1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.3
6 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
7 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
8 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
9 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
11 * Support for Pointer Authentication on AArch64 Linux.
13 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
15 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
16 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
19 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
20 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
21 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
24 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
27 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
28 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
29 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
31 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
32 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
34 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
35 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
36 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
37 in the GDB user manual.
39 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
42 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
44 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
45 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
46 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
47 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
48 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
49 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
50 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
51 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
52 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
53 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
54 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
55 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
57 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
58 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
59 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
62 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
67 set debug compile-cplus-types
68 show debug compile-cplus-types
69 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
70 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
75 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
78 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
79 Apply a command to some frames.
80 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
81 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
84 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
85 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
88 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
89 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
92 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
94 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
96 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
97 maint show dwarf unwinders
98 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
101 Display a list of open files for a process.
105 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
106 These commands all now take a frame specification which
107 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
108 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
109 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
110 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
111 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
113 target remote FILENAME
114 target extended-remote FILENAME
115 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
116 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
118 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
119 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
120 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
121 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
122 These commands can now print only the searched entities
123 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
124 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
125 printing headers or informations messages.
131 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
132 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
133 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
136 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
137 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
138 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
139 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
141 set tui tab-width NCHARS
142 show tui tab-width NCHARS
143 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
145 set style enabled [on|off]
147 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
148 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
150 set style sources [on|off]
152 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
153 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
154 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
156 set style filename foreground COLOR
157 set style filename background COLOR
158 set style filename intensity VALUE
159 Control the styling of file names.
161 set style function foreground COLOR
162 set style function background COLOR
163 set style function intensity VALUE
164 Control the styling of function names.
166 set style variable foreground COLOR
167 set style variable background COLOR
168 set style variable intensity VALUE
169 Control the styling of variable names.
171 set style address foreground COLOR
172 set style address background COLOR
173 set style address intensity VALUE
174 Control the styling of addresses.
178 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
180 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
181 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
182 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
183 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
184 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
186 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
187 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
189 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
190 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
191 the following commands and events:
195 - =breakpoint-created
196 - =breakpoint-modified
198 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
199 this behavior with previous MI versions.
201 * New native configurations
203 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
204 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
208 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
210 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
211 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
213 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
217 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
222 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
224 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
225 space associated to that inferior.
227 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
228 of objfiles associated to that program space.
230 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
231 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
234 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
235 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
236 correct and did not work properly.
238 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
239 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
245 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
246 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
247 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
248 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
249 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
251 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
253 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
256 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
257 offset to all sections.
259 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
260 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
261 address of individual sections using '-s'.
263 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
264 (address of the text section).
266 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
267 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
268 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
269 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
272 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
273 for the rest of the current command.
275 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
276 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
278 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
279 files created on FreeBSD systems.
281 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
284 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
285 the vector length while the process is running.
291 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
293 set|show varsize-limit
294 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
295 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
296 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
298 set|show record btrace cpu
299 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
302 maint check libthread-db
303 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
306 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
307 maint show check-libthread-db
308 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
309 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
314 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
316 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
317 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
319 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
321 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
322 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
323 of convenience variables.
325 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
326 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
327 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
331 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
333 * Removed targets and native configurations
335 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
336 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
337 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
338 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
340 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
342 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
343 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
344 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
345 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
346 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
347 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
352 --enable-codesign=CERT
353 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
354 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
355 gdb to work properly.
357 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
358 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
360 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
362 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
363 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
364 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
366 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
367 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
369 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
370 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
371 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
372 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
373 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
375 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
376 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
377 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
378 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
380 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
381 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
383 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
384 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
385 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
387 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
388 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
389 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
391 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
392 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
393 environment" command.
395 * Completion improvements
397 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
398 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
399 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
400 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
403 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
404 (gdb) b function(int)
406 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
407 C++ anonymous namespaces:
410 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
411 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
412 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
414 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
415 completion support, that better understands what you're
416 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
417 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
418 setting a breakpoint.
420 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
422 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
424 * New command line options (gcore)
427 Dump all memory mappings.
429 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
431 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
432 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
433 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
435 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
440 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
443 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
444 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
445 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
446 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
447 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
448 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
449 a breakpoint from Python.
451 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
453 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
454 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
455 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
457 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
459 function[abi:cxx11](int)
462 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
465 (gdb) b function(int)
467 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
469 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
471 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
475 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
476 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
477 description of these.
479 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
480 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
481 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
483 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
484 manual for a further description of this feature.
487 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
489 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
490 specified initial working directory.
492 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
493 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
495 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
496 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
498 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
499 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
501 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
502 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
503 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
504 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
505 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
507 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
508 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
509 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
511 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
512 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
513 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
514 in the *stopped notification.
516 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
517 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
521 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
522 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
523 the inferior when starting it.
526 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
527 before starting the remote inferior.
530 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
531 user-set environment variables should be unset).
534 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
537 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
540 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
541 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
543 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
544 filter the tests to be run.
546 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
547 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
552 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
555 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
556 with the 'compile' commands.
558 set debug separate-debug-file
559 show debug separate-debug-file
560 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
562 set dump-excluded-mappings
563 show dump-excluded-mappings
564 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
565 dumped when generating a core file.
568 List the registered selftests.
571 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
574 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
576 set|show print type nested-type-limit
577 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
578 type printer will show.
580 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
583 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
585 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
588 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
589 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
590 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
591 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
593 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
594 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
595 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
596 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
597 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
598 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
600 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
601 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
602 unless you tell it the variable's type:
605 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
609 * New native configurations
611 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
612 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
616 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
617 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
618 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
620 * Removed targets and native configurations
622 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
624 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
626 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
627 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
628 available in future Intel CPUs.
630 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
634 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
635 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
637 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
640 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
642 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
644 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
645 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
648 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
650 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
651 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
653 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
655 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
656 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
657 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
658 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
661 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
663 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
664 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
667 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
669 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
670 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
672 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
674 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
679 eval "print $arg%d", $i
684 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
686 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
687 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
689 * New native configurations
691 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
695 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
696 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
698 * Removed targets and native configurations
700 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
701 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
706 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
708 maint print arc arc-instruction address
709 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
713 set disassembler-options
714 show disassembler-options
715 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
716 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
717 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
718 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
719 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
724 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
725 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
727 -file-list-shared-libraries
728 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
729 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
732 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
733 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
735 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
737 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
739 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
740 default. One must now explicitly configure with
741 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
742 option will be removed in a future release.
744 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
747 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
748 memory backward from the given address. For example:
751 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
752 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
753 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
754 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
755 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
756 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
757 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
758 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
759 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
761 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
762 arrays of dynamic types.
764 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
765 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
766 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
767 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
768 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
769 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
771 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
774 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
775 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
776 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
778 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
780 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
781 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
782 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
783 signal received and code location.
787 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
788 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
789 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
790 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
792 * Rust language support.
793 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
794 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
797 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
799 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
800 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
801 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
802 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
803 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
804 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
805 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
806 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
807 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
808 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
811 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
813 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
814 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
819 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
820 skip -function function
821 skip -rfunction regular-expression
822 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
823 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
824 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
826 maint info line-table REGEXP
827 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
830 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
833 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
834 using the TTY file for input/output.
838 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
839 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
840 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
841 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
842 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
845 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
846 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
847 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
848 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
851 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
852 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
853 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
855 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
858 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
859 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
860 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
861 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
862 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
863 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
865 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
866 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
867 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
868 bytecode into native code.
870 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
871 recording. For example:
873 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
875 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
877 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
881 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
883 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
885 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
887 * Per-inferior thread numbers
889 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
890 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
891 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
895 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
896 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
897 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
898 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
900 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
901 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
902 are no longer unique between inferiors.
