1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.5
8 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
10 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
11 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
12 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
13 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
14 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
15 --data-directory command-line option.
17 * New command line options:
19 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
20 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
22 * Removed command line options
24 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
27 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
30 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
34 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
36 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
38 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
40 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
42 * New Python-based convenience functions:
44 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
45 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
47 ** $_regex(str, regex)
49 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
52 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
53 default for GCC since November 2000.
55 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
57 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
58 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
60 * New configure options
62 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
63 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
64 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
65 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
66 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
67 options allow the user to override that default.
69 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
72 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
73 conditions to be attached.
76 List the BFDs known to GDB.
78 python-interactive [command]
80 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
81 and print the result of expressions.
84 "py" is a new alias for "python".
86 enable type-printer [name]...
87 disable type-printer [name]...
88 Enable or disable type printers.
90 set debug notification
91 show debug notification
92 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
96 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
97 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
102 set print type methods (on|off)
103 show print type methods
104 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
105 The default is to show them.
107 set print type typedefs (on|off)
108 show print type typedefs
109 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
110 The default is to show them.
114 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
115 "=cmd-param-changed".
116 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
117 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
118 ** The creation and deletion of trace state variables are now notified
119 using new async records "=tsv-created" and "=tsv-deleted".
120 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
121 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
122 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
124 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
125 containing the absolute file name when GDB can determine it and source
127 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
128 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
129 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
130 library load/unload events.
131 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
132 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
133 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
135 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
136 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
137 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
138 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
140 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
142 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
143 for more x32 ABI info.
145 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
147 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
149 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
150 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
151 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
152 "info os files" lists file descriptors
153 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
154 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
155 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
156 "info os msg" lists message queues
157 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
159 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
160 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
161 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
162 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
163 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
164 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
166 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
167 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
168 record/replay support.
170 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
174 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
177 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
179 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
180 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
182 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
184 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
185 the source at which the symbol was defined.
187 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
188 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
189 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
192 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
193 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
195 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
196 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
197 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
199 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
200 object associated with a PC value.
202 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
203 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
205 * Go language support.
206 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
209 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
210 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
212 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
213 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
215 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
216 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
217 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
218 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
219 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
222 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
223 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
224 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
227 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
228 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
230 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
233 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
234 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
235 command does. For instance:
237 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
239 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
240 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
241 created, using the "condition" command.
243 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
244 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
246 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
248 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
249 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
250 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
251 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
252 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
253 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
254 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
255 files with older .gdb_index sections.
257 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
258 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
259 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
260 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
261 the .gdb_index section.
263 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
265 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
270 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
272 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
276 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
277 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
278 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
280 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
281 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
283 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
286 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
287 C++ and Java objects.
289 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
290 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
291 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
292 configured with '--with-python'.
294 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
295 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
296 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
297 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
298 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
299 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
300 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
302 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
303 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
304 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
305 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
307 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
308 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
309 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
310 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
312 ** "set print symbol"
314 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
315 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
316 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
318 * Deprecated commands
320 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
321 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
325 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
326 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
328 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
329 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
330 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
331 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
337 show mips compression
338 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
339 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
342 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
344 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
345 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
346 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
347 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
349 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
353 Disable auto-loading globally.
356 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
358 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
359 show auto-load gdb-scripts
360 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
362 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
363 show auto-load python-scripts
364 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
366 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
367 show auto-load local-gdbinit
368 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
370 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
371 show auto-load libthread-db
372 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
374 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
375 show auto-load scripts-directory
376 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
377 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
378 of the directories listed by this option.
379 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
381 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
382 show auto-load safe-path
383 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
384 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
386 set debug auto-load on|off
388 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
390 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
392 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
393 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
394 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
395 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
397 set dprintf-function <expr>
398 show dprintf-function
399 set dprintf-channel <expr>
401 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
402 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
404 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
405 show disconnected-dprintf
406 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
407 after GDB disconnects.
409 * New configure options
412 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
413 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
414 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
415 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
416 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
418 --with-auto-load-safe-path
419 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
420 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
422 --without-auto-load-safe-path
423 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
428 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
430 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
431 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
432 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
433 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
437 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
438 program without GDB involvement.
440 * New command line options
442 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
443 before loading inferior.
444 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
445 execute it before loading inferior.
447 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
449 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
450 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
451 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
452 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
455 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
456 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
458 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
459 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
460 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
461 target hardware watchpoint.
