1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.8
8 * New command line options
11 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
13 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
14 as specified in ISO C99.
16 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
17 with or without disassembly.
21 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
22 available is determined at configure time.
23 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
24 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
26 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
30 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
34 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
36 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
37 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
39 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
40 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
44 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
45 show print symbol-loading
46 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
47 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
48 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
51 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
52 show guile print-stack
53 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
55 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
56 show auto-load guile-scripts
57 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
59 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
60 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
61 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
62 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
63 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
66 set auto-connect-native-target
68 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
69 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
70 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
72 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
73 show record btrace replay-memory-access
74 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
76 maint set target-async (on|off)
77 maint show target-async
78 This controls whether GDB targets operate in syncronous or
79 asyncronous mode. Normally the default is asyncronous, if it is
80 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
81 occurring only in syncronous mode.
85 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
86 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
88 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
89 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
91 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
92 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
93 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
94 "set target-async on" command.
96 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
98 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
99 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
100 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
101 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
102 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
104 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
105 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
106 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
108 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
109 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
110 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
111 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
112 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
113 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
114 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
116 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
117 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
119 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
120 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
121 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
123 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
124 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
127 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
129 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
130 remote. It now works with all targets.
132 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
133 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
134 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
135 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
136 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
137 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
138 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
139 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
140 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
143 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
144 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
145 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
149 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
150 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
151 branch trace incrementally.
155 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
156 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
158 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
159 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
160 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
161 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
162 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
165 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
167 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
168 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
169 its alias "share", instead.
171 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
172 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
177 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
178 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
179 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
180 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
181 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
182 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
183 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
184 commands and CLI execution commands.
186 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
188 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
189 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
190 recording has been added.
192 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
194 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
195 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
197 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
198 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
199 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
200 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
201 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
202 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
205 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
207 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
209 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
210 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
211 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
212 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
217 (gdb) info registers rax
220 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
221 "*value not available*".
223 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
228 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
229 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
230 ** Line tables representation has been added.
231 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
232 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
233 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
237 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
238 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
239 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
241 * Removed native configurations
243 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
244 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
246 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
247 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
248 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
249 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
250 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
251 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
252 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
256 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
258 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
260 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
262 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
265 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
267 maint set|show per-command
268 maint set|show per-command space
269 maint set|show per-command time
270 maint set|show per-command symtab
271 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
273 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
274 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
275 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
276 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
277 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
280 info exceptions REGEXP
281 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
282 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
287 set debug symfile off|on
289 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
290 symbol tables within those files
292 set print raw frame-arguments
293 show print raw frame-arguments
294 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
295 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
297 set remote trace-status-packet
298 show remote trace-status-packet
299 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
303 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
307 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
309 set startup-with-shell
310 show startup-with-shell
311 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
316 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
317 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
319 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
320 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
321 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
322 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
325 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
326 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
327 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
329 * New command-line options
331 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
333 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
334 buffer in Common Trace Format.
336 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
339 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
341 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
342 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
344 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
345 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
347 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
348 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
349 due to an uncaught signal.
353 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
354 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
355 command, which should contain "language-option".
357 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
358 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
360 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
361 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
362 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
363 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
364 "undefined-command-error-code".
366 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
369 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
371 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
372 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
375 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
376 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
378 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
379 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
380 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
382 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
383 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
384 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
385 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
386 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
387 "exec-run-start-option".
389 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
390 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
392 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
393 the new "info exceptions" command.
395 * New system-wide configuration scripts
396 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
397 configuration scripts for the following systems:
401 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
402 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
403 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
406 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
407 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
409 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
410 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
411 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
417 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
418 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
419 involvemement at each single-step.
421 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
422 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
423 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
424 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
425 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
426 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
429 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
431 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
432 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
434 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
435 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
436 trace state variables.
438 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
441 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
442 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
444 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
446 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
447 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
448 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
449 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
451 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
453 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
454 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
455 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
456 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
458 set|show record full insn-number-max
459 set|show record full stop-at-limit
460 set|show record full memory-query
462 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
463 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
464 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
465 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
466 This new recording method can be enabled using:
470 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
471 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
473 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
474 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
475 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
477 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
478 instruction granularity
480 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
483 * New native configurations
485 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
486 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
487 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
488 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
492 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
493 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
494 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
495 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
496 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
498 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
499 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
500 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
501 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
502 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
503 --data-directory command-line option.
505 * New command line options:
507 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
508 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
510 * Removed command line options
512 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
515 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
518 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
522 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
524 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
526 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
528 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
530 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
531 of architecture in the Python API.
533 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
534 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
536 * New Python-based convenience functions:
538 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
539 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
541 ** $_regex(str, regex)
543 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
546 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
547 default for GCC since November 2000.
549 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
551 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
552 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
554 * New configure options
556 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
557 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
558 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
559 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
560 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
561 options allow the user to override that default.
562 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
563 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
564 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
566 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
569 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
570 conditions to be attached.
573 List the BFDs known to GDB.
575 python-interactive [command]
577 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
578 and print the result of expressions.
581 "py" is a new alias for "python".
583 enable type-printer [name]...
584 disable type-printer [name]...
585 Enable or disable type printers.
589 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
590 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
595 set print type methods (on|off)
596 show print type methods
597 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
598 The default is to show them.
600 set print type typedefs (on|off)
601 show print type typedefs
602 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
603 The default is to show them.
605 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
606 show filename-display
607 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
608 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
610 set trace-buffer-size
611 show trace-buffer-size
612 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
614 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
615 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
616 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
620 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
623 set debug coff-pe-read
624 show debug coff-pe-read
625 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
630 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
633 set debug notification
634 show debug notification
635 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
639 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
640 "=cmd-param-changed".
641 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
642 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
643 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
644 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
645 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
646 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
647 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
648 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
650 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
651 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
652 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
653 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
654 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
655 library load/unload events.
656 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
657 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
658 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
659 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
660 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
661 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
662 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
663 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
665 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
666 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
667 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
668 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
673 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
674 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
677 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
678 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
682 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
683 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
686 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
687 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
689 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
691 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
692 for more x32 ABI info.