904 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
905 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
906 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
908 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
911 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
912 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
915 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
918 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
919 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
920 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
921 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
924 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
927 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
930 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
933 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
934 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
937 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
938 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
940 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
942 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
944 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
945 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
947 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
948 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
951 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
952 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
955 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
956 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
959 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
961 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
962 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
963 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
965 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
966 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
970 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
971 maint show target-non-stop
972 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
973 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
974 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
976 maint set bfd-sharing
977 maint show bfd-sharing
978 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
982 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
986 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
988 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
989 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
990 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
992 set remote thread-events
993 show remote thread-events
994 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
996 set ada print-signatures on|off
997 show ada print-signatures"
998 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
999 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
1003 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1004 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1005 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1007 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1008 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1009 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1010 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1011 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1012 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1014 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1015 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1017 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1018 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1020 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1022 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1023 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1024 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1025 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1026 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1027 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1029 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1030 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1033 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1035 * New remote packets
1038 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1040 exec-events feature in qSupported
1041 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1042 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1043 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1044 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1047 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1050 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1051 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1053 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1054 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1057 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1058 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1059 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1060 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1061 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1062 stop for that same thread.
1065 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1066 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1067 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1070 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1071 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1073 syscall_entry stop reason
1074 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1076 syscall_return stop reason
1077 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1079 * Extended-remote exec events
1081 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1082 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1083 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1085 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1086 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1087 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1089 * Thread names in remote protocol
1091 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1094 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1096 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1097 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1098 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1099 fork and exec catchpoints.
1101 * Remote syscall events
1103 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1104 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1106 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1107 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1108 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1112 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1113 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1118 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1119 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1120 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1121 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1122 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1123 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1125 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1127 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1128 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1129 including advance SIMD instructions.
1131 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1133 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1134 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1135 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1136 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1137 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1138 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1139 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1141 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1143 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1145 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1146 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1149 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1150 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1151 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1153 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1154 is now available on all platforms.
1156 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1157 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1158 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1159 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1160 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1161 backward compatibility.
1163 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1164 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1165 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1166 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1168 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1169 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1170 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1171 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1174 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1176 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1178 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1179 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1180 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1181 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1182 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1183 See "New remote packets" below.
1185 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1186 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1188 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1189 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1190 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1191 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1196 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1200 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1201 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1202 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1203 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1204 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1205 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1206 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1207 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1208 "const" version of the value respectively.
1212 maint print symbol-cache
1213 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1215 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1216 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1218 maint flush-symbol-cache
1219 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1223 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1226 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1230 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1233 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1234 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1238 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1241 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1243 maint btrace packet-history
1244 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1246 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1247 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1250 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1251 anew by the next "record" command.
1256 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1257 show debug dwarf-die
1258 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1260 set debug dwarf-read
1261 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1262 show debug dwarf-read
1263 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1265 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1266 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1267 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1268 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1270 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1271 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1272 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1273 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1275 set debug dwarf-line
1276 show debug dwarf-line
1277 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1280 show max-completions
1281 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1282 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1283 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1284 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1286 set history remove-duplicates
1287 show history remove-duplicates
1288 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1290 maint set symbol-cache-size
1291 maint show symbol-cache-size
1292 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1294 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1295 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1297 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1298 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1300 set debug linux-namespaces
1301 show debug linux-namespaces
1302 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1304 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1305 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1306 Intel Processor Trace format.
1307 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1308 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1310 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1311 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1314 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1315 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1317 * Python/Guile scripting
1319 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1320 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1322 * New remote packets
1324 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1325 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1327 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1328 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1331 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1332 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1335 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1336 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1340 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1341 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1342 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1346 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1347 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1350 Return information about files on the remote system.
1352 qXfer:exec-file:read
1353 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1354 create a process running on the remote system.
1357 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1358 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1359 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1360 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1363 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1366 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1368 vforkdone stop reason
1369 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1370 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1372 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1373 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1374 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1375 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1376 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1377 whether these features are enabled.
1379 * Extended-remote fork events
1381 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1382 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1383 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1384 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1386 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1387 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1388 the btrace record target.
1389 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1391 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1392 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1394 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1397 * Removed command line options
1399 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1401 * Removed targets and native configurations
1403 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1404 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1406 * New configure options
1409 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1410 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1412 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1413 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1414 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1415 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1417 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1421 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1423 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1425 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1429 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1430 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1431 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1432 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1433 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1434 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1435 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1436 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1437 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1438 selecting a new file to debug.
1439 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1440 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1442 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1445 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1446 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1447 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1448 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1450 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1452 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1453 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1454 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1455 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1457 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1458 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1459 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1460 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1461 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1462 interface with this new feature are:
1464 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1465 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1469 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1470 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1471 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1472 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1473 as "maint demangler-warning".
1475 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1476 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1478 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1479 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1482 maint print user-registers
1483 List all currently available "user" registers.
1485 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1486 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1487 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1489 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1490 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1491 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1494 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1495 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1496 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1497 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1500 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1501 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1502 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1503 switched threads meanwhile.
1505 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1507 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1508 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1509 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1510 is now the default mode.
1514 set debug symbol-lookup
1515 show debug symbol-lookup
1516 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1520 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1521 inferiors that have exited.
1525 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1529 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1531 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1532 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1533 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1534 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1535 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1537 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1538 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1539 its alias "share", instead.
1541 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1543 * New command line options
1546 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1548 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1549 as specified in ISO C99.
1551 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1552 with or without disassembly.
1556 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1557 available is determined at configure time.
1558 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1559 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1561 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1565 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1569 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1571 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1572 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1574 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1575 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1579 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1580 show print symbol-loading
1581 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1582 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1583 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1584 becomes less useful.
1586 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1587 show guile print-stack
1588 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1590 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1591 show auto-load guile-scripts
1592 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1594 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1595 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1596 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1597 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1598 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1599 usage of this option.
1601 set auto-connect-native-target
1603 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1604 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1605 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1607 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1608 show record btrace replay-memory-access
1609 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1611 maint set target-async (on|off)
1612 maint show target-async
1613 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1614 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1615 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1616 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1618 set mi-async (on|off)
1620 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1621 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1623 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1624 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1626 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1627 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1628 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1629 "set target-async on" command.
1631 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1633 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1634 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1635 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1636 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1637 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1639 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1640 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1641 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1643 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1644 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1645 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1646 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1647 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1648 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1649 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1651 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1652 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1654 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1655 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1656 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1658 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1659 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1660 memory or registers.
1662 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1664 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1665 remote. It now works with all targets.
1667 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1668 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1669 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1670 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1671 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1672 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1673 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1674 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1675 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1678 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1679 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1680 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1682 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1684 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1685 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1686 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1688 * New remote packets
1690 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1691 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1692 branch trace incrementally.
1696 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1697 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1699 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1700 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1701 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1702 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1703 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
1706 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1708 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1709 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1710 its alias "share", instead.
1712 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1713 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1718 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1719 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1720 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1721 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1722 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1723 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1724 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1725 commands and CLI execution commands.
1727 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
1729 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1730 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1731 recording has been added.
1733 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1735 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1736 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1738 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1739 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1740 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1741 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1742 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1743 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1746 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1748 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1750 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1751 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1752 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1753 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1758 (gdb) info registers rax
1761 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1762 "*value not available*".
