1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.1
6 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
8 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
9 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
10 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
11 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
12 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
13 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
19 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
21 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
22 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
25 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
27 - GDBserver now support tracepoints. The feature is currently
28 supported by the i386-linux and amd64-linux builds.
30 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
32 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
33 it understands register description.
35 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
37 * X86 general purpose registers
39 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
40 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
41 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
42 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
43 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
45 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
46 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
47 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
48 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
49 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
50 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
52 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
53 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
54 in the specified file.
56 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
57 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
58 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
59 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
60 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
61 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
62 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
63 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
64 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
65 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
69 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
70 show target-file-system-kind
71 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
74 save breakpoints <filename>
75 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
76 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
77 definitions, use the `source' command.
79 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
84 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
85 tables, program spaces, and frame's code blocks. Additionally, GDB
86 Parameters can now be created from the API, and manipulated via
89 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
90 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
92 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
94 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
96 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
97 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
98 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
100 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
101 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
102 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
107 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
109 * D language support.
110 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
113 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
119 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
120 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
121 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
122 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
123 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
127 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
128 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
133 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
134 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
138 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
143 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
146 * Multi-program debugging.
148 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
149 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
150 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
151 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
152 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
153 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
154 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
155 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
157 * New tracing features
159 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
161 ** Trace state variables
163 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
164 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
165 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
166 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
167 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
168 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
169 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
170 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
171 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
172 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
176 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
177 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
178 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
179 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
180 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
181 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
182 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
183 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
184 the regular trace command.
186 ** Disconnected tracing
188 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
189 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
190 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
191 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
192 connection is lost unexpectedly.
196 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
197 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
198 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
199 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
200 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
201 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
204 ** Circular trace buffer
206 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
207 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
208 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
209 not be available for all target agents.
214 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
215 the arguments to be comma-separated.
218 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
219 which only declare a variable are not shown.
222 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
223 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
226 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
227 "set script-extension" (see below).
229 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
231 record save [<FILENAME>]
232 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
233 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
235 record restore <FILENAME>
236 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
237 earlier time, for replay debugging.
239 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
242 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
243 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
249 maint info program-spaces
250 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
252 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
253 show remote interrupt-sequence
254 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
255 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
256 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
257 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
258 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
260 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
261 show remote interrupt-on-connect
262 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
263 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
266 set remotebreak [on | off]
268 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
270 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
271 Create or modify a trace state variable.
274 List trace state variables and their values.
276 delete tvariable $NAME ...
277 Delete one or more trace state variables.
280 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
281 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
283 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
284 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
286 * New expression syntax
288 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
289 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
293 set follow-exec-mode new|same
294 show follow-exec-mode
295 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
296 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
297 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
299 set default-collect EXPR, ...
301 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
302 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
303 such as registers or a critical global variable.
305 set disconnected-tracing
306 show disconnected-tracing
307 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
308 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
311 set circular-trace-buffer
312 show circular-trace-buffer
313 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
314 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
315 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
316 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
318 set script-extension off|soft|strict
319 show script-extension
320 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
321 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
322 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
323 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
325 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
327 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
328 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
329 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
330 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
331 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
332 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
333 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
336 * Python API Improvements
338 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
339 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
340 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
342 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
343 `is_base_class' attribute.
345 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
347 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
348 evaluate an expression.
353 Define a trace state variable.
356 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
359 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
362 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
365 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
369 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
371 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
372 much more reliable. In particular:
373 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
374 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
375 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
376 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
377 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
378 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
379 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
380 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
381 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
382 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
383 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
384 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
385 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
386 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
387 non-threaded programs.
389 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
390 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
391 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
394 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
396 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
397 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
398 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
399 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
400 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
402 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
403 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
404 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
405 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
406 for tracepoint actions.
408 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
409 in hex as well as in symbolic form.
411 * Process record and replay
413 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
414 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
415 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
418 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
419 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
420 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
423 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
424 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
427 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
428 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
429 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
430 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
431 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
432 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
433 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
434 the installation instructions for more information.
436 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
437 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
438 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
439 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
441 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
442 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
444 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
445 now complete on file names.
447 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
448 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
449 For instance, consider:
451 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
452 # struct example variable;
455 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
456 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
458 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
459 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
461 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
462 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
465 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
466 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
467 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
469 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
470 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
471 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
472 and simulator targets may also provide them.