694 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
696 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
698 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
699 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
700 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
701 "info os files" lists file descriptors
702 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
703 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
704 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
705 "info os msg" lists message queues
706 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
708 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
709 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
710 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
711 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
712 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
713 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
715 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
716 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
717 record/replay support.
719 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
723 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
726 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
728 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
729 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
731 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
733 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
734 the source at which the symbol was defined.
736 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
737 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
738 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
741 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
742 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
744 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
745 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
746 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
748 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
749 object associated with a PC value.
751 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
752 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
754 * Go language support.
755 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
758 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
759 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
761 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
762 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
764 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
765 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
766 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
767 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
768 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
771 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
772 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
773 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
776 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
777 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
779 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
782 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
783 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
784 command does. For instance:
786 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
788 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
789 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
790 created, using the "condition" command.
792 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
793 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
795 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
797 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
798 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
799 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
800 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
801 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
802 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
803 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
804 files with older .gdb_index sections.
806 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
807 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
808 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
809 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
810 the .gdb_index section.
812 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
814 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
819 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
821 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
825 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
826 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
827 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
829 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
830 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
832 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
835 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
836 C++ and Java objects.
838 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
839 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
840 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
841 configured with '--with-python'.
843 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
844 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
845 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
846 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
847 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
848 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
849 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
851 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
852 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
853 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
854 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
856 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
857 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
858 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
859 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
861 ** "set print symbol"
863 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
864 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
865 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
867 * Deprecated commands
869 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
870 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
874 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
875 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
877 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
878 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
879 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
880 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
886 show mips compression
887 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
888 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
891 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
893 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
894 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
895 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
896 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
898 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
902 Disable auto-loading globally.
905 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
907 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
908 show auto-load gdb-scripts
909 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
911 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
912 show auto-load python-scripts
913 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
915 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
916 show auto-load local-gdbinit
917 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
919 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
920 show auto-load libthread-db
921 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
923 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
924 show auto-load scripts-directory
925 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
926 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
927 of the directories listed by this option.
928 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
930 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
931 show auto-load safe-path
932 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
933 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
935 set debug auto-load on|off
937 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
939 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
941 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
942 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
943 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
944 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
946 set dprintf-function <expr>
947 show dprintf-function
948 set dprintf-channel <expr>
950 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
951 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
953 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
954 show disconnected-dprintf
955 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
956 after GDB disconnects.
958 * New configure options
961 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
962 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
963 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
964 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
965 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
967 --with-auto-load-safe-path
968 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
969 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
971 --without-auto-load-safe-path
972 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
977 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
979 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
980 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
981 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
982 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
986 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
987 program without GDB involvement.
989 * New command line options
991 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
992 before loading inferior.
993 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
994 execute it before loading inferior.
996 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
998 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
999 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1000 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1001 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1004 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1005 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1007 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1008 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1009 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1010 target hardware watchpoint.
1012 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1013 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1014 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1015 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1019 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
1020 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
1023 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
1024 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1025 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1026 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1027 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1030 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
1033 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1034 modules library. This module provides functionality for
1035 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
1036 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1037 corresponding value.
1039 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1040 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1041 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1044 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1045 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1046 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1047 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1049 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1051 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1054 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1055 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1056 available in the CLI.
1058 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1059 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1060 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1061 "some_type.items()".
1063 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1066 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1067 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1068 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1069 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1070 any anonymous fields.
1074 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1077 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1078 "=breakpoint-modified".
1080 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1082 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1083 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1084 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1087 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1088 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1089 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1090 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1091 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1093 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1094 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1096 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1097 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1098 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1099 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1100 use this option to specify where to find it.
1102 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1103 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1104 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1105 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1106 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1107 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1108 section in the user manual for more details.
1110 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1111 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1112 become available after that.
1114 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
1116 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1117 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1123 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1124 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1128 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1129 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1130 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1132 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1133 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1134 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1136 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1137 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1138 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1139 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1140 name starts with a hyphen.
1142 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1143 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1144 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1145 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1146 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1147 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1148 number of bytes that will be collected.
1151 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1152 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1153 setting the variable trace-notes.
1156 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1157 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1158 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1161 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1162 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1163 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1164 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1165 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1168 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1169 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1170 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1174 set debug dwarf2-read
1175 show debug dwarf2-read
1176 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1177 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1179 set debug symtab-create
1180 show debug symtab-create
1181 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1182 creation. The default is off.
1185 show extended-prompt
1186 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1187 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1188 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1189 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1190 prompt is displayed.
1192 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1193 show print entry-values
1194 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1195 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1196 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1198 set debug entry-values
1199 show debug entry-values
1200 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1201 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1203 set basenames-may-differ
1204 show basenames-may-differ
1205 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1206 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1207 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1208 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1209 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1210 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1211 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1212 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1218 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1219 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1220 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1221 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1223 set trace-stop-notes
1224 show trace-stop-notes
1225 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1226 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1227 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1228 started by someone else.
1230 * New remote packets
1234 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1238 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1242 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1246 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1250 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1253 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1254 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1258 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1262 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1264 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1266 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1268 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
1270 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1271 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1272 matches the given regular expression.
1274 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1276 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1277 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1279 * New command line options
1281 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1282 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1284 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1285 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1287 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1288 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1289 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1291 * GDB now understands thread names.
1293 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1294 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1296 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1297 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1300 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1301 has been integrated into GDB.
1305 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1306 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1307 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1309 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1310 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1311 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1312 and allows for more dynamic content.
1314 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1315 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1316 have an is_valid method.
1318 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1319 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1320 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1322 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1324 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1325 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1326 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1327 that function like so:
1329 result = some_value (10,20)
1331 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1332 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1333 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1335 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1336 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1337 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1338 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1339 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1341 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1342 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1344 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1346 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1349 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1350 holds the thread's name.
1352 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1353 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
1354 occurring in the process being debugged.
1355 The following events are currently supported:
1356 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1357 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1358 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1362 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1363 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1365 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1367 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1368 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1369 was added to GCC 4.5.
1371 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1372 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1373 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1374 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1375 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1376 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1378 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1379 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1380 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1381 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1382 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1384 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1385 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1386 execution to a label.