1764 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1769 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1770 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1771 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1772 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1773 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1774 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1778 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1779 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1780 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1782 * Removed native configurations
1784 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1785 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1787 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1788 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1789 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1790 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1791 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1792 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1793 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1797 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1798 maint check-psymtabs
1799 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1801 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1802 maint expand-symtabs
1803 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1806 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1808 maint set|show per-command
1809 maint set|show per-command space
1810 maint set|show per-command time
1811 maint set|show per-command symtab
1812 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1814 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1815 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1816 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1817 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1818 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1821 info exceptions REGEXP
1822 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1823 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1828 set debug symfile off|on
1830 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1831 symbol tables within those files
1833 set print raw frame-arguments
1834 show print raw frame-arguments
1835 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1836 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1838 set remote trace-status-packet
1839 show remote trace-status-packet
1840 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1844 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1848 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1850 set startup-with-shell
1851 show startup-with-shell
1852 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1857 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1858 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1860 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1861 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1862 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1863 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1866 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1867 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1868 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1870 * New command-line options
1872 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1874 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1875 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1877 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1880 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1882 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1883 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1885 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1886 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1888 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1889 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1890 due to an uncaught signal.
1894 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1895 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1896 command, which should contain "language-option".
1898 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1899 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1901 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1902 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1903 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1904 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1905 "undefined-command-error-code".
1907 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1910 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1912 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1913 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1916 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1917 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1919 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1920 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1921 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1923 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1924 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1925 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1926 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1927 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1928 "exec-run-start-option".
1930 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1931 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1933 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1934 the new "info exceptions" command.
1936 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1937 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1938 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1942 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1943 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1944 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1947 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1948 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1950 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1951 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1952 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1954 * New remote packets
1958 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1959 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1960 involvemement at each single-step.
1962 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1963 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1964 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1965 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1966 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1967 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1970 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1972 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1973 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1975 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1976 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1977 trace state variables.
1979 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1982 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1983 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1985 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1987 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1988 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1989 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1990 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1992 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1994 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1995 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1996 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1997 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1999 set|show record full insn-number-max
2000 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2001 set|show record full memory-query
2003 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2004 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2005 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2006 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2007 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2011 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2012 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2014 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2015 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2016 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2018 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2019 instruction granularity
2021 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2022 function granularity
2024 * New native configurations
2026 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2027 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2028 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2029 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2033 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2034 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2035 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2036 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2037 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2039 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2040 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2041 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2042 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2043 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2044 --data-directory command-line option.
2046 * New command line options:
2048 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2049 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2051 * Removed command line options
2053 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2056 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2059 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2063 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2065 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2067 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2069 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2071 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2072 of architecture in the Python API.
2074 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2075 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2077 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2079 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2080 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2082 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2084 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2087 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2088 default for GCC since November 2000.
2090 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2092 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2093 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2095 * New configure options
2097 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2098 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2099 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2100 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2101 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2102 options allow the user to override that default.
2103 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2104 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2105 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2107 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2110 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2111 conditions to be attached.
2114 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2116 python-interactive [command]
2118 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2119 and print the result of expressions.
2122 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2124 enable type-printer [name]...
2125 disable type-printer [name]...
2126 Enable or disable type printers.
2130 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2131 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2136 set print type methods (on|off)
2137 show print type methods
2138 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2139 The default is to show them.
2141 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2142 show print type typedefs
2143 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2144 The default is to show them.
2146 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2147 show filename-display
2148 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2149 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2151 set trace-buffer-size
2152 show trace-buffer-size
2153 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2155 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2156 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2157 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2161 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2164 set debug coff-pe-read
2165 show debug coff-pe-read
2166 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2171 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2174 set debug notification
2175 show debug notification
2176 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2180 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2181 "=cmd-param-changed".
2182 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2183 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2184 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2185 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2186 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2187 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2188 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2189 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2191 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2192 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2193 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2194 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2195 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2196 library load/unload events.
2197 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2198 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2199 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2200 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2201 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2202 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2203 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2204 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2206 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2207 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2208 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2209 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2211 * New remote packets
2214 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2215 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2218 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2219 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2223 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2224 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2227 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2228 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2230 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2232 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2233 for more x32 ABI info.
2235 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2237 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2239 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2240 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2241 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2242 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2243 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2244 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2245 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2246 "info os msg" lists message queues
2247 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2249 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2250 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2251 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2252 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2253 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2254 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2256 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2257 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2258 record/replay support.
2260 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2264 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2267 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2269 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2270 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2272 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2274 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2275 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2277 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2278 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2279 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2282 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2283 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2285 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2286 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2287 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2289 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2290 object associated with a PC value.
2292 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2293 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2295 * Go language support.
2296 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2299 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2300 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2302 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2303 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2305 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2306 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2307 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2308 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2309 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2312 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2313 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2314 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2315 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2317 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2318 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2320 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2321 since December 2007.
2323 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2324 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2325 command does. For instance:
2327 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2329 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2330 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2331 created, using the "condition" command.
2333 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2334 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2336 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2338 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2339 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2340 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2341 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2342 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2343 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2344 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2345 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2347 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2348 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2349 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2350 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2351 the .gdb_index section.
2353 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2355 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2360 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2362 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2366 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2367 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2368 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2370 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2371 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2373 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2376 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2377 C++ and Java objects.
2379 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2380 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2381 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2382 configured with '--with-python'.
2384 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2385 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2386 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2387 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2388 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2389 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2390 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2392 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2393 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2394 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2395 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2397 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2398 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2399 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2400 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2402 ** "set print symbol"
2404 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2405 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2406 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2408 * Deprecated commands
2410 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2411 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2415 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2416 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2418 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2419 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2420 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2421 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2426 set mips compression
2427 show mips compression
2428 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2429 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2432 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2434 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2435 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2436 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2437 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2439 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2443 Disable auto-loading globally.
2446 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2448 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2449 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2450 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2452 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2453 show auto-load python-scripts
2454 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2456 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2457 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2458 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2460 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2461 show auto-load libthread-db
2462 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2464 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2465 show auto-load scripts-directory
2466 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2467 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2468 of the directories listed by this option.
2469 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2471 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2472 show auto-load safe-path
2473 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2474 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2476 set debug auto-load on|off
2477 show debug auto-load
2478 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2480 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2482 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2483 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2484 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2485 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2487 set dprintf-function <expr>
2488 show dprintf-function
2489 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2490 show dprintf-channel
2491 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2492 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2494 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2495 show disconnected-dprintf
2496 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2497 after GDB disconnects.
2499 * New configure options
2501 --with-auto-load-dir
2502 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2503 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2504 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2505 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2506 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2508 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2509 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2510 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2512 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2513 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2516 * New remote packets
2518 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2520 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2521 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2522 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2523 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2527 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2528 program without GDB involvement.
2530 * New command line options
2532 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2533 before loading inferior.
2534 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2535 execute it before loading inferior.
2537 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2539 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2540 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2541 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2542 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2545 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2546 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2548 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2549 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2550 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2551 target hardware watchpoint.
2553 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2554 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2555 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2556 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2560 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2561 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2564 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2565 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2566 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2567 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2568 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2571 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2574 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2575 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2576 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2577 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2578 corresponding value.
2580 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2581 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2582 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2585 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2586 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2587 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2588 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2590 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2592 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2595 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2596 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2597 available in the CLI.
2599 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2600 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2601 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2602 "some_type.items()".
2604 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2607 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2608 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2609 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2610 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2611 any anonymous fields.
2615 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2618 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2619 "=breakpoint-modified".
2621 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2623 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2624 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2625 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2628 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2629 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2630 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2631 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2632 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2634 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2635 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2637 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2638 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2639 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2640 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2641 use this option to specify where to find it.
2643 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2644 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2645 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2646 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2647 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2648 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2649 section in the user manual for more details.
2651 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2652 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2653 become available after that.