463 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
464 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
465 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
466 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
470 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
471 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
474 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
475 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
476 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
477 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
478 now "message", which just prints the error message without
481 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
484 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
485 modules library. This module provides functionality for
486 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
487 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
490 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
491 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
492 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
495 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
496 static_block will return the global and static blocks
497 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
498 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
500 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
502 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
505 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
506 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
507 available in the CLI.
509 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
510 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
511 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
514 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
517 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
518 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
519 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
520 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
521 any anonymous fields.
525 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
528 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
529 "=breakpoint-modified".
531 ** New command -ada-task-info.
533 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
534 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
535 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
538 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
539 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
540 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
541 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
542 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
544 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
545 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
547 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
548 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
549 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
550 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
551 use this option to specify where to find it.
553 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
554 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
555 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
556 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
557 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
558 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
559 section in the user manual for more details.
561 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
562 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
563 become available after that.
565 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
567 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
568 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
574 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
575 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
579 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
580 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
581 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
583 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
584 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
585 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
587 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
588 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
589 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
590 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
591 name starts with a hyphen.
593 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
594 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
595 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
596 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
597 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
598 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
599 number of bytes that will be collected.
602 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
603 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
604 setting the variable trace-notes.
607 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
608 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
609 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
612 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
613 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
614 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
615 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
616 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
619 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
620 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
621 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
625 set debug dwarf2-read
626 show debug dwarf2-read
627 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
628 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
630 set debug symtab-create
631 show debug symtab-create
632 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
633 creation. The default is off.
637 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
638 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
639 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
640 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
643 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
644 show print entry-values
645 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
646 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
647 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
649 set debug entry-values
650 show debug entry-values
651 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
652 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
654 set basenames-may-differ
655 show basenames-may-differ
656 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
657 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
658 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
659 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
660 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
661 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
662 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
663 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
669 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
670 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
671 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
672 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
675 show trace-stop-notes
676 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
677 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
678 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
679 started by someone else.
685 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
689 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
693 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
697 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
701 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
704 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
705 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
709 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
713 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
715 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
717 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
719 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
721 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
722 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
723 matches the given regular expression.
725 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
727 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
728 dumping the instruction opcodes.
730 * New command line options
732 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
733 This is mostly for testing purposes.
735 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
736 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
738 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
739 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
740 source path list instead of augmenting it.
742 * GDB now understands thread names.
744 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
745 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
747 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
748 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
751 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
752 has been integrated into GDB.
756 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
757 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
758 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
760 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
761 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
762 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
763 and allows for more dynamic content.
765 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
766 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
767 have an is_valid method.
769 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
770 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
771 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
773 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
775 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
776 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
777 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
778 that function like so:
780 result = some_value (10,20)
782 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
783 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
784 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
786 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
787 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
788 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
789 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
790 New function: register_pretty_printer.
792 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
793 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
795 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
797 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
800 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
801 holds the thread's name.
803 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
804 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
805 occurring in the process being debugged.
806 The following events are currently supported:
807 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
808 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
809 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
813 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
814 instantiation. For example, if you have:
816 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
818 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
819 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
820 was added to GCC 4.5.
822 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
823 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
824 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
825 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
826 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
827 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
829 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
830 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
831 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
832 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
833 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
835 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
836 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
837 execution to a label.
839 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
840 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
841 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
842 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
844 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
845 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
846 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
849 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
851 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
852 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
853 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
854 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
855 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
856 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
859 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
861 While now you see this:
864 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
866 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
869 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
870 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
871 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
872 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
874 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
875 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
876 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
877 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
878 section in the user manual for more details.
880 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
882 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
883 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
885 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
887 * New native configurations
889 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
893 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
895 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
896 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
897 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
898 in the GDB user manual.
900 * Guile support was removed.
902 * New features in the GNU simulator
904 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
906 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
908 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
910 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
912 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
913 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
914 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
915 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
916 was always disabled for such configurations.
920 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
922 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
923 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
933 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
934 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
935 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
937 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
939 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
940 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
941 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
942 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
944 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
945 mentioned flavors of operators.
947 ** static const class members
949 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
950 class definition has been fixed.
952 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
954 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
955 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
956 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
957 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
958 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
959 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
963 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
964 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
965 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
966 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
967 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
968 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
969 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
970 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
971 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
972 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
973 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
974 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
975 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
976 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
977 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
978 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
979 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
980 the "New remote packets" section below.
982 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
984 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
985 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
986 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
987 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
991 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
992 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
993 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
994 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
995 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
996 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
997 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
999 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1002 * New remote packets
1006 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1010 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1011 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1012 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1013 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1014 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1015 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1019 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1023 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1026 qXfer:statictrace:read
1028 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1029 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1030 to gdb's qSupported query.