477 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
480 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
481 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
482 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
485 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
486 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
489 Obtains additional operating system information
493 Read or write additional signal information.
495 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
497 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
498 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
499 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
501 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
504 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
505 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
507 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
508 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
509 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
511 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
512 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
514 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
516 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
518 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
519 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
521 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
522 list of section offsets.
524 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
525 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
526 have also been fixed.
528 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
529 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
530 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
532 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
535 template<typename T> class C { };
538 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
540 ptype C<char const *>
542 ptype C<const char *>
545 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
547 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
548 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
550 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
551 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
552 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
554 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
555 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
557 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
560 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
561 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
563 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
564 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
569 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
570 available is determined at configure time.
572 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
574 * Ada tasking support
576 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
580 Print the list of Ada tasks.
582 Print detailed information about task number N.
584 Print the task number of the current task.
586 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
588 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
589 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
591 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
593 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
594 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
595 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
596 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
597 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
598 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
601 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
602 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
605 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
606 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
607 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
608 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
611 * Multi-architecture debugging.
613 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
614 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
615 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
616 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
617 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
619 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
620 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
621 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
622 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
623 --enable-targets configure option.
625 * Non-stop mode debugging.
627 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
628 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
629 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
630 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
631 section in the user manual for more information.
633 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
634 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
635 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
636 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
637 extensions on linux targets.
639 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
641 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
642 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
643 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
644 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
645 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
646 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
647 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
648 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
649 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
651 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
653 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
655 maint set python print-stack
656 maint show python print-stack
657 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
660 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
665 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
669 Show operating system information about processes.
672 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
675 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
678 Detach from inferior number NUM.
681 Kill inferior number NUM.
686 show spu stop-on-load
687 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
689 set spu auto-flush-cache
690 show spu auto-flush-cache
691 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
692 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
694 set sh calling-convention
695 show sh calling-convention
696 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
700 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
702 set disassemble-next-line
703 show disassemble-next-line
704 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
707 set remote noack-packet
708 show remote noack-packet
709 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
710 under "New remote packets."
712 set remote query-attached-packet
713 show remote query-attached-packet
714 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
716 set remote read-siginfo-object
717 show remote read-siginfo-object
718 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
721 set remote write-siginfo-object
722 show remote write-siginfo-object
723 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
726 set remote reverse-continue
727 show remote reverse-continue
728 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
730 set remote reverse-step
731 show remote reverse-step
732 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
734 set displaced-stepping
735 show displaced-stepping
736 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
737 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
738 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
742 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
744 maint set internal-error
745 maint show internal-error
746 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
748 maint set internal-warning
749 maint show internal-warning
750 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
755 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
757 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
758 show multiple-symbols
759 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
760 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
761 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
763 set breakpoint always-inserted
764 show breakpoint always-inserted
765 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
766 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
767 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
769 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
770 show arm fallback-mode
771 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
773 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
774 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
775 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
776 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
778 set disable-randomization
779 show disable-randomization
780 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
781 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
782 multiple debugging sessions.
786 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
791 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
792 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
793 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
794 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
796 set target-wide-charset
797 show target-wide-charset
798 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
799 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
801 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
803 set tcp connect-timeout
804 show tcp connect-timeout
805 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
806 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
807 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
809 set libthread-db-search-path
810 show libthread-db-search-path
811 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
814 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
815 show schedule-multiple
816 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
821 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
822 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
823 affecting correctness.
825 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
826 show interactive-mode
827 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
828 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
829 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
830 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
831 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
836 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
837 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
838 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
842 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
843 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
844 alias for the `fork' command.
847 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
848 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
849 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
852 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
853 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
854 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
858 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
859 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
860 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
863 * New native configurations
865 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
867 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
871 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
872 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
873 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
876 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
877 (mingw32ce) debugging.
883 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
885 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
887 * New native configurations
889 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
890 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
894 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
895 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
897 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
899 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
900 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
901 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
902 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
904 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
905 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
907 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
910 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
911 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
912 and in inlined functions.
914 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
915 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
916 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
918 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
920 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
921 registers on PowerPC targets.
923 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
924 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
926 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
927 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
929 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
930 extended-remote mode.