2655 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2657 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2658 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2664 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2665 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2669 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2670 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2671 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2673 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2674 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2675 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2677 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2678 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2679 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2680 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2681 name starts with a hyphen.
2683 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2684 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2685 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2686 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2687 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2688 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2689 number of bytes that will be collected.
2692 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2693 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2694 setting the variable trace-notes.
2697 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2698 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2699 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2702 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2703 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2704 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2705 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2706 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2709 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2710 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2711 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2715 set debug dwarf2-read
2716 show debug dwarf2-read
2717 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2718 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2720 set debug symtab-create
2721 show debug symtab-create
2722 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2723 creation. The default is off.
2726 show extended-prompt
2727 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2728 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2729 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2730 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2731 prompt is displayed.
2733 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2734 show print entry-values
2735 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2736 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2737 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2739 set debug entry-values
2740 show debug entry-values
2741 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2742 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2744 set basenames-may-differ
2745 show basenames-may-differ
2746 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2747 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2748 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2749 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2750 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2751 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2752 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2753 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2759 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2760 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2761 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2762 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2764 set trace-stop-notes
2765 show trace-stop-notes
2766 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2767 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2768 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2769 started by someone else.
2771 * New remote packets
2775 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2779 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2783 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2787 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2791 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2794 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2795 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2799 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2803 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2805 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2807 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2809 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2811 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2812 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2813 matches the given regular expression.
2815 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2817 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2818 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2820 * New command line options
2822 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2823 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2825 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2826 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2828 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2829 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2830 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2832 * GDB now understands thread names.
2834 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2835 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2837 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2838 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2841 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2842 has been integrated into GDB.
2846 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2847 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2848 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2850 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2851 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2852 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2853 and allows for more dynamic content.
2855 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2856 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2857 have an is_valid method.
2859 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2860 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2861 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2863 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2865 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2866 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2867 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2868 that function like so:
2870 result = some_value (10,20)
2872 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2873 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2874 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2876 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2877 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2878 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2879 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2880 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2882 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2883 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2885 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2887 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2890 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2891 holds the thread's name.
2893 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2894 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2895 occurring in the process being debugged.
2896 The following events are currently supported:
2897 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2898 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2899 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2903 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2904 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2906 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2908 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2909 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2910 was added to GCC 4.5.
2912 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2913 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2914 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2915 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2916 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2917 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2919 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2920 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2921 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2922 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2923 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2925 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2926 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2927 execution to a label.
2929 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2930 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2931 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2932 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2934 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2935 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2936 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2939 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2941 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2942 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2943 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2944 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2945 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2946 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2949 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2951 While now you see this:
2954 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2956 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2959 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2960 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2961 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2962 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2964 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2965 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2966 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2967 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2968 section in the user manual for more details.
2970 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2972 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2973 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2975 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2977 * New native configurations
2979 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2983 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2985 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2986 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2987 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2988 in the GDB user manual.
2990 * Guile support was removed.
2992 * New features in the GNU simulator
2994 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2996 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2998 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3000 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3002 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3003 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3004 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3005 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3006 was always disabled for such configurations.
3010 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3012 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3013 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3023 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3024 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3025 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3027 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3029 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3030 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3031 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3032 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3034 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3035 mentioned flavors of operators.
3037 ** static const class members
3039 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3040 class definition has been fixed.
3042 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3044 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3045 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3046 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3047 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3048 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3049 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3051 * Static tracepoints
3053 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3054 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3055 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3056 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3057 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3058 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3059 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3060 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3061 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3062 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3063 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3064 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3065 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3066 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3067 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3068 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3069 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3070 the "New remote packets" section below.
3072 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3074 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3075 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3076 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3077 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3081 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3082 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3083 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3084 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3085 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3086 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3087 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3089 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3092 * New remote packets
3096 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3100 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3101 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3102 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3103 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3104 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3105 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3109 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3113 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3116 qXfer:statictrace:read
3118 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3119 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3120 to gdb's qSupported query.
3124 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3128 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3129 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3131 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3132 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3135 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3137 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3138 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3139 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3140 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3142 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3143 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3144 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3145 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3146 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3147 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3148 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3150 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3151 for static tracepoints support.
3153 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3155 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3156 it understands register description.
3158 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3160 * X86 general purpose registers
3162 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3163 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3164 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3165 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3166 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3168 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3169 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3170 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3171 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3172 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3173 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3175 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3176 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3177 in the specified file.
3179 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3180 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3181 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3182 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3183 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3184 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3185 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3186 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3187 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3188 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3192 eval template, expressions...
3193 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3194 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3196 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3197 show target-file-system-kind
3198 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3201 save breakpoints <filename>
3202 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3203 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3204 definitions, use the `source' command.
3206 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3209 info static-tracepoint-markers
3210 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3212 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3213 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3214 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3218 Enable and disable observer mode.
3220 set may-write-registers on|off
3221 set may-write-memory on|off
3222 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3223 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3224 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3225 set may-interrupt on|off
3226 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3227 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3228 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3229 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3230 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3231 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3232 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3234 set record memory-query on|off
3235 show record memory-query
3236 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3237 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3242 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3246 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3247 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3248 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3249 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3250 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3252 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3253 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3254 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3255 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3257 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3258 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3260 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3262 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3264 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3266 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3267 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3268 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3270 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3271 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3272 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3273 regular breakpoints.
3277 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3279 * D language support.
3280 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3283 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3284 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3285 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3286 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3287 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3289 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3290 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3291 conditions of the form:
3293 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3295 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3296 interface mentioned above.
3298 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3302 ** Namespace Support
3304 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3305 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3306 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3307 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3308 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3312 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3313 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3318 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3319 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3323 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3328 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3331 * Multi-program debugging.
3333 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3334 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3335 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3336 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3337 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3338 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3339 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3340 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3342 * New tracing features
3344 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3346 ** Trace state variables
3348 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3349 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3350 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3351 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3352 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3353 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3354 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3355 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3356 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3357 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3361 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3362 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3363 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3364 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3365 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3366 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3367 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3368 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3369 the regular trace command.
3371 ** Disconnected tracing
3373 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3374 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3375 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3376 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3377 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3381 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3382 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3383 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3384 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3385 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3386 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3389 ** Circular trace buffer
3391 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3392 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3393 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3394 not be available for all target agents.
3399 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3400 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3403 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3404 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3407 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3408 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3411 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3412 "set script-extension" (see below).
3414 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3416 record save [<FILENAME>]
3417 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3418 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3420 record restore <FILENAME>
3421 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3422 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3424 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3427 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3428 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3429 inferior has loaded.
3434 maint info program-spaces
3435 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3437 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3438 show remote interrupt-sequence
3439 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3440 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3441 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3442 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3443 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3445 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3446 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3447 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3448 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3451 set remotebreak [on | off]
3453 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3455 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3456 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3459 List trace state variables and their values.
3461 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3462 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3465 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3466 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3468 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3469 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3471 * New expression syntax
3473 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3474 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3478 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3479 show follow-exec-mode
3480 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3481 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3482 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3484 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3485 show default-collect
3486 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3487 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3488 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3490 set disconnected-tracing
3491 show disconnected-tracing
3492 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3493 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3496 set circular-trace-buffer
3497 show circular-trace-buffer
3498 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3499 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3500 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3501 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3503 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3504 show script-extension
3505 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3506 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3507 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3508 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3510 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3512 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3513 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3514 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3515 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3516 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3517 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3518 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3521 * Python API Improvements
3523 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3524 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3525 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3527 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3528 `is_base_class' attribute.
3530 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3532 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3533 evaluate an expression.