1388 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1389 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1390 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1391 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1393 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
1394 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
1395 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1398 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1400 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1401 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1402 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1403 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1404 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1405 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1408 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1410 While now you see this:
1413 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1415 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1418 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1419 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1420 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1421 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1423 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1424 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1425 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1426 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1427 section in the user manual for more details.
1429 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1431 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1432 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
1434 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1436 * New native configurations
1438 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1442 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1444 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1445 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1446 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1447 in the GDB user manual.
1449 * Guile support was removed.
1451 * New features in the GNU simulator
1453 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1455 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1457 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
1459 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
1461 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1462 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1463 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1464 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1465 was always disabled for such configurations.
1469 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1471 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1472 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1482 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1483 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1484 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1486 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1488 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1489 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1490 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1491 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1493 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1494 mentioned flavors of operators.
1496 ** static const class members
1498 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1499 class definition has been fixed.
1501 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
1503 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1504 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1505 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1506 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1507 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1508 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1510 * Static tracepoints
1512 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1513 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1514 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1515 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1516 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1517 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1518 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1519 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1520 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1521 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1522 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1523 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1524 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1525 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1526 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1527 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1528 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1529 the "New remote packets" section below.
1531 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1533 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1534 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1535 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1536 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1540 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1541 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1542 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1543 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1544 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1545 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1546 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1548 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1551 * New remote packets
1555 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1559 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1560 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1561 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1562 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1563 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1564 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1568 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1572 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1575 qXfer:statictrace:read
1577 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1578 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1579 to gdb's qSupported query.
1583 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1587 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1588 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1590 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1591 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1594 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1596 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1597 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1598 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1599 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1601 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1602 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1603 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1604 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1605 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1606 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1607 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1609 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1610 for static tracepoints support.
1612 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1614 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1615 it understands register description.
1617 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1619 * X86 general purpose registers
1621 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1622 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1623 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1624 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1625 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1627 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
1628 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1629 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1630 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1631 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1632 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
1634 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1635 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1636 in the specified file.
1638 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1639 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1640 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1641 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1642 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1643 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1644 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1645 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1646 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1647 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1651 eval template, expressions...
1652 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1653 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1655 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1656 show target-file-system-kind
1657 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1660 save breakpoints <filename>
1661 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1662 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1663 definitions, use the `source' command.
1665 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1668 info static-tracepoint-markers
1669 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1671 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1672 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1673 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1677 Enable and disable observer mode.
1679 set may-write-registers on|off
1680 set may-write-memory on|off
1681 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1682 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1683 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1684 set may-interrupt on|off
1685 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1686 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1687 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1688 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1689 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1690 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1691 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1693 set record memory-query on|off
1694 show record memory-query
1695 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1696 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1701 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1705 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1706 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1707 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1708 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1709 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1711 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
1712 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1713 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1714 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
1716 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
1717 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1719 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
1721 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
1723 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1725 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1726 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1727 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1729 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1730 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1731 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1732 regular breakpoints.
1736 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1738 * D language support.
1739 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1742 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1743 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1744 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1745 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1746 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1748 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1749 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1750 conditions of the form:
1752 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1754 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1755 interface mentioned above.
1757 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
1761 ** Namespace Support
1763 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1764 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1765 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1766 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1767 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1771 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1772 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1777 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1778 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1782 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
1787 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
1790 * Multi-program debugging.
1792 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1793 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1794 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1795 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1796 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1797 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1798 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1799 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1801 * New tracing features
1803 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1805 ** Trace state variables
1807 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1808 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1809 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1810 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1811 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1812 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1813 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1814 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1815 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1816 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
1820 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1821 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1822 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1823 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1824 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1825 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1826 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1827 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1828 the regular trace command.
1830 ** Disconnected tracing
1832 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1833 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1834 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1835 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1836 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1840 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1841 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1842 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1843 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1844 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1845 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1848 ** Circular trace buffer
1850 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1851 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1852 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1853 not be available for all target agents.
1858 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1859 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1862 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1863 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1866 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1867 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1870 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1871 "set script-extension" (see below).
1873 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1875 record save [<FILENAME>]
1876 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1877 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1879 record restore <FILENAME>
1880 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1881 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1883 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1886 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1887 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1888 inferior has loaded.
1893 maint info program-spaces
1894 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1896 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1897 show remote interrupt-sequence
1898 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1899 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1900 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1901 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1902 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1904 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1905 show remote interrupt-on-connect
1906 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1907 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1910 set remotebreak [on | off]
1912 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1914 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1915 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1918 List trace state variables and their values.
1920 delete tvariable $NAME ...
1921 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1924 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1925 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1927 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1928 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1930 * New expression syntax
1932 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1933 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1937 set follow-exec-mode new|same
1938 show follow-exec-mode
1939 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1940 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1941 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1943 set default-collect EXPR, ...
1944 show default-collect
1945 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1946 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1947 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1949 set disconnected-tracing
1950 show disconnected-tracing
1951 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1952 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1955 set circular-trace-buffer
1956 show circular-trace-buffer
1957 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1958 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1959 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1960 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1962 set script-extension off|soft|strict
1963 show script-extension
1964 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1965 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1966 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1967 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1969 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1971 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1972 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1973 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1974 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1975 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1976 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1977 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1980 * Python API Improvements
1982 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1983 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1984 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1986 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1987 `is_base_class' attribute.
1989 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1991 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1992 evaluate an expression.
1994 * New remote packets
1997 Define a trace state variable.
2000 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2003 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2006 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2009 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2013 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2015 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2016 much more reliable. In particular:
2017 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2018 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2019 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2020 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2021 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2022 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2023 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2024 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2025 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2026 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2027 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2028 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2029 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2030 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2031 non-threaded programs.
2033 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2034 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2035 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2038 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
2040 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2041 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2042 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2043 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2044 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2046 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2047 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2048 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2049 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2050 for tracepoint actions.
2052 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2053 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2054 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
2056 * Process record and replay
2058 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2059 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2060 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2063 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2064 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2065 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2068 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2069 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
2072 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2073 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2074 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2075 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2076 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2077 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2078 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2079 the installation instructions for more information.
2081 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2082 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2083 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2084 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2086 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2087 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2089 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2090 now complete on file names.
2092 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2093 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2094 For instance, consider:
2096 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2097 # struct example variable;
2100 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2101 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2103 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2104 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2106 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2107 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2110 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
2111 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2112 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2114 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2115 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2116 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2117 and simulator targets may also provide them.