932 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
933 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
934 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
935 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
937 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
938 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
939 target architectures.
941 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
942 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
943 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
944 stored in two consecutive float registers.
946 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
949 * Improved support for debugging Ada
950 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
952 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
953 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
954 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
955 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
957 - Improved command completion in Ada
960 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
965 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
966 show print frame-arguments
967 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
968 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
973 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
980 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
989 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
992 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
996 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
998 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
1000 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1001 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1002 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1004 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1005 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1006 -Bsymbolic linker option.
1008 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1009 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1012 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1013 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1015 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1016 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
1018 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1020 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1021 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1022 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1024 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1025 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1027 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1028 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1031 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1032 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1033 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1035 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1038 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1039 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1040 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1042 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1044 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1046 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1047 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1048 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1050 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1051 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1053 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1054 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1055 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1056 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1057 Windows and SymbianOS).
1059 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1060 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1062 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1063 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1069 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1070 when debugging using remote targets.
1072 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1073 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1074 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1075 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1076 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1077 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1078 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1080 set breakpoint auto-hw
1081 show breakpoint auto-hw
1082 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1083 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1084 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1085 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1086 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1087 including "next" and "finish".
1090 catch exception unhandled
1091 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1094 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1098 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1099 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1100 an alias to "set sysroot".
1103 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1104 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1107 * New native configurations
1109 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1112 unset tdesc filename
1114 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1115 not query the target for its built-in description.
1119 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1120 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1121 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1123 * New remote packets
1126 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1127 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1129 qXfer:features:read:
1130 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1135 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1136 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1138 qXfer:libraries:read:
1139 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1140 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1141 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1142 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1146 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1154 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1155 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1156 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1157 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1159 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1162 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1163 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1172 * Other removed features
1179 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1186 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1191 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1192 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1197 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1198 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1200 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1202 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1203 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1204 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1205 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1207 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1209 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1210 in debugging information.
1214 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1215 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1217 set mips stack-arg-size
1218 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1220 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1222 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1227 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1229 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1230 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1231 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1233 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1234 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1237 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1238 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1240 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1241 stub provides the required support.
1243 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1244 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1249 unset substitute-path
1250 show substitute-path
1251 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1252 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1253 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1254 between compilation and debugging.
1258 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1259 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1260 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1264 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1266 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1267 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1269 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1271 * New remote packets
1274 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1275 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1276 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1277 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1281 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1282 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1284 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1285 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1286 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1291 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1293 * Removed remote packets
1296 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1297 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1299 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1303 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1305 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1309 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1310 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1312 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1314 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1316 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1317 previously saved state.
1319 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1321 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1323 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1324 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1326 info forks List forks of the user program that
1327 are available to be debugged.
1329 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1330 forks of the user program that are
1331 available to be debugged.
1333 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1334 that are available to be debugged (and
1335 kill the forked process).
1337 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1338 that are available to be debugged (and
1339 allow the process to continue).
1343 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1345 * Improved Windows host support
1347 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1348 native console support, and remote communications using either
1349 network sockets or serial ports.
1351 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1353 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1354 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1355 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1356 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1357 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1358 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1362 The ARM rdi-share module.
1364 The Netware NLM debug server.
1366 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1368 * New native configurations
1370 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1371 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1375 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1377 * New command line options
1379 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1380 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1381 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1382 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1383 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1384 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1385 with the --command (-x) option.
1387 * Deprecated commands removed
1389 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1393 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1394 othernames set arm disassembler
1395 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1396 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1397 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1400 * New BSD user-level threads support
1402 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1403 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1406 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1407 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1408 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1410 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1411 are not yet supported.
1413 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1414 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1416 * REMOVED configurations and files
1418 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1419 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1420 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1422 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1424 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1425 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1428 * VAX floating point support
1430 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1432 * User-defined command support
1434 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1435 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1436 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1438 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1440 * New command line option
1442 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1445 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1447 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1448 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1449 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1450 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1451 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1453 * Internationalization
1455 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1456 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1457 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1461 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1462 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1463 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1465 * New native configurations
1467 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1471 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1472 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1474 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1476 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1477 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1478 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1481 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1482 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1483 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1493 powerpc bdm protocol
1495 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1496 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1498 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1500 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1501 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1502 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1503 permanently REMOVED.