3535 * New remote packets
3538 Define a trace state variable.
3541 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3544 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3547 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3550 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3554 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3556 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3557 much more reliable. In particular:
3558 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3559 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3560 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3561 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3562 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3563 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3564 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3565 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3566 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3567 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3568 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3569 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3570 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3571 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3572 non-threaded programs.
3574 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3575 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3576 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3579 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
3581 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3582 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3583 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3584 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3585 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3587 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3588 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3589 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3590 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3591 for tracepoint actions.
3593 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3594 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3595 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
3597 * Process record and replay
3599 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3600 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3601 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3604 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3605 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3606 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3609 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3610 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3613 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3614 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3615 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3616 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3617 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3618 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3619 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3620 the installation instructions for more information.
3622 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3623 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3624 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3625 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3627 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3628 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3630 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3631 now complete on file names.
3633 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3634 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3635 For instance, consider:
3637 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3638 # struct example variable;
3641 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3642 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3644 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3645 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3647 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3648 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3651 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3652 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3653 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3655 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3656 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3657 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3658 and simulator targets may also provide them.
3660 * New remote packets
3663 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3666 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3667 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3668 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3671 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3672 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3675 Obtains additional operating system information
3679 Read or write additional signal information.
3681 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3683 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3684 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3685 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3687 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3688 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3690 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3691 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3692 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
3694 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3695 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3697 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3699 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3701 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3702 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3704 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
3705 list of section offsets.
3707 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3708 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3709 have also been fixed.
3711 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3712 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3713 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3715 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3718 template<typename T> class C { };
3721 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3723 ptype C<char const *>
3724 ptype C<char const*>
3725 ptype C<const char *>
3726 ptype C<const char*>
3728 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3730 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3731 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3733 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3734 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3735 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3737 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3738 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3740 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3743 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3744 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3746 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3747 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3752 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3753 available is determined at configure time.
3755 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3757 * Ada tasking support
3759 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3763 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3765 Print detailed information about task number N.
3767 Print the task number of the current task.
3769 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3771 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3772 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3774 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3776 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3777 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3778 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3779 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3780 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3781 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3784 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3785 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3788 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3789 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3790 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3791 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3794 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3796 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3797 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3798 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3799 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3800 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3802 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3803 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3804 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3805 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3806 --enable-targets configure option.
3808 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3810 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3811 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3812 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3813 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3814 section in the user manual for more information.
3816 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3817 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3818 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3819 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3820 extensions on linux targets.
3822 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3824 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3825 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3826 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3827 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3828 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3829 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3830 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3831 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3832 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3834 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3836 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3838 maint set python print-stack
3839 maint show python print-stack
3840 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3843 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3848 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3852 Show operating system information about processes.
3855 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3858 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3861 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3864 Kill inferior number NUM.
3868 set spu stop-on-load
3869 show spu stop-on-load
3870 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3872 set spu auto-flush-cache
3873 show spu auto-flush-cache
3874 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3875 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3877 set sh calling-convention
3878 show sh calling-convention
3879 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3882 show debug timestamp
3883 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3885 set disassemble-next-line
3886 show disassemble-next-line
3887 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3890 set remote noack-packet
3891 show remote noack-packet
3892 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3893 under "New remote packets."
3895 set remote query-attached-packet
3896 show remote query-attached-packet
3897 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3899 set remote read-siginfo-object
3900 show remote read-siginfo-object
3901 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3904 set remote write-siginfo-object
3905 show remote write-siginfo-object
3906 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3909 set remote reverse-continue
3910 show remote reverse-continue
3911 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3913 set remote reverse-step
3914 show remote reverse-step
3915 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3917 set displaced-stepping
3918 show displaced-stepping
3919 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3920 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3921 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3924 show debug displaced
3925 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3927 maint set internal-error
3928 maint show internal-error
3929 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3931 maint set internal-warning
3932 maint show internal-warning
3933 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3938 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3940 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3941 show multiple-symbols
3942 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3943 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3944 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3946 set breakpoint always-inserted
3947 show breakpoint always-inserted
3948 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3949 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3950 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3952 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3953 show arm fallback-mode
3954 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3956 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3957 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3958 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3959 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3961 set disable-randomization
3962 show disable-randomization
3963 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3964 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3965 multiple debugging sessions.
3969 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3974 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3975 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3976 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3977 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3979 set target-wide-charset
3980 show target-wide-charset
3981 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3982 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3984 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3986 set tcp connect-timeout
3987 show tcp connect-timeout
3988 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3989 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3990 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3992 set libthread-db-search-path
3993 show libthread-db-search-path
3994 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3997 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3998 show schedule-multiple
3999 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4000 the current process.
4004 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4005 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4006 affecting correctness.
4008 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4009 show interactive-mode
4010 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4011 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4012 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4013 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4014 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4019 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4020 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4021 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4025 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4026 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4027 alias for the `fork' command.
4030 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4031 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4032 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4035 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4036 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4037 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4041 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4042 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4043 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4046 * New native configurations
4048 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4050 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4054 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4055 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4056 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4059 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4060 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4066 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4068 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4070 * New native configurations
4072 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4073 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4077 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4078 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
4080 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4082 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4083 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4084 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4085 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4087 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4088 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4090 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4093 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4094 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4095 and in inlined functions.
4097 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4098 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4099 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4101 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4103 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4104 registers on PowerPC targets.
4106 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4107 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4109 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4110 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4112 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4113 extended-remote mode.
4115 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4116 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4117 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4118 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4120 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4121 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4122 target architectures.
4124 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4125 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4126 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4127 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4129 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4132 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4133 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4135 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4136 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4137 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4138 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4140 - Improved command completion in Ada
4143 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4148 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4149 show print frame-arguments
4150 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4151 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4156 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4163 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4165 * New remote packets
4172 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4175 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4179 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4181 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4183 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4184 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4185 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4187 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4188 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4189 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4191 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4192 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4195 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4196 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4198 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4199 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4201 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4203 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4204 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4205 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4207 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4208 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4210 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4211 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4214 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4215 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4216 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4218 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4221 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4222 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4223 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4225 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4227 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4229 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4230 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4231 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4233 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4234 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4236 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4237 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4238 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4239 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4240 Windows and SymbianOS).
4242 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4243 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4245 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4246 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4252 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4253 when debugging using remote targets.
4255 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4256 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4257 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4258 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4259 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4260 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4261 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4263 set breakpoint auto-hw
4264 show breakpoint auto-hw
4265 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4266 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4267 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4268 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4269 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4270 including "next" and "finish".
4273 catch exception unhandled
4274 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4277 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4281 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4282 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4283 an alias to "set sysroot".
4286 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4287 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4290 * New native configurations
4292 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4295 unset tdesc filename
4297 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4298 not query the target for its built-in description.
4302 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4303 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4304 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4306 * New remote packets
4309 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4310 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4312 qXfer:features:read:
4313 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4318 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4319 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4321 qXfer:libraries:read:
4322 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4323 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4324 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4325 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4329 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4337 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4338 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4339 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4340 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4342 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4345 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4346 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4355 * Other removed features
4362 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4369 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4374 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4375 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4380 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4381 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4383 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4385 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4386 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4387 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4388 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4390 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4392 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4393 in debugging information.
4397 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4398 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4400 set mips stack-arg-size
4401 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4403 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4405 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4410 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4412 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4413 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4414 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4416 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4417 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4420 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4421 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4423 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4424 stub provides the required support.
4426 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4427 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4432 unset substitute-path
4433 show substitute-path
4434 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4435 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4436 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4437 between compilation and debugging.