2119 * New remote packets
2122 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2125 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2126 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2127 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2130 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2131 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2134 Obtains additional operating system information
2138 Read or write additional signal information.
2140 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2142 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2143 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2144 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2146 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
2147 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
2149 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
2150 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2151 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
2153 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2154 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2156 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2158 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2160 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2161 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2163 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
2164 list of section offsets.
2166 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2167 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2168 have also been fixed.
2170 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
2171 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2172 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
2174 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2177 template<typename T> class C { };
2180 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2182 ptype C<char const *>
2183 ptype C<char const*>
2184 ptype C<const char *>
2185 ptype C<const char*>
2187 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2189 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2190 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2192 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2193 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2194 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2196 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2197 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2199 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2202 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2203 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2205 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2206 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2211 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2212 available is determined at configure time.
2214 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2216 * Ada tasking support
2218 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2222 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2224 Print detailed information about task number N.
2226 Print the task number of the current task.
2228 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2230 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2231 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2233 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2235 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2236 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2237 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2238 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2239 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2240 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2243 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2244 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2247 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2248 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2249 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2250 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2253 * Multi-architecture debugging.
2255 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2256 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2257 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2258 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2259 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2261 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2262 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2263 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2264 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2265 --enable-targets configure option.
2267 * Non-stop mode debugging.
2269 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2270 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2271 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2272 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2273 section in the user manual for more information.
2275 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2276 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2277 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2278 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2279 extensions on linux targets.
2281 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2283 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2284 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2285 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2286 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2287 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2288 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2289 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2290 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2291 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2293 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2295 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2297 maint set python print-stack
2298 maint show python print-stack
2299 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2302 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2307 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2311 Show operating system information about processes.
2314 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2317 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2320 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2323 Kill inferior number NUM.
2327 set spu stop-on-load
2328 show spu stop-on-load
2329 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2331 set spu auto-flush-cache
2332 show spu auto-flush-cache
2333 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2334 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2336 set sh calling-convention
2337 show sh calling-convention
2338 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2341 show debug timestamp
2342 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2344 set disassemble-next-line
2345 show disassemble-next-line
2346 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2349 set remote noack-packet
2350 show remote noack-packet
2351 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2352 under "New remote packets."
2354 set remote query-attached-packet
2355 show remote query-attached-packet
2356 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2358 set remote read-siginfo-object
2359 show remote read-siginfo-object
2360 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2363 set remote write-siginfo-object
2364 show remote write-siginfo-object
2365 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2368 set remote reverse-continue
2369 show remote reverse-continue
2370 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2372 set remote reverse-step
2373 show remote reverse-step
2374 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2376 set displaced-stepping
2377 show displaced-stepping
2378 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2379 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2380 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2383 show debug displaced
2384 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2386 maint set internal-error
2387 maint show internal-error
2388 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2390 maint set internal-warning
2391 maint show internal-warning
2392 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
2397 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2399 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2400 show multiple-symbols
2401 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2402 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2403 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2405 set breakpoint always-inserted
2406 show breakpoint always-inserted
2407 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2408 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2409 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2411 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2412 show arm fallback-mode
2413 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2415 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2416 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2417 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2418 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2420 set disable-randomization
2421 show disable-randomization
2422 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2423 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2424 multiple debugging sessions.
2428 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2433 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2434 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2435 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2436 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2438 set target-wide-charset
2439 show target-wide-charset
2440 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2441 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2443 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2445 set tcp connect-timeout
2446 show tcp connect-timeout
2447 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2448 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2449 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2451 set libthread-db-search-path
2452 show libthread-db-search-path
2453 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2456 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2457 show schedule-multiple
2458 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2459 the current process.
2463 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2464 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2465 affecting correctness.
2467 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2468 show interactive-mode
2469 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2470 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2471 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2472 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2473 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2478 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2479 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2480 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2484 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2485 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2486 alias for the `fork' command.
2489 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2490 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2491 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2494 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2495 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2496 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2500 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2501 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2502 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2505 * New native configurations
2507 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2509 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2513 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
2514 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
2515 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
2518 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2519 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2525 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2527 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
2529 * New native configurations
2531 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
2532 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
2536 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
2537 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
2539 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2541 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2542 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2543 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2544 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2546 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2547 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2549 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
2552 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
2553 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2554 and in inlined functions.
2556 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2557 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2558 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2560 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2562 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2563 registers on PowerPC targets.
2565 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2566 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2568 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2569 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2571 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2572 extended-remote mode.
2574 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
2575 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2576 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2577 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
2579 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2580 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2581 target architectures.
2583 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2584 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2585 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2586 stored in two consecutive float registers.
2588 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2591 * Improved support for debugging Ada
2592 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2594 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2595 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2596 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2597 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2599 - Improved command completion in Ada
2602 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2607 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2608 show print frame-arguments
2609 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2610 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2615 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2622 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2624 * New remote packets
2631 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
2634 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2638 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2640 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
2642 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2643 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2644 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2646 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2647 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2648 -Bsymbolic linker option.
2650 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2651 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2654 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2655 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2657 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
2658 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
2660 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2662 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2663 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2664 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2666 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2667 automatically displayed as character or string data.
2669 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2670 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2673 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2674 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
2675 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
2677 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2680 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2681 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2682 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2684 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2686 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2688 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2689 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2690 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2692 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2693 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2695 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2696 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2697 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2698 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2699 Windows and SymbianOS).
2701 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2702 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
2704 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2705 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
2711 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2712 when debugging using remote targets.
2714 set mem inaccessible-by-default
2715 show mem inaccessible-by-default
2716 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2717 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2718 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2719 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2720 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2722 set breakpoint auto-hw
2723 show breakpoint auto-hw
2724 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2725 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2726 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2727 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2728 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2729 including "next" and "finish".
2732 catch exception unhandled
2733 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2736 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2740 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2741 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2742 an alias to "set sysroot".
2745 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2746 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2749 * New native configurations
2751 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2754 unset tdesc filename
2756 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2757 not query the target for its built-in description.