1512 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1514 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1516 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1517 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1520 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1522 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1523 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1524 IRIX long double values).
1528 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1529 command. This problem has been fixed.
1531 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1533 * Fix for ``many threads''
1535 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1536 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1539 ptrace: No such process.
1540 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1542 This problem has been fixed.
1544 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1546 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1549 * New ``start'' command.
1551 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1553 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1555 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1556 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1557 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1559 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1560 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1561 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1562 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1563 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1564 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1565 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1566 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1567 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1569 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1571 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1572 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1573 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1574 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1575 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1577 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1578 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1579 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1581 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1583 * New native configurations
1585 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1586 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1587 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1588 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1589 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1590 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1591 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1593 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1595 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1596 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1597 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1598 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1599 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1600 work, was also included.
1602 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1603 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1613 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1614 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1616 * REMOVED configurations and files
1618 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1619 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1620 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1621 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1622 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1623 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1624 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1625 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1626 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1627 sonymips mips-sony-*
1628 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1630 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1632 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1634 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1635 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1636 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1637 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1640 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1642 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1643 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1644 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1645 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1646 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1647 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1650 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1652 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1654 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1655 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1656 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1658 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1660 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1661 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1663 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1665 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1666 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1667 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1669 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1671 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1672 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1674 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1676 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1677 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1678 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1680 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1682 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1683 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1684 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1686 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1688 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1690 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1691 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1693 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1695 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1696 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1697 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1698 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1700 * Revised SPARC target
1702 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1703 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1704 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1705 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1706 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1710 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1711 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1712 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1715 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1717 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1718 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1721 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1723 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1724 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1725 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1726 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1727 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1728 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1729 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1730 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1731 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1733 * New native configurations
1735 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1736 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1737 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1738 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1739 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1741 * New debugging protocols
1743 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1745 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1747 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1748 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1749 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1751 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1753 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1754 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1755 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1756 permanently REMOVED.
1758 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1759 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1760 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1761 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1762 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1763 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1764 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1765 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1766 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1767 sonymips mips-sony-*
1768 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1770 * REMOVED configurations and files
1772 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1773 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1774 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1775 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1776 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1777 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1778 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1779 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1780 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1781 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1782 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1783 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1784 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1785 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1786 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1787 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1788 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1790 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1794 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1795 integrated into GDB.
1797 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1799 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1800 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1801 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1804 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1805 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1806 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1810 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1811 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1812 remote protocol documentation for details.
1814 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1816 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1817 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1818 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1821 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1823 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1824 per-thread variables.
1826 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1828 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1829 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1831 * Separate debug info.
1833 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1834 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1835 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1836 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1837 and optional debug files.
1839 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1841 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1842 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1845 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1846 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1850 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1851 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1852 considered "useable".
1854 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1856 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1857 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1860 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1862 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1863 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1865 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1867 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1868 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1871 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1873 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1874 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1878 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1879 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1880 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1881 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1882 data, for more informative profiling results.
1884 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1886 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1887 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1888 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1890 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1893 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1894 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1895 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1896 in a subsequent -var-update.
1898 * New native configurations.
1900 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1902 * Multi-arched targets.
1904 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1905 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1907 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1909 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1910 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1911 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1912 permanently REMOVED.
1914 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1915 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1916 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1917 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1918 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1919 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1920 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1921 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1922 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1923 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1924 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1925 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1927 * REMOVED configurations and files
1930 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1931 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1932 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1933 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1934 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1935 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1937 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1938 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1939 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1940 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1941 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1942 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1944 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1946 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1947 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1948 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1949 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1950 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1952 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1954 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1956 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1957 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1958 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1959 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1960 shared libs like mad''.
1962 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1964 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1965 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1966 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1967 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1969 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1971 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1972 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1975 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1976 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1978 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1979 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1981 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1982 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1983 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1984 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1986 * Multi-arched targets.
1988 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1989 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1991 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1992 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1993 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1997 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2000 * New native configurations
2002 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2003 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2004 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2005 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2007 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2009 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2010 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2011 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2012 permanently REMOVED.