4441 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4442 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4443 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4447 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4449 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4450 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4452 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4454 * New remote packets
4457 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4458 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4459 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4460 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4464 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4465 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4467 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4468 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4469 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4474 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4476 * Removed remote packets
4479 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4480 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4482 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4486 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4488 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4492 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4493 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4495 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4497 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4499 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4500 previously saved state.
4502 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4504 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4506 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4507 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4509 info forks List forks of the user program that
4510 are available to be debugged.
4512 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4513 forks of the user program that are
4514 available to be debugged.
4516 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4517 that are available to be debugged (and
4518 kill the forked process).
4520 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4521 that are available to be debugged (and
4522 allow the process to continue).
4526 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4528 * Improved Windows host support
4530 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4531 native console support, and remote communications using either
4532 network sockets or serial ports.
4534 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4536 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4537 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4538 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4539 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4540 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4541 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4545 The ARM rdi-share module.
4547 The Netware NLM debug server.
4549 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4551 * New native configurations
4553 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4554 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4558 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4560 * New command line options
4562 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4563 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4564 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4565 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4566 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4567 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4568 with the --command (-x) option.
4570 * Deprecated commands removed
4572 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4576 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4577 othernames set arm disassembler
4578 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4579 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4580 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4583 * New BSD user-level threads support
4585 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4586 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4589 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4590 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4591 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4593 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4594 are not yet supported.
4596 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4597 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4599 * REMOVED configurations and files
4601 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4602 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4603 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4605 * New "set print array-indexes" command
4607 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4608 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4611 * VAX floating point support
4613 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4615 * User-defined command support
4617 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4618 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4619 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4621 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4623 * New command line option
4625 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4628 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4630 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4631 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4632 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4633 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4634 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4636 * Internationalization
4638 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4639 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4640 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4644 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4645 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4646 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4648 * New native configurations
4650 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4654 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4655 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4657 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4659 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4660 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4661 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4664 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4665 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4666 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4676 powerpc bdm protocol
4678 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4679 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4681 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4683 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4684 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4685 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4686 permanently REMOVED.
4695 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4697 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4699 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4700 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4703 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4705 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4706 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4707 IRIX long double values).
4711 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4712 command. This problem has been fixed.
4714 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4716 * Fix for ``many threads''
4718 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4719 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4722 ptrace: No such process.
4723 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4725 This problem has been fixed.
4727 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4729 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4732 * New ``start'' command.
4734 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4736 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4738 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4739 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4740 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4742 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4743 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4744 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4745 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4746 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4747 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4748 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4749 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4750 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4752 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
4754 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4755 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4756 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4757 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4758 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4760 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4761 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4762 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4764 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4766 * New native configurations
4768 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4769 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4770 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4771 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4772 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4773 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4774 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4776 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4778 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4779 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4780 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4781 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4782 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4783 work, was also included.
4785 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4786 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4796 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4797 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4799 * REMOVED configurations and files
4801 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4802 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4803 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4804 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4805 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4806 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4807 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4808 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4809 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4810 sonymips mips-sony-*
4811 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4813 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4815 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4817 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4818 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4819 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4820 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4823 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4825 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4826 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4827 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4828 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4829 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4830 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4833 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4835 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4837 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4838 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4839 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4841 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4843 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4844 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4846 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4848 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4849 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4850 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4852 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4854 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4855 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4857 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4859 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4860 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4861 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4863 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4865 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4866 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4867 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4869 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4871 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4873 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4874 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4876 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4878 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4879 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4880 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4881 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4883 * Revised SPARC target
4885 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4886 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4887 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4888 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4889 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4893 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4894 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4895 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4898 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4900 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4901 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4904 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4906 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4907 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4908 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4909 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4910 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4911 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4912 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4913 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4914 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4916 * New native configurations
4918 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4919 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4920 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4921 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4922 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4924 * New debugging protocols
4926 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4928 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4930 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4931 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4932 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4934 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4936 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4937 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4938 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4939 permanently REMOVED.
4941 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4942 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4943 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4944 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4945 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4946 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4947 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4948 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4949 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4950 sonymips mips-sony-*
4951 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4953 * REMOVED configurations and files
4955 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4956 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4957 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4958 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4959 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4960 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4961 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4962 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4963 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4964 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4965 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4966 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4967 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4968 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4969 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4970 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4971 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4973 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4977 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4978 integrated into GDB.
4980 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4982 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4983 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4984 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4987 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4988 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4989 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4993 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4994 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4995 remote protocol documentation for details.
4997 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4999 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5000 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5001 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5004 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5006 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5007 per-thread variables.
5009 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5011 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5012 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5014 * Separate debug info.
5016 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5017 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5018 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5019 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5020 and optional debug files.
5022 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5024 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5025 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5028 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5029 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5033 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5034 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5035 considered "useable".
5037 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5039 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5040 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5043 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5045 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5046 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5048 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5050 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5051 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5054 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5056 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5057 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5061 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5062 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5063 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5064 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5065 data, for more informative profiling results.
5067 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5069 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5070 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5071 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5073 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5076 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5077 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5078 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5079 in a subsequent -var-update.
5081 * New native configurations.
5083 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5085 * Multi-arched targets.
5087 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5088 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5090 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5092 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5093 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5094 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5095 permanently REMOVED.
5097 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5098 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5099 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5100 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5101 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5102 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5103 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5104 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5105 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5106 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5107 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5108 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5110 * REMOVED configurations and files
5113 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5114 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5115 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5116 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5117 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5118 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5120 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5121 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5122 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5123 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5124 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5125 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5127 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5129 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5130 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5131 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5132 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5133 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5135 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5137 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5139 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5140 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5141 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5142 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5143 shared libs like mad''.
5145 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5147 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5148 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5149 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5150 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5152 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5154 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5155 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5158 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5159 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5161 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5162 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5164 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5165 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5166 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5167 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5169 * Multi-arched targets.
5171 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5172 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5174 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5175 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5176 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5180 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5183 * New native configurations
5185 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5186 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5187 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5188 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5190 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5192 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5193 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5194 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5195 permanently REMOVED.
5197 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5198 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5199 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5200 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5201 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5202 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5203 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5204 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5205 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5206 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5208 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5209 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5211 * OBSOLETE languages
5213 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5215 * REMOVED configurations and files
5217 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5218 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5219 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5220 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5221 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5223 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5225 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5227 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5228 commands. The default is 1024.
5230 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5232 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5234 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5236 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5237 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5238 from a file into memory (restore).
5240 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5242 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5243 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5244 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5246 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5254 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5255 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5256 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5258 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5259 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5260 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5262 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5263 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5264 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5266 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5267 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5268 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5270 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5272 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5274 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5275 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5276 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5277 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5278 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5279 (notably embedded) targets.
5281 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5283 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5284 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5285 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5286 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5288 * New command line option
5290 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5292 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5294 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5295 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5296 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5297 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5298 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5299 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5300 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5301 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5302 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5303 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5305 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5307 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5308 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5310 * New native configurations
5312 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5313 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5314 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5315 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5319 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5321 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5323 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5324 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5325 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5326 permanently REMOVED.
5328 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5329 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5330 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5331 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5332 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5334 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5336 * REMOVED configurations and files
5338 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5340 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5341 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5342 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5343 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5344 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5345 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5346 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5347 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5348 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5349 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5350 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5352 * Changes to command line processing
5354 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5355 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5357 * Changes to key bindings
5359 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5361 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5363 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5365 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5368 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5370 Numerous documentation fixes.
5372 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5374 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5376 * New native configurations
5378 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5379 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5380 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5381 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5382 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5383 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5387 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5389 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5391 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5393 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5394 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5395 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5396 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5397 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5399 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5400 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5401 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5402 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5403 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5404 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5405 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5406 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5408 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5409 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5411 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5412 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5413 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5414 permanently REMOVED.
