts supported
6525 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6526 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6527 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6529 * New file formats supported
6531 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6532 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6533 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6537 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6538 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6539 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6541 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6543 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6544 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6545 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6546 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6550 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6551 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6552 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6554 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6558 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6559 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6562 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6563 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6565 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6566 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6567 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6568 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6569 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6570 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6572 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6573 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6574 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6575 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6579 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6580 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6581 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6582 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6583 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6585 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6586 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6587 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6588 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6592 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6593 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6594 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6595 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6596 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6597 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6598 each instruction being stepped through.
6600 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6601 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6603 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6604 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6605 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6606 processor with a serial port.
6610 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6611 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6612 supported, and what files each one uses.
6616 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6617 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6618 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6619 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6621 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6622 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6623 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6624 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6628 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6629 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6630 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6631 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6632 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6633 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6635 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6638 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6640 * Better support for C++ function names
6642 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6643 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6644 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6645 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6646 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6648 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6649 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6650 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6651 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6652 for the list of formats.
6654 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6656 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6657 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6658 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6659 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6660 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6661 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6664 * New 'maintenance' command
6666 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6667 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6668 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6670 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6671 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6672 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6673 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6674 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6675 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6677 The following commands are new:
6679 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6680 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6681 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6683 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6685 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6686 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6687 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6688 read after argv processing.
6690 * New hosts supported
6692 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6694 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6696 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6697 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6698 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6699 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6700 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6703 * New targets supported
6705 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6707 * More smarts about finding #include files
6709 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6710 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6711 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6712 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6713 the one that contains your sources.
6715 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6716 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6717 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6719 * Interesting infernals change
6721 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6722 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6723 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6724 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6726 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6728 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6729 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6730 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6732 See the ChangeLog for details.
6734 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6736 * New machines supported (host and target)
6738 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6740 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6742 * New malloc package
6744 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6745 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6746 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6747 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6748 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6749 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6753 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6754 'help info proc' for details.
6756 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6758 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6759 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6762 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6764 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6765 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6766 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6767 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6768 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6769 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6771 * Cross byte order fixes
6773 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6774 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6776 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6778 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6779 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6780 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6781 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6782 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6783 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6784 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6785 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6786 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6787 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6789 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6790 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6791 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6792 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6794 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6795 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6796 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6799 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6801 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6802 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6803 shared across multiple host platforms.
6805 * longjmp() handling
6807 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6808 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6809 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6810 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6814 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6815 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6820 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6821 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6822 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6824 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6826 * New machines supported (host and target)
6828 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6830 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6831 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6833 * New machines supported (target)
6835 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6839 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6840 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6841 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6843 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6844 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6845 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6846 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6847 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6850 * New features for SVR4
6852 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6853 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6854 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6856 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6857 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6858 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6860 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6861 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6863 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6865 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6866 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6867 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6868 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6869 same code linked statically.
6873 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6874 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6875 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6876 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6877 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6878 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6882 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6883 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6884 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6887 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6889 * New machines supported (host and target)
6891 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6892 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6893 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6895 * Almost SCO Unix support
6897 We had hoped to support:
6898 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6899 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6900 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6901 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6903 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6905 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6906 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6907 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6908 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6913 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6914 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6915 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6919 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6920 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6921 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6923 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6925 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6926 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6927 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6929 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6930 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6931 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6932 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6935 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6936 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6937 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6938 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6941 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6942 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6945 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6946 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6947 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6950 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6952 * Improved configuration
6954 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6955 Porting BFD is simpler.
6959 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6960 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6961 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6962 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6966 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6968 * New host supported (not target)
6970 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6973 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6975 * Multiple source language support
6977 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6978 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6979 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6980 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6981 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6982 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6986 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6987 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6988 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6989 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6991 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6992 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6993 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6995 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6996 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7000 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7001 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7002 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7003 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7006 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7008 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7009 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7010 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7011 examining core files.
7015 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7018 * New machines supported (host and target)
7020 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7021 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7022 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7024 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7026 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7028 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7030 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7031 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7032 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7034 * New remote interfaces
7040 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7044 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7046 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7047 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7048 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7049 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7050 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7051 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7052 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7053 stub on the target system.
7055 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7057 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7058 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7059 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7061 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7062 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7065 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7067 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7068 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7070 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7071 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7072 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7074 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7075 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7076 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7077 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7079 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7080 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7081 it is already running. Default is ON.
7083 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7084 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7085 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7086 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7089 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7090 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7091 or the value of the environment variable
7094 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7095 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7098 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7099 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7100 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7102 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7103 history expansion will be performed on
7104 command line input. The default is OFF.
7106 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7107 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7108 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7110 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7111 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7112 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7115 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7116 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7117 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7120 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7121 ``set width'' instead.
7123 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7124 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7125 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7126 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7128 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7131 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7134 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7137 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7140 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7142 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7143 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7144 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7148 * Support for Shared Libraries
7150 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7151 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7152 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7153 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7154 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7155 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7156 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7157 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7159 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7160 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7161 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7163 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7168 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7169 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7170 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7171 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7172 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7173 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7175 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7177 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7179 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7180 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7181 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7184 * C++ multiple inheritance
7186 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7189 * C++ exception handling
7191 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7192 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7193 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7196 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7197 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7198 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7200 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7201 current stack frame.
7204 * Minor command changes
7206 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7207 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7208 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7210 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7211 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7212 frames without printing.
7214 * New directory command
7216 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7217 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7218 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7219 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7220 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7222 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7224 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7227 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7228 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7229 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7230 where the program that you are debugging will run.