2014 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2015 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2016 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2017 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2018 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2019 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2020 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2021 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2022 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2023 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2025 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2026 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2028 * OBSOLETE languages
2030 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2032 * REMOVED configurations and files
2034 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2035 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2036 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2037 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2038 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2040 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2042 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2044 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2045 commands. The default is 1024.
2047 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2049 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2051 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2053 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2054 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2055 from a file into memory (restore).
2057 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2059 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2060 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2061 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2063 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2071 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2072 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2073 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2075 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2076 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2077 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2079 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2080 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2081 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2083 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2084 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2085 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2087 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2089 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2091 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2092 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2093 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2094 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2095 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2096 (notably embedded) targets.
2098 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2100 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2101 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2102 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2103 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2105 * New command line option
2107 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2109 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2111 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2112 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2113 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2114 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2115 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2116 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2117 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2118 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2119 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2120 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2122 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2124 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2125 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2127 * New native configurations
2129 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2130 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2131 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2132 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2136 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2138 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2140 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2141 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2142 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2143 permanently REMOVED.
2145 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2146 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2147 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2148 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2149 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2151 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2153 * REMOVED configurations and files
2155 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2157 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2158 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2159 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2160 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2161 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2162 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2163 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2164 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2165 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2166 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2167 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2169 * Changes to command line processing
2171 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2172 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2174 * Changes to key bindings
2176 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2178 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2180 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2182 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2185 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2187 Numerous documentation fixes.
2189 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2191 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2193 * New native configurations
2195 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2196 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2197 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2198 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2199 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2200 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2204 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2206 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2208 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2210 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2211 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2212 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2213 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2214 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2216 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2217 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2218 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2219 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2220 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2221 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2222 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2223 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2225 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2226 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2228 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2229 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2230 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2231 permanently REMOVED.
2233 * REMOVED configurations and files
2235 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2236 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2238 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2242 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2244 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2245 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2250 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2252 * The MI enabled by default.
2254 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2255 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2256 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2257 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2258 which is now deprecated.
2260 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2262 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2263 main features are supported:
2265 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2267 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2270 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2272 - a Pascal expression parser.
2274 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2276 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2278 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2280 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2281 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2283 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2285 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2287 * Changes in completion.
2289 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2290 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2291 users expect at the shell prompt.
2293 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2294 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2295 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2296 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2297 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2298 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2299 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2301 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2303 * New platform-independent commands:
2305 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2306 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2307 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2309 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2311 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2312 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2313 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2315 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2317 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2318 multi-threaded programs though.
2320 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2322 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2324 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2325 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2328 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2330 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2331 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2332 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2333 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2334 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2337 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2338 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2339 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2341 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2343 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2344 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2346 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2347 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2350 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2351 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2352 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2353 a given linear address.
2355 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2356 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2357 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2359 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2361 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2363 * Changes in documentation.
2365 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2366 Documentation License.
2368 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2371 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2373 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2376 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2377 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2378 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2380 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2382 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2383 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2384 contents of this file.
2388 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2390 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2392 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2394 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2395 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2396 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2397 greater level of detail.
2399 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2401 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2402 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2403 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2406 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2408 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2409 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2410 machines ``out of the box''.
2412 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2413 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2414 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2415 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2416 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2418 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2419 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2420 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2421 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2422 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2424 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2425 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2428 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2431 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2432 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2433 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2434 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2436 * New native configurations
2438 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2439 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2443 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2444 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2445 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2446 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2448 * OBSOLETE configurations
2450 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2451 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2453 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2456 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2457 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2458 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2459 be permanently REMOVED.
2461 * Gould support removed
2463 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2465 * New features for SVR4
2467 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2468 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2469 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2471 * Many C++ enhancements
2473 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2474 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2476 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2478 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2479 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2480 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2481 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2483 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2484 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2486 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2488 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2489 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2490 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2492 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2493 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2495 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2497 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2498 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2499 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2501 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2503 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2504 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2505 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2507 * ``apropos'' command added.
2509 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2510 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2511 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2515 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2516 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2517 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2518 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2519 enabled by configuring with:
2521 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2523 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2525 * New native configurations
2527 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2528 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2529 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2533 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2534 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2535 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2537 * OBSOLETE configurations
2539 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2541 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2542 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2543 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2544 be permanently REMOVED.