2761 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
2762 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
2763 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
2765 * New remote packets
2768 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2769 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2771 qXfer:features:read:
2772 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2777 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2778 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2780 qXfer:libraries:read:
2781 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2782 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2783 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2784 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2788 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2796 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2797 i[34567]86-*-netware*
2798 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2799 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2801 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2804 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2805 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2814 * Other removed features
2821 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2828 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2833 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2834 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2839 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2840 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2842 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2844 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2845 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2846 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2847 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2849 MIPS ".pdr" sections
2851 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2852 in debugging information.
2856 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2857 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2859 set mips stack-arg-size
2860 set mips saved-gpreg-size
2862 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2864 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
2869 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
2871 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2872 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2873 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2875 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2876 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2879 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2880 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2882 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2883 stub provides the required support.
2885 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2886 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2891 unset substitute-path
2892 show substitute-path
2893 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2894 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2895 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2896 between compilation and debugging.
2900 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2901 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2902 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2906 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2908 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2909 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2911 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2913 * New remote packets
2916 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2917 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2918 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2919 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2923 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2924 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2926 qXfer:memory-map:read:
2927 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2928 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2933 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2935 * Removed remote packets
2938 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2939 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2941 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
2945 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2947 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2951 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2952 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2954 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2956 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2958 restart <n> Return the program state to a
2959 previously saved state.
2961 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2963 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2965 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2966 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2968 info forks List forks of the user program that
2969 are available to be debugged.
2971 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2972 forks of the user program that are
2973 available to be debugged.
2975 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2976 that are available to be debugged (and
2977 kill the forked process).
2979 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2980 that are available to be debugged (and
2981 allow the process to continue).
2985 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2987 * Improved Windows host support
2989 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2990 native console support, and remote communications using either
2991 network sockets or serial ports.
2993 * Improved Modula-2 language support
2995 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2996 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2997 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2998 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2999 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3000 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3004 The ARM rdi-share module.
3006 The Netware NLM debug server.
3008 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
3010 * New native configurations
3012 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
3013 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3017 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3019 * New command line options
3021 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3022 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3023 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3024 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3025 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3026 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3027 with the --command (-x) option.
3029 * Deprecated commands removed
3031 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3035 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3036 othernames set arm disassembler
3037 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3038 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3039 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3042 * New BSD user-level threads support
3044 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3045 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3048 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3049 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3050 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3052 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3053 are not yet supported.
3055 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3056 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3058 * REMOVED configurations and files
3060 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
3061 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3062 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
3064 * New "set print array-indexes" command
3066 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3067 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3070 * VAX floating point support
3072 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3074 * User-defined command support
3076 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3077 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3078 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3080 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3082 * New command line option
3084 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3087 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3089 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3090 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3091 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3092 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3093 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
3095 * Internationalization
3097 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3098 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3099 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3103 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3104 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3105 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3107 * New native configurations
3109 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3113 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3114 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3116 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3118 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3119 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3120 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3123 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3124 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3125 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3135 powerpc bdm protocol
3137 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3138 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3140 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3142 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3143 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3144 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3145 permanently REMOVED.
3154 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3156 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3158 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3159 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3162 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3164 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3165 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3166 IRIX long double values).
3170 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3171 command. This problem has been fixed.
3173 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
3175 * Fix for ``many threads''
3177 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3178 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3181 ptrace: No such process.
3182 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3184 This problem has been fixed.
3186 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3188 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3191 * New ``start'' command.
3193 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3195 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3197 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3198 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3199 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3201 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3202 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3203 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3204 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3205 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3206 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3207 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3208 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3209 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3211 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
3213 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3214 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3215 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3216 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3217 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3219 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3220 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3221 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3223 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3225 * New native configurations
3227 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
3228 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
3229 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3230 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
3231 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
3232 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
3233 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
3235 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3237 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3238 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3239 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3240 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3241 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3242 work, was also included.
3244 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3245 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3255 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3256 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3258 * REMOVED configurations and files
3260 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3261 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3262 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3263 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3264 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3265 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3266 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3267 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3268 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3269 sonymips mips-sony-*
3270 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3272 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3274 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3276 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3277 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3278 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3279 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3282 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3284 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3285 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3286 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3287 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3288 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3289 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3292 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3294 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
3296 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3297 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3298 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3300 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3302 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3303 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3305 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3307 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3308 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3309 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3311 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3313 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3314 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3316 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3318 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3319 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3320 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3322 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3324 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3325 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3326 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3328 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
3330 * Removed --with-mmalloc
3332 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3333 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3335 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
3337 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3338 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3339 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3340 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3342 * Revised SPARC target
3344 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3345 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
3346 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3347 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3348 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
3352 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3353 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3354 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3357 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3359 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3360 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3363 * C++ nested types and namespaces
3365 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3366 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3367 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3368 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3369 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3370 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3371 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3372 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3373 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3375 * New native configurations
3377 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
3378 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3379 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
3380 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3381 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
3383 * New debugging protocols
3385 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3387 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3389 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3390 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3391 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3393 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3395 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3396 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3397 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3398 permanently REMOVED.
3400 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3401 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3402 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3403 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3404 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3405 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3406 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3407 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3408 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3409 sonymips mips-sony-*
3410 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3412 * REMOVED configurations and files
3414 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3415 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3416 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3417 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3418 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3419 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3420 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3421 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3422 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3423 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
3424 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3425 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3426 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3427 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3428 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
3429 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3430 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3432 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3436 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3437 integrated into GDB.
3439 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3441 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3442 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3443 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3446 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3447 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3448 DWARF 2 CFI support.
3452 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3453 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3454 remote protocol documentation for details.
3456 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
3458 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3459 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3460 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3463 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3465 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3466 per-thread variables.
3468 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3470 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3471 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3473 * Separate debug info.
3475 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3476 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3477 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3478 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3479 and optional debug files.
3481 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3483 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3484 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3487 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3488 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3492 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3493 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3494 considered "useable".
3496 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3498 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3499 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3502 * GDB supports logging output to a file
3504 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3505 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
3507 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3509 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3510 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3513 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
3515 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3516 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3520 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3521 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3522 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3523 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3524 data, for more informative profiling results.
3526 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3528 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3529 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
3530 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
3532 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3535 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3536 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3537 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3538 in a subsequent -var-update.