5416 * REMOVED configurations and files
5418 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5419 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5421 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5425 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5427 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5428 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5433 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5435 * The MI enabled by default.
5437 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5438 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5439 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5440 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5441 which is now deprecated.
5443 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5445 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5446 main features are supported:
5448 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5450 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5453 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5455 - a Pascal expression parser.
5457 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5459 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5461 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5463 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5464 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5466 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5468 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5470 * Changes in completion.
5472 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5473 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5474 users expect at the shell prompt.
5476 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5477 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5478 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5479 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5480 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5481 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5482 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5484 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5486 * New platform-independent commands:
5488 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5489 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5490 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5492 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5494 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5495 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5496 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5498 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5500 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5501 multi-threaded programs though.
5503 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5505 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5507 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5508 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5511 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5513 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5514 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5515 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5516 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5517 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5520 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5521 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5522 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5524 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5526 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5527 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5529 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5530 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5533 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5534 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5535 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5536 a given linear address.
5538 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5539 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5540 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5542 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5544 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5546 * Changes in documentation.
5548 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5549 Documentation License.
5551 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5554 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5556 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5559 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5560 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5561 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5563 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5565 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5566 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5567 contents of this file.
5571 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5573 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5575 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5577 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5578 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5579 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5580 greater level of detail.
5582 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5584 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5585 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5586 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5589 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5591 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5592 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5593 machines ``out of the box''.
5595 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5596 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5597 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5598 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5599 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5601 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5602 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5603 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5604 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5605 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5607 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5608 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5611 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5614 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5615 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5616 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5617 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5619 * New native configurations
5621 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5622 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5626 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5627 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5628 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5629 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5631 * OBSOLETE configurations
5633 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5634 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5636 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5639 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5640 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5641 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5642 be permanently REMOVED.
5644 * Gould support removed
5646 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5648 * New features for SVR4
5650 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5651 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5652 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5654 * Many C++ enhancements
5656 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5657 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5659 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5661 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5662 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5663 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5664 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5666 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5667 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5669 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
5671 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5672 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5673 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5675 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5676 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5678 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5680 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5681 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5682 include ``set remote P-packet''.
5684 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5686 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5687 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5688 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5690 * ``apropos'' command added.
5692 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5693 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5694 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5698 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5699 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
5700 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5701 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5702 enabled by configuring with:
5704 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5706 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5708 * New native configurations
5710 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5711 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5712 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5716 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5717 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5718 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5720 * OBSOLETE configurations
5722 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5724 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5725 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5726 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5727 be permanently REMOVED.
5731 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5732 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5733 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5734 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5735 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5736 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5737 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5742 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5744 * set extension-language
5746 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5747 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5748 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5749 set extension-language .c c++
5750 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5751 and their associated languages.
5753 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5755 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5756 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5757 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5761 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5762 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5764 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5765 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5767 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5768 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5769 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5770 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5771 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5772 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5773 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5774 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5776 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5777 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5778 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5779 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5783 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5784 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5785 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5786 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5787 for xdb and dbx commands.
5791 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5792 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5793 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5795 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5796 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5797 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5799 * Debugging across forks
5801 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5806 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5807 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5808 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5810 * GDB remote protocol additions
5812 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5813 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5814 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5815 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5817 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5818 full 64-bit address. The command
5820 set remoteaddresssize 32
5822 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5823 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5826 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5827 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5829 maint packet heythere
5831 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5832 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5835 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5836 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5837 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5839 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5841 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5842 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5843 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5845 * mask-address variable for Mips
5847 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5848 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5849 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5851 * Higher serial baud rates
5853 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5854 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5855 to achieve all of these rates.)
5859 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5860 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5863 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5865 * New native configurations
5867 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5868 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5869 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5870 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5871 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5872 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5873 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5877 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5878 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5879 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5880 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5881 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5882 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5883 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5884 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5885 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5886 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5887 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5889 * New debugging protocols
5891 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5892 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5893 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5894 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5895 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5896 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5900 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5901 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5906 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5907 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5909 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5911 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5912 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5913 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5915 * Live range splitting
5917 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5918 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5919 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5923 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5924 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5928 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5929 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5930 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5935 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5940 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5941 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5942 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5943 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5944 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5945 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5949 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5950 the symbol at the specified address.
5954 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5955 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5956 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5957 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5958 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5962 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5963 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5964 of most MIPS variants.
5968 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5969 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5970 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5974 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5975 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5976 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5977 the possible architectures.
5979 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5981 * New native configurations
5983 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5984 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5985 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5986 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5987 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5988 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5992 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5993 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5994 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5995 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5996 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5998 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6002 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6003 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6004 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6005 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6006 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6010 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6012 * Windows 95/NT native
6014 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6015 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6016 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6017 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6018 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6020 * dont-repeat command
6022 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6023 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6024 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6025 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6027 * Send break instead of ^C
6029 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6030 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6031 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6033 * Remote protocol timeout
6035 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6036 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6037 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6039 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6041 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6042 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6043 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6044 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6045 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6047 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6048 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6049 automatically on hpux10.
6051 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6053 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6055 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6057 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6058 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6059 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6060 every character. The default value is 1050.
6062 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6064 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6065 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6066 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6067 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6068 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6069 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6071 * Speedups for remote debugging
6073 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6074 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6075 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6077 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6079 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6080 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6082 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6084 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6086 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6087 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6089 * Remote targets use caching
6091 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6092 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6093 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6094 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6095 off' turns the the data cache off.
6097 * Remote targets may have threads
6099 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6100 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6101 gdb/remote.c for details.
6105 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6106 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6107 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6108 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6109 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6110 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6111 sequence is something like
6113 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6115 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6119 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6120 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6121 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6122 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6123 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6124 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6125 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6126 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6130 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6131 but does simplify configuration and building.
6135 GDB now supports hpux10.
6137 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6139 * New native configurations
6141 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6142 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6143 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6144 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6148 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6149 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6150 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6151 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6154 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6156 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6157 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6158 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6159 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6160 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6162 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6164 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6165 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6168 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6170 To execute the command use:
6173 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6174 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6175 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6177 * New `if' and `while' commands
6179 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6180 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6181 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6182 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6183 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6184 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6185 if the expression is zero.
6187 * Fortran source language mode
6189 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6190 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6191 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6192 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6195 * Better HPUX support
6197 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6198 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6199 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6200 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6201 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6207 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6208 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6214 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6215 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6218 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6219 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6221 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6223 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6224 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6225 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6226 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6227 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6228 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6230 * New DOS host serial code
6232 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6233 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6236 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6238 * New "complete" command
6240 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6241 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6243 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6245 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6246 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6248 * Breakpoint hit counts
6250 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6251 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6252 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6253 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6254 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6257 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6259 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6260 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6261 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6263 * Shared library breakpoints
6265 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6266 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6268 * Hardware watchpoints
6270 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6271 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6273 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6277 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6278 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6280 * Improved Irix 5 support
6282 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6284 * Improved HPPA support
6286 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6288 * New native configurations
6290 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6291 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6292 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6293 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6297 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6298 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6301 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6303 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6304 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6308 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6309 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6311 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6313 * Irix 5 is now supported
6317 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6318 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6319 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6320 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6321 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6324 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6326 * User visible changes:
6330 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6331 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6332 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6333 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6334 debugging info for the mips target).
6336 * DEC Alpha native support
6338 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6339 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6340 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6341 Alpha-specific notes.
6343 * Preliminary thread implementation
6345 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6347 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6349 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6350 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6353 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6355 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6356 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6357 call methods, ...etc.