2548 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2549 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2550 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2551 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2552 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2553 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2554 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2559 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2561 * set extension-language
2563 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2564 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2565 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2566 set extension-language .c c++
2567 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2568 and their associated languages.
2570 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2572 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2573 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2574 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2578 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2579 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2581 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2582 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2584 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2585 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2586 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2587 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2588 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2589 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2590 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2591 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2593 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2594 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2595 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2596 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2600 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2601 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2602 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2603 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2604 for xdb and dbx commands.
2608 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2609 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2610 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2612 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2613 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2614 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2616 * Debugging across forks
2618 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2623 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2624 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2625 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2627 * GDB remote protocol additions
2629 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2630 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2631 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2632 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2634 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2635 full 64-bit address. The command
2637 set remoteaddresssize 32
2639 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2640 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2643 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2644 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2646 maint packet heythere
2648 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2649 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2652 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2653 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2654 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2656 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2658 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2659 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2660 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2662 * mask-address variable for Mips
2664 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2665 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2666 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2668 * Higher serial baud rates
2670 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2671 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2672 to achieve all of these rates.)
2676 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2677 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2680 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2682 * New native configurations
2684 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2685 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2686 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2687 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2688 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2689 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2690 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2694 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2695 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2696 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2697 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2698 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2699 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2700 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2701 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2702 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2703 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2704 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2706 * New debugging protocols
2708 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2709 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2710 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2711 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2712 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2713 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2717 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2718 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2723 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2724 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2726 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2728 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2729 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2730 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2732 * Live range splitting
2734 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2735 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2736 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2740 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2741 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2745 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2746 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2747 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2752 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2757 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2758 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2759 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2760 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2761 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2762 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2766 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2767 the symbol at the specified address.
2771 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2772 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2773 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2774 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2775 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2779 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2780 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2781 of most MIPS variants.
2785 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2786 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2787 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2791 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2792 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2793 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2794 the possible architectures.
2796 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2798 * New native configurations
2800 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2801 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2802 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2803 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2804 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2805 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2809 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2810 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2811 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2812 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2813 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2815 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2819 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2820 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2821 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2822 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2823 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2827 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2829 * Windows 95/NT native
2831 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2832 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2833 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2834 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2835 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2837 * dont-repeat command
2839 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2840 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2841 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2842 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2844 * Send break instead of ^C
2846 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2847 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2848 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2850 * Remote protocol timeout
2852 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2853 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2854 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2856 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2858 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2859 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2860 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2861 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2862 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2864 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2865 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2866 automatically on hpux10.
2868 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2870 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2872 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2874 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2875 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2876 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2877 every character. The default value is 1050.
2879 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2881 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2882 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2883 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2884 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2885 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2886 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2888 * Speedups for remote debugging
2890 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2891 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2892 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2894 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2896 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2897 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2899 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2901 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2903 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2904 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2906 * Remote targets use caching
2908 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2909 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2910 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2911 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2912 off' turns the the data cache off.
2914 * Remote targets may have threads
2916 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2917 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2918 gdb/remote.c for details.
2922 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2923 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2924 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2925 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2926 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2927 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2928 sequence is something like
2930 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2932 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2936 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2937 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2938 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2939 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2940 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2941 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2942 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2943 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2947 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2948 but does simplify configuration and building.
2952 GDB now supports hpux10.
2954 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2956 * New native configurations
2958 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2959 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2960 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2961 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2965 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2966 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2967 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2968 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2971 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2973 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2974 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2975 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2976 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2977 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2979 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2981 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2982 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2985 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2987 To execute the command use:
2990 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2991 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2992 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2994 * New `if' and `while' commands
2996 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2997 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2998 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2999 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3000 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3001 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3002 if the expression is zero.