3540 * New native configurations.
3542 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3544 * Multi-arched targets.
3546 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
3547 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3549 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3551 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3552 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3553 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3554 permanently REMOVED.
3556 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3557 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3558 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3559 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3560 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3561 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3562 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3563 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3564 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3565 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3566 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3567 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3569 * REMOVED configurations and files
3572 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3573 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3574 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3575 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3576 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3577 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3579 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3580 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3581 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3582 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3583 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3584 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3586 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
3588 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3589 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3590 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3591 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3592 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3594 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
3596 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3598 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3599 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3600 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3601 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3602 shared libs like mad''.
3604 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
3606 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3607 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3608 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3609 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
3611 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3613 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3614 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3617 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3618 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3620 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3621 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3623 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3624 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3625 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3626 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3628 * Multi-arched targets.
3630 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3631 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
3633 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
3634 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3635 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3639 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3642 * New native configurations
3644 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
3645 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
3646 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
3647 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
3649 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3651 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3652 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3653 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3654 permanently REMOVED.
3656 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3657 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3658 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3659 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3660 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3661 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3662 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3663 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3664 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3665 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3667 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3668 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3670 * OBSOLETE languages
3672 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3674 * REMOVED configurations and files
3676 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3677 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3678 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3679 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3680 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3682 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3684 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3686 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3687 commands. The default is 1024.
3689 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3691 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3693 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3695 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3696 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3697 from a file into memory (restore).
3699 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3701 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3702 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3703 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3705 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3713 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3714 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3715 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3717 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3718 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3719 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3721 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3722 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3723 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3725 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3726 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3727 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3729 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
3731 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3733 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3734 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3735 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3736 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3737 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3738 (notably embedded) targets.
3740 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3742 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3743 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3744 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3745 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
3747 * New command line option
3749 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3751 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3753 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3754 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3755 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3756 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3757 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3758 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3759 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3760 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3761 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3762 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3764 * Changes in ARM configurations.
3766 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3767 configuration is fully multi-arch.
3769 * New native configurations
3771 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
3772 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
3773 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
3774 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
3778 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3780 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3782 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3783 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3784 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3785 permanently REMOVED.
3787 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3788 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3789 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3790 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3791 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3793 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3795 * REMOVED configurations and files
3797 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3799 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3800 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3801 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3802 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3803 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3804 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3805 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3806 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3807 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3808 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3809 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
3811 * Changes to command line processing
3813 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3814 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3816 * Changes to key bindings
3818 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3820 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3822 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3824 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3827 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3829 Numerous documentation fixes.
3831 Numerous testsuite fixes.
3833 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
3835 * New native configurations
3837 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3838 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
3839 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
3840 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3841 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
3842 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
3846 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
3848 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
3850 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3852 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
3853 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3854 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3855 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3856 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3858 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3859 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3860 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3861 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3862 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3863 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3864 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3865 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
3867 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3868 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3870 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3871 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3872 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3873 permanently REMOVED.
3875 * REMOVED configurations and files
3877 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3878 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3880 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3884 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
3886 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
3887 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3892 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3894 * The MI enabled by default.
3896 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3897 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3898 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3899 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3900 which is now deprecated.
3902 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3904 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3905 main features are supported:
3907 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3909 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3912 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3914 - a Pascal expression parser.
3916 However, some important features are not yet supported.
3918 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3920 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3922 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3923 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3925 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3927 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3929 * Changes in completion.
3931 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3932 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3933 users expect at the shell prompt.
3935 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3936 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3937 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3938 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3939 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3940 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3941 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3943 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3945 * New platform-independent commands:
3947 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3948 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3949 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3951 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3953 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3954 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3955 many threads as your system allows you to have.
3957 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3959 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3960 multi-threaded programs though.
3962 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
3964 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3966 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3967 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3970 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3972 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3973 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3974 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3975 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3976 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3979 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3980 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3981 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3983 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3985 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3986 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3988 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3989 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3992 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3993 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3994 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3995 a given linear address.
3997 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3998 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3999 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4001 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4003 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4005 * Changes in documentation.
4007 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4008 Documentation License.
4010 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4013 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4015 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4018 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4019 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4020 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4022 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4024 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4025 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4026 contents of this file.
4030 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
4032 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
4034 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4036 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4037 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4038 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4039 greater level of detail.
4041 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4043 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4044 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4045 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4048 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4050 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4051 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4052 machines ``out of the box''.
4054 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4055 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4056 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4057 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4058 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4060 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4061 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4062 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4063 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4064 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4066 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4067 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4070 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4073 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4074 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4075 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4076 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4078 * New native configurations
4080 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
4081 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4085 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
4086 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4087 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
4088 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4090 * OBSOLETE configurations
4092 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4093 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4095 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4098 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4099 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4100 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4101 be permanently REMOVED.
4103 * Gould support removed
4105 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4107 * New features for SVR4
4109 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4110 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4111 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4113 * Many C++ enhancements
4115 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4116 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4118 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4120 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4121 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4122 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4123 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4125 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4126 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4128 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
4130 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4131 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4132 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4134 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4135 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4137 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4139 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4140 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4141 include ``set remote P-packet''.
4143 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4145 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4146 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4147 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4149 * ``apropos'' command added.
4151 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4152 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4153 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4157 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4158 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
4159 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4160 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4161 enabled by configuring with:
4163 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4165 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4167 * New native configurations
4169 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4170 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
4171 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
4175 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4176 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4177 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4179 * OBSOLETE configurations
4181 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4183 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4184 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4185 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4186 be permanently REMOVED.
4190 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4191 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4192 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4193 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4194 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4195 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4196 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4201 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4203 * set extension-language
4205 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4206 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4207 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4208 set extension-language .c c++
4209 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4210 and their associated languages.
4212 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4214 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4215 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4216 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4220 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4221 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4223 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4224 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4226 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4227 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4228 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4229 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4230 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4231 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4232 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4233 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4235 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4236 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4237 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4238 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4242 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4243 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4244 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4245 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4246 for xdb and dbx commands.