6359 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6361 * User visible changes:
6363 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6364 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6365 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6366 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6368 Filename completion now works.
6370 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6371 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6372 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6374 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6375 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6376 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6377 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6378 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6382 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6383 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6386 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6390 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6391 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6392 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6396 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6397 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6398 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6399 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6400 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6404 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6405 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6406 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6408 * New targets supported
6410 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6411 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6412 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6413 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6414 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6416 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6417 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6418 GO32 memory extender.
6420 * New remote protocols
6422 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6424 * New source languages supported
6426 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6427 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6428 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6431 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6433 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6435 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6436 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6437 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6438 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6439 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6440 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6442 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6444 * Faster and better demangling
6446 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6447 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6448 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6449 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6450 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6451 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6454 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6455 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6456 compiler does not actually implement.
6458 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6460 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6461 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6462 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6463 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6464 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6465 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6468 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6469 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6471 * Improved configure script
6473 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6474 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6475 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6476 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6478 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6479 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6480 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6481 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6482 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6483 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6485 * Documentation improvements
6487 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6488 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6489 before submitting changes.
6491 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6492 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6493 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6494 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6495 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6497 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6498 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6499 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6500 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6501 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6502 around this problem.
6506 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6507 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6508 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6511 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6512 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6514 * New native hosts supported
6516 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6517 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6519 * New targets supported
6521 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6523 * New file formats supported
6525 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6526 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6530 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6532 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6533 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6535 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6536 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6537 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6539 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6540 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6542 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6543 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6544 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6547 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6548 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6549 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6550 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6551 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6553 * Internal improvements
6555 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6556 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6558 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6559 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6560 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6561 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6562 shared code that handles any of them.
6564 * New command line options
6566 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6570 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6571 General Public License.
6573 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6575 * Host/native/target split
6577 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6578 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6579 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6580 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6581 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6583 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6584 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6585 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6586 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6587 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6588 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6589 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6591 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6592 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6593 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6595 * New hosts supported
6597 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6598 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6599 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6601 * New targets supported
6603 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6604 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6606 * New native hosts supported
6608 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6609 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6610 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6612 * New file formats supported
6614 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6615 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6616 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6620 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6621 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6622 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6624 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6626 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6627 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6628 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6629 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6633 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6634 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6635 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6637 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6641 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6642 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6645 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6646 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6648 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6649 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6650 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6651 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6652 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6653 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6655 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6656 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6657 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6658 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6662 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6663 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6664 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6665 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6666 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6668 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6669 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6670 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6671 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6675 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6676 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6677 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6678 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6679 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6680 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6681 each instruction being stepped through.
6683 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6684 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6686 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6687 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6688 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6689 processor with a serial port.
6693 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6694 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6695 supported, and what files each one uses.
6699 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6700 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6701 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6702 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6704 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6705 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6706 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6707 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6711 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6712 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6713 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6714 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6715 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6716 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6718 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6721 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6723 * Better support for C++ function names
6725 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6726 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6727 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6728 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6729 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6731 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6732 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6733 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6734 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6735 for the list of formats.
6737 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6739 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6740 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6741 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6742 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6743 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6744 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6747 * New 'maintenance' command
6749 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6750 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6751 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6753 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6754 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6755 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6756 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6757 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6758 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6760 The following commands are new:
6762 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6763 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6764 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6766 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6768 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6769 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6770 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6771 read after argv processing.
6773 * New hosts supported
6775 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6777 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6779 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6780 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6781 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6782 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6783 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6786 * New targets supported
6788 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6790 * More smarts about finding #include files
6792 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6793 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6794 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6795 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6796 the one that contains your sources.
6798 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6799 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6800 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6802 * Interesting infernals change
6804 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6805 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6806 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6807 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6809 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6811 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6812 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6813 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6815 See the ChangeLog for details.
6817 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6819 * New machines supported (host and target)
6821 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6823 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6825 * New malloc package
6827 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6828 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6829 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6830 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6831 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6832 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6836 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6837 'help info proc' for details.
6839 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6841 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6842 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6845 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6847 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6848 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6849 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6850 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6851 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6852 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6854 * Cross byte order fixes
6856 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6857 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6859 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6861 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6862 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6863 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6864 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6865 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6866 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6867 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6868 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6869 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6870 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6872 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6873 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6874 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6875 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6877 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6878 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6879 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6882 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6884 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6885 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6886 shared across multiple host platforms.
6888 * longjmp() handling
6890 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6891 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6892 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6893 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6897 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6898 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6903 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6904 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6905 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6907 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6909 * New machines supported (host and target)
6911 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6913 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6914 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6916 * New machines supported (target)
6918 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6922 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6923 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6924 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6926 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6927 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6928 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6929 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6930 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6933 * New features for SVR4
6935 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6936 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6937 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6939 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6940 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6941 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6943 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6944 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6946 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6948 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6949 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6950 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6951 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6952 same code linked statically.
6956 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6957 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6958 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6959 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6960 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6961 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6965 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6966 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6967 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6970 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6972 * New machines supported (host and target)
6974 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6975 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6976 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6978 * Almost SCO Unix support
6980 We had hoped to support:
6981 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6982 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6983 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6984 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6986 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6988 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6989 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6990 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6991 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6996 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6997 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6998 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7002 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7003 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7004 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7006 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7008 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7009 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7010 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7012 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7013 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7014 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7015 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7018 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7019 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7020 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7021 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7024 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7025 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7028 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7029 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7030 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7033 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7035 * Improved configuration
7037 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7038 Porting BFD is simpler.
7042 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7043 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7044 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7045 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7049 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7051 * New host supported (not target)
7053 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7056 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7058 * Multiple source language support
7060 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7061 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7062 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7063 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7064 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7065 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7069 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7070 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7071 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7072 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7074 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7075 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7076 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7078 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7079 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7083 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7084 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7085 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7086 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7089 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7091 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7092 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7093 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7094 examining core files.
7098 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7101 * New machines supported (host and target)
7103 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7104 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7105 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7107 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7109 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7111 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7113 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7114 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7115 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7117 * New remote interfaces
7123 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7127 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7129 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7130 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7131 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7132 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7133 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7134 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7135 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7136 stub on the target system.
7138 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7140 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7141 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7142 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7144 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7145 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7148 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7150 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7151 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7153 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7154 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7155 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7157 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7158 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7159 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7160 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7162 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7163 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7164 it is already running. Default is ON.
7166 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7167 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7168 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7169 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7172 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7173 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7174 or the value of the environment variable
7177 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7178 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7181 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7182 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7183 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7185 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7186 history expansion will be performed on
7187 command line input. The default is OFF.
7189 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7190 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7191 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7193 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7194 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7195 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7198 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7199 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7200 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7203 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7204 ``set width'' instead.
7206 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7207 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7208 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7209 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7211 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7214 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7217 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7220 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7223 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7225 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7226 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7227 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7231 * Support for Shared Libraries
7233 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7234 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7235 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7236 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7237 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7238 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7239 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7240 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7242 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7243 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7244 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7246 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7251 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7252 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7253 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7254 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7255 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7256 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7258 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7260 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7262 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7263 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7264 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7267 * C++ multiple inheritance
7269 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7272 * C++ exception handling
7274 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7275 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7276 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7279 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7280 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7281 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7283 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7284 current stack frame.
7287 * Minor command changes
7289 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7290 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7291 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7293 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7294 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7295 frames without printing.
7297 * New directory command
7299 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7300 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7301 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7302 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7303 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7305 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7307 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7310 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7311 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7312 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7313 where the program that you are debugging will run.