3004 * Fortran source language mode
3006 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3007 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3008 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3009 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3012 * Better HPUX support
3014 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3015 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3016 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3017 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3018 that behavior do the following before running the program:
3024 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3025 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3031 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3032 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3035 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3036 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3038 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3040 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3041 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3042 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3043 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3044 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3045 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3047 * New DOS host serial code
3049 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3050 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3053 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3055 * New "complete" command
3057 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3058 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3060 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3062 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3063 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3065 * Breakpoint hit counts
3067 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3068 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3069 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3070 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3071 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3074 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3076 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3077 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3078 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3080 * Shared library breakpoints
3082 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3083 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3085 * Hardware watchpoints
3087 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3088 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3090 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3094 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3095 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3097 * Improved Irix 5 support
3099 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3101 * Improved HPPA support
3103 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3105 * New native configurations
3107 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3108 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3109 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3110 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3114 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3115 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3118 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3120 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3121 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3125 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3126 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3128 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3130 * Irix 5 is now supported
3134 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3135 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3136 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3137 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3138 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3141 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3143 * User visible changes:
3147 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3148 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3149 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3150 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3151 debugging info for the mips target).
3153 * DEC Alpha native support
3155 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3156 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3157 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3158 Alpha-specific notes.
3160 * Preliminary thread implementation
3162 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3164 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3166 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3167 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3170 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3172 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3173 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3174 call methods, ...etc.
3176 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3178 * User visible changes:
3180 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3181 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3182 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3183 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3185 Filename completion now works.
3187 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3188 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3189 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3191 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3192 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3193 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3194 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3195 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3199 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3200 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3203 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3207 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3208 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3209 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3213 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3214 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3215 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3216 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3217 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3221 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3222 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3223 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3225 * New targets supported
3227 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3228 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3229 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3230 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3231 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3233 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3234 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3235 GO32 memory extender.
3237 * New remote protocols
3239 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3241 * New source languages supported
3243 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3244 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3245 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3248 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3250 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3252 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3253 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3254 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3255 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3256 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3257 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3259 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3261 * Faster and better demangling
3263 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3264 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3265 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3266 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3267 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3268 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3271 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3272 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3273 compiler does not actually implement.
3275 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3277 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3278 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3279 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3280 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3281 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3282 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3285 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3286 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3288 * Improved configure script
3290 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3291 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3292 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3293 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3295 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3296 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3297 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3298 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3299 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3300 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3302 * Documentation improvements
3304 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3305 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3306 before submitting changes.
3308 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3309 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3310 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3311 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3312 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3314 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3315 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3316 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3317 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3318 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3319 around this problem.
3323 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3324 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3325 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3328 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3329 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3331 * New native hosts supported
3333 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3334 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3336 * New targets supported
3338 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3340 * New file formats supported
3342 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3343 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3347 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3349 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3350 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3352 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3353 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3354 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3356 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3357 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3359 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3360 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3361 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3364 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3365 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3366 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3367 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3368 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3370 * Internal improvements
3372 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3373 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3375 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3376 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3377 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3378 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3379 shared code that handles any of them.
3381 * New command line options
3383 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3387 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3388 General Public License.
3390 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3392 * Host/native/target split
3394 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3395 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3396 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3397 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3398 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3400 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3401 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3402 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3403 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3404 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3405 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3406 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3408 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3409 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3410 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3412 * New hosts supported
3414 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3415 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3416 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3418 * New targets supported
3420 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3421 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3423 * New native hosts supported
3425 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3426 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3427 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3429 * New file formats supported
3431 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3432 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3433 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3437 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3438 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3439 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3441 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3443 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3444 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3445 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3446 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3450 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3451 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3452 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3454 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3458 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3459 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3462 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3463 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3465 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3466 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3467 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3468 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3469 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3470 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3472 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3473 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3474 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3475 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3479 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3480 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3481 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3482 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3483 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3485 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3486 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3487 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3488 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3492 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3493 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3494 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3495 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3496 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3497 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3498 each instruction being stepped through.
3500 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3501 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3503 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3504 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3505 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3506 processor with a serial port.
3510 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3511 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3512 supported, and what files each one uses.
3516 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3517 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3518 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3519 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3521 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3522 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3523 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3524 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3528 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3529 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3530 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3531 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3532 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3533 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3535 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3538 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3540 * Better support for C++ function names
3542 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3543 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3544 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3545 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3546 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3548 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3549 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3550 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3551 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3552 for the list of formats.
3554 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3556 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3557 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3558 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3559 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3560 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3561 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3564 * New 'maintenance' command
3566 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3567 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3568 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3570 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3571 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3572 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3573 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3574 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3575 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3577 The following commands are new:
3579 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3580 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3581 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3583 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3585 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3586 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3587 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3588 read after argv processing.