4250 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4251 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4252 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4254 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4255 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4256 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4258 * Debugging across forks
4260 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4265 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4266 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4267 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4269 * GDB remote protocol additions
4271 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4272 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4273 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4274 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4276 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4277 full 64-bit address. The command
4279 set remoteaddresssize 32
4281 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4282 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4285 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4286 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4288 maint packet heythere
4290 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4291 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4294 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4295 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4296 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4298 * Tracing can collect general expressions
4300 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4301 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4302 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4304 * mask-address variable for Mips
4306 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4307 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4308 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4310 * Higher serial baud rates
4312 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4313 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4314 to achieve all of these rates.)
4318 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4319 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4322 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4324 * New native configurations
4326 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4327 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4328 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4329 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4330 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4331 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4332 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4336 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4337 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4338 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4339 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4340 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4341 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4342 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4343 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4344 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4345 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4346 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4348 * New debugging protocols
4350 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4351 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4352 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4353 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4354 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4355 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4359 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4360 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4365 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4366 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4368 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4370 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4371 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4372 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4374 * Live range splitting
4376 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4377 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4378 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4382 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4383 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4387 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4388 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4389 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4394 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4399 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4400 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4401 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4402 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4403 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4404 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4408 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4409 the symbol at the specified address.
4413 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4414 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4415 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4416 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4417 file tracepoint.c for more details.
4421 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4422 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4423 of most MIPS variants.
4427 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4428 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4429 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4433 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4434 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4435 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4436 the possible architectures.
4438 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4440 * New native configurations
4442 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4443 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4444 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4445 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4446 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4447 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4451 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4452 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4453 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4454 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4455 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4457 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4461 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4462 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4463 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4464 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4465 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4469 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4471 * Windows 95/NT native
4473 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4474 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4475 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4476 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4477 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4479 * dont-repeat command
4481 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4482 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4483 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4484 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4486 * Send break instead of ^C
4488 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4489 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4490 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4492 * Remote protocol timeout
4494 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4495 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4496 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4498 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4500 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4501 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4502 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4503 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4504 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4506 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4507 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4508 automatically on hpux10.
4510 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4512 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4514 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4516 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4517 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4518 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4519 every character. The default value is 1050.
4521 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4523 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4524 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4525 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4526 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4527 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4528 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4530 * Speedups for remote debugging
4532 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4533 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4534 and more efficient S-record downloading.
4536 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4538 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4539 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4541 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4543 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
4545 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4546 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4548 * Remote targets use caching
4550 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4551 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4552 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4553 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4554 off' turns the the data cache off.
4556 * Remote targets may have threads
4558 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4559 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4560 gdb/remote.c for details.
4564 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4565 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4566 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4567 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4568 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4569 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4570 sequence is something like
4572 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4574 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4578 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4579 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4580 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4581 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4582 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4583 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4584 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4585 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4589 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4590 but does simplify configuration and building.
4594 GDB now supports hpux10.
4596 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4598 * New native configurations
4600 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4601 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4602 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4603 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4607 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4608 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4609 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4610 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4613 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4615 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4616 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4617 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4618 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4619 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4621 * Arguments to user-defined commands
4623 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4624 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4627 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4629 To execute the command use:
4632 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4633 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4634 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4636 * New `if' and `while' commands
4638 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4639 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4640 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4641 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4642 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4643 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4644 if the expression is zero.
4646 * Fortran source language mode
4648 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4649 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4650 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4651 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4654 * Better HPUX support
4656 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4657 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4658 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4659 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4660 that behavior do the following before running the program:
4666 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4667 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4673 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4674 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4677 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4678 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4680 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4682 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4683 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4684 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4685 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4686 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4687 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4689 * New DOS host serial code
4691 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4692 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4695 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4697 * New "complete" command
4699 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4700 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4702 * Trailing space optional in prompt
4704 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4705 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4707 * Breakpoint hit counts
4709 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4710 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4711 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4712 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4713 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4716 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4718 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4719 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4720 arrays actually contain only short strings.
4722 * Shared library breakpoints
4724 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4725 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4727 * Hardware watchpoints
4729 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4730 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4732 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
4736 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4737 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4739 * Improved Irix 5 support
4741 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4743 * Improved HPPA support
4745 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4747 * New native configurations
4749 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4750 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4751 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4752 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4756 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4757 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4760 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4762 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4763 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4767 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4768 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4770 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4772 * Irix 5 is now supported
4776 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4777 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4778 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4779 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4780 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4783 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4785 * User visible changes:
4789 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4790 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4791 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4792 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4793 debugging info for the mips target).
4795 * DEC Alpha native support
4797 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4798 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4799 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4800 Alpha-specific notes.
4802 * Preliminary thread implementation
4804 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4806 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
4808 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4809 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4812 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4814 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4815 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4816 call methods, ...etc.
4818 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4820 * User visible changes:
4822 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4823 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4824 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4825 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4827 Filename completion now works.
4829 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4830 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4831 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4833 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4834 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4835 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4836 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4837 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4841 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4842 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4845 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4849 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4850 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4851 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4855 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4856 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4857 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4858 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4859 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4863 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4864 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4865 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4867 * New targets supported
4869 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4870 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4871 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4872 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4873 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4875 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4876 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4877 GO32 memory extender.
4879 * New remote protocols
4881 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4883 * New source languages supported
4885 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4886 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4887 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4890 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4892 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4894 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4895 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4896 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4897 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4898 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4899 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4901 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4903 * Faster and better demangling
4905 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4906 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4907 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4908 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4909 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4910 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4913 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4914 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4915 compiler does not actually implement.
4917 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4919 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4920 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4921 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4922 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4923 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4924 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4927 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4928 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4930 * Improved configure script
4932 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4933 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4934 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4935 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4937 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4938 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4939 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4940 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4941 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4942 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4944 * Documentation improvements
4946 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4947 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4948 before submitting changes.
4950 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4951 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4952 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4953 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4954 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4956 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4957 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4958 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4959 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4960 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4961 around this problem.
4965 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4966 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4967 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4970 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4971 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4973 * New native hosts supported
4975 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4976 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4978 * New targets supported
4980 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4982 * New file formats supported
4984 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4985 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4989 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4991 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4992 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4994 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4995 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4996 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4998 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4999 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5001 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5002 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5003 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5006 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5007 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5008 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5009 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5010 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5012 * Internal improvements
5014 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5015 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5017 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5018 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5019 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5020 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5021 shared code that handles any of them.