3590 * New hosts supported
3592 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3594 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3596 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3597 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3598 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3599 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3600 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3603 * New targets supported
3605 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3607 * More smarts about finding #include files
3609 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3610 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3611 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3612 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3613 the one that contains your sources.
3615 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3616 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3617 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3619 * Interesting infernals change
3621 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3622 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3623 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3624 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3626 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3628 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3629 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3630 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3632 See the ChangeLog for details.
3634 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3636 * New machines supported (host and target)
3638 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3640 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3642 * New malloc package
3644 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3645 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3646 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3647 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3648 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3649 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3653 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3654 'help info proc' for details.
3656 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3658 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3659 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3662 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3664 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3665 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3666 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3667 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3668 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3669 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3671 * Cross byte order fixes
3673 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3674 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3676 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3678 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3679 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3680 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3681 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3682 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3683 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3684 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3685 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3686 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3687 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3689 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3690 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3691 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3692 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3694 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3695 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3696 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3699 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3701 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3702 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3703 shared across multiple host platforms.
3705 * longjmp() handling
3707 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3708 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3709 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3710 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3714 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3715 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3720 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3721 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3722 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3724 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3726 * New machines supported (host and target)
3728 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3730 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3731 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3733 * New machines supported (target)
3735 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3739 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3740 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3741 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3743 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3744 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3745 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3746 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3747 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3750 * New features for SVR4
3752 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3753 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3754 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3756 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3757 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3758 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3760 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3761 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3763 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3765 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3766 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3767 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3768 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3769 same code linked statically.
3773 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3774 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3775 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3776 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3777 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3778 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3782 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3783 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3784 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3787 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3789 * New machines supported (host and target)
3791 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3792 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3793 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3795 * Almost SCO Unix support
3797 We had hoped to support:
3798 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3799 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3800 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3801 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3803 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3805 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3806 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3807 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3808 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3813 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3814 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3815 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3819 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3820 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3821 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3823 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3825 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3826 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3827 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3829 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3830 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3831 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3832 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3835 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3836 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3837 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3838 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3841 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3842 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3845 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3846 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3847 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3850 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3852 * Improved configuration
3854 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3855 Porting BFD is simpler.
3859 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3860 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3861 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3862 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3866 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3868 * New host supported (not target)
3870 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3873 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3875 * Multiple source language support
3877 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3878 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3879 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3880 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3881 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3882 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3886 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3887 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3888 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3889 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3891 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3892 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3893 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3895 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3896 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3900 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3901 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3902 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3903 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3906 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3908 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3909 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3910 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3911 examining core files.
3915 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3918 * New machines supported (host and target)
3920 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3921 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3922 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3924 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3926 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3928 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3930 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3931 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3932 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3934 * New remote interfaces
3940 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3944 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3946 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3947 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3948 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3949 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3950 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3951 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3952 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3953 stub on the target system.
3955 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3957 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3958 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3959 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3961 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3962 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3965 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3967 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3968 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3970 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3971 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3972 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3974 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3975 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3976 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3977 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3979 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3980 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3981 it is already running. Default is ON.
3983 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3984 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3985 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3986 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3989 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3990 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3991 or the value of the environment variable
3994 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3995 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3998 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3999 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4000 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4002 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4003 history expansion will be performed on
4004 command line input. The default is OFF.
4006 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4007 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4008 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4010 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4011 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4012 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4015 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4016 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4017 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4020 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4021 ``set width'' instead.
4023 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4024 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4025 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4026 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4028 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4031 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4034 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4037 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4040 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4042 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4043 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4044 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4048 * Support for Shared Libraries
4050 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4051 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4052 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4053 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4054 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4055 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4056 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4057 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4059 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4060 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4061 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4063 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4068 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4069 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4070 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4071 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4072 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4073 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4075 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4077 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4079 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4080 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4081 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4084 * C++ multiple inheritance
4086 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4089 * C++ exception handling
4091 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4092 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4093 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4096 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4097 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4098 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4100 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4101 current stack frame.
4104 * Minor command changes
4106 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4107 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4108 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4110 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4111 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4112 frames without printing.
4114 * New directory command
4116 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4117 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4118 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4119 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4120 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4122 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4124 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4127 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4128 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4129 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4130 where the program that you are debugging will run.