5023 * New command line options
5025 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5029 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5030 General Public License.
5032 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5034 * Host/native/target split
5036 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5037 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5038 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5039 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5040 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5042 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5043 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5044 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5045 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5046 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5047 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5048 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5050 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5051 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5052 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5054 * New hosts supported
5056 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5057 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5058 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5060 * New targets supported
5062 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5063 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5065 * New native hosts supported
5067 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5068 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5069 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5071 * New file formats supported
5073 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5074 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5075 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5079 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5080 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5081 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5083 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5085 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5086 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5087 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5088 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5092 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5093 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5094 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5096 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5100 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5101 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5104 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5105 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5107 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5108 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5109 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5110 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5111 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5112 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5114 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5115 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5116 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5117 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5121 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5122 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5123 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5124 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5125 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5127 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5128 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5129 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5130 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5134 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5135 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5136 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5137 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5138 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5139 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5140 each instruction being stepped through.
5142 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5143 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5145 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5146 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5147 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5148 processor with a serial port.
5152 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5153 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5154 supported, and what files each one uses.
5158 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5159 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5160 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5161 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5163 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5164 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5165 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5166 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5170 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5171 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5172 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5173 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5174 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5175 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5177 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5180 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5182 * Better support for C++ function names
5184 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5185 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5186 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5187 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5188 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5190 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5191 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5192 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5193 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5194 for the list of formats.
5196 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5198 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5199 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5200 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5201 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5202 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5203 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5206 * New 'maintenance' command
5208 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5209 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5210 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5212 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5213 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5214 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5215 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5216 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5217 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5219 The following commands are new:
5221 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5222 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5223 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5225 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5227 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5228 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5229 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5230 read after argv processing.
5232 * New hosts supported
5234 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5236 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
5238 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5239 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5240 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5241 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5242 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5245 * New targets supported
5247 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5249 * More smarts about finding #include files
5251 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5252 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5253 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5254 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5255 the one that contains your sources.
5257 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5258 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5259 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5261 * Interesting infernals change
5263 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5264 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5265 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5266 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5268 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5270 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5271 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5272 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5274 See the ChangeLog for details.
5276 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5278 * New machines supported (host and target)
5280 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5282 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5284 * New malloc package
5286 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5287 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5288 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5289 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5290 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5291 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5295 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5296 'help info proc' for details.
5298 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5300 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5301 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5304 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5306 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5307 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5308 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5309 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5310 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5311 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5313 * Cross byte order fixes
5315 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5316 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5318 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5320 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5321 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5322 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5323 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5324 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5325 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5326 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5327 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5328 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5329 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5331 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5332 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5333 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5334 slower, but makes future operations faster.
5336 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5337 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5338 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5341 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5343 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5344 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5345 shared across multiple host platforms.
5347 * longjmp() handling
5349 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5350 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5351 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5352 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5356 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5357 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5362 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5363 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5364 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5366 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5368 * New machines supported (host and target)
5370 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5372 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5373 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5375 * New machines supported (target)
5377 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5381 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5382 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5383 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5385 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5386 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5387 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5388 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5389 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5392 * New features for SVR4
5394 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5395 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5396 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5398 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5399 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5400 it prints the address mappings of the process.
5402 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5403 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5405 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5407 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5408 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5409 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5410 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5411 same code linked statically.
5415 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5416 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5417 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5418 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5419 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5420 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5424 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5425 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5426 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5429 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5431 * New machines supported (host and target)
5433 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5434 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5435 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5437 * Almost SCO Unix support
5439 We had hoped to support:
5440 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5441 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5442 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5443 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5445 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5447 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5448 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5449 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5450 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5455 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5456 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5457 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5461 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5462 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5463 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5465 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5467 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5468 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5469 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5471 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5472 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5473 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5474 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5477 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5478 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5479 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5480 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5483 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5484 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5487 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5488 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5489 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5492 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5494 * Improved configuration
5496 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5497 Porting BFD is simpler.
5501 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5502 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5503 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5504 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5508 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5510 * New host supported (not target)
5512 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5515 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5517 * Multiple source language support
5519 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5520 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5521 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5522 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5523 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5524 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5528 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5529 currently under development at the State University of New York at
5530 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5531 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5533 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5534 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5535 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5537 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5538 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5542 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5543 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5544 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5545 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5548 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5550 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5551 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5552 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5553 examining core files.
5557 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5560 * New machines supported (host and target)
5562 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5563 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5564 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5566 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5568 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5570 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5572 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5573 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5574 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5576 * New remote interfaces
5582 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5586 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5588 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5589 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5590 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5591 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5592 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5593 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5594 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5595 stub on the target system.
5597 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5599 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5600 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5601 object file types such as a.out and coff.
5603 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5604 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5607 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5609 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5610 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5612 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5613 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5614 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5616 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5617 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5618 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5619 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5621 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5622 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5623 it is already running. Default is ON.
5625 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5626 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5627 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5628 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5631 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5632 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5633 or the value of the environment variable
5636 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5637 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5640 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5641 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5642 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5644 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5645 history expansion will be performed on
5646 command line input. The default is OFF.
5648 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5649 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5650 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5652 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5653 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5654 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5657 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5658 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5659 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5662 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5663 ``set width'' instead.
5665 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5666 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5667 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5668 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5670 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5673 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5676 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5679 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5682 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5684 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5685 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5686 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5690 * Support for Shared Libraries
5692 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5693 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5694 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5695 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5696 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5697 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5698 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5699 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5701 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5702 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5703 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5705 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5710 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5711 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5712 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5713 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5714 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5715 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5717 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5719 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5721 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5722 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5723 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5726 * C++ multiple inheritance
5728 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5731 * C++ exception handling
5733 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5734 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5735 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5738 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5739 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5740 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5742 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5743 current stack frame.
5746 * Minor command changes
5748 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5749 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5750 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5752 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5753 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5754 frames without printing.
5756 * New directory command
5758 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5759 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5760 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5761 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5762 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5764 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5766 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5769 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5770 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5771 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5772 where the program that you are debugging will run.
5774 * GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
5776 * Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
5778 Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers $zmm0 - $zmm31 and
5779 $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.