1034 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1038 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1039 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1041 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1042 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1045 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1047 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1048 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1049 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1050 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1052 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1053 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1054 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1055 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1056 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1057 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1058 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1060 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1061 for static tracepoints support.
1063 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1065 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1066 it understands register description.
1068 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1070 * X86 general purpose registers
1072 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1073 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1074 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1075 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1076 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1078 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
1079 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1080 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1081 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1082 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1083 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
1085 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1086 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1087 in the specified file.
1089 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1090 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1091 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1092 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1093 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1094 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1095 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1096 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1097 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1098 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1102 eval template, expressions...
1103 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1104 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1106 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1107 show target-file-system-kind
1108 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1111 save breakpoints <filename>
1112 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1113 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1114 definitions, use the `source' command.
1116 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1119 info static-tracepoint-markers
1120 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1122 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1123 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1124 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1128 Enable and disable observer mode.
1130 set may-write-registers on|off
1131 set may-write-memory on|off
1132 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1133 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1134 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1135 set may-interrupt on|off
1136 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1137 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1138 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1139 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1140 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1141 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1142 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1144 set record memory-query on|off
1145 show record memory-query
1146 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1147 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1152 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1156 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1157 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1158 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1159 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1160 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1162 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
1163 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1164 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1165 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
1167 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
1168 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1170 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
1172 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
1174 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1176 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1177 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1178 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1180 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1181 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1182 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1183 regular breakpoints.
1187 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1189 * D language support.
1190 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1193 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1194 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1195 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1196 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1197 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1199 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1200 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1201 conditions of the form:
1203 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1205 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1206 interface mentioned above.
1208 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
1212 ** Namespace Support
1214 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1215 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1216 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1217 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1218 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1222 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1223 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1228 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1229 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1233 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
1238 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
1241 * Multi-program debugging.
1243 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1244 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1245 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1246 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1247 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1248 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1249 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1250 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1252 * New tracing features
1254 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1256 ** Trace state variables
1258 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1259 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1260 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1261 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1262 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1263 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1264 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1265 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1266 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1267 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
1271 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1272 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1273 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1274 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1275 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1276 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1277 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1278 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1279 the regular trace command.
1281 ** Disconnected tracing
1283 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1284 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1285 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1286 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1287 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1291 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1292 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1293 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1294 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1295 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1296 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1299 ** Circular trace buffer
1301 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1302 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1303 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1304 not be available for all target agents.
1309 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1310 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1313 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1314 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1317 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1318 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1321 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1322 "set script-extension" (see below).
1324 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1326 record save [<FILENAME>]
1327 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1328 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1330 record restore <FILENAME>
1331 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1332 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1334 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1337 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1338 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1339 inferior has loaded.
1344 maint info program-spaces
1345 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1347 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1348 show remote interrupt-sequence
1349 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1350 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1351 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1352 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1353 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1355 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1356 show remote interrupt-on-connect
1357 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1358 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1361 set remotebreak [on | off]
1363 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1365 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1366 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1369 List trace state variables and their values.
1371 delete tvariable $NAME ...
1372 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1375 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1376 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1378 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1379 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1381 * New expression syntax
1383 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1384 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1388 set follow-exec-mode new|same
1389 show follow-exec-mode
1390 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1391 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1392 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1394 set default-collect EXPR, ...
1395 show default-collect
1396 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1397 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1398 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1400 set disconnected-tracing
1401 show disconnected-tracing
1402 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1403 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1406 set circular-trace-buffer
1407 show circular-trace-buffer
1408 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1409 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1410 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1411 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1413 set script-extension off|soft|strict
1414 show script-extension
1415 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1416 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1417 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1418 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1420 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1422 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1423 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1424 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1425 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1426 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1427 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1428 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1431 * Python API Improvements
1433 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1434 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1435 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1437 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1438 `is_base_class' attribute.
1440 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1442 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1443 evaluate an expression.
1445 * New remote packets
1448 Define a trace state variable.
1451 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1454 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1457 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1460 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1464 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1466 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1467 much more reliable. In particular:
1468 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1469 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1470 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1471 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1472 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1473 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1474 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1475 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1476 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1477 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1478 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1479 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1480 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1481 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1482 non-threaded programs.
1484 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1485 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1486 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1489 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
1491 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1492 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1493 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1494 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1495 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1497 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1498 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1499 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1500 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1501 for tracepoint actions.
1503 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1504 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1505 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
1507 * Process record and replay
1509 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1510 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1511 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1514 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1515 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1516 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1519 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1520 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
1523 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1524 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1525 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1526 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1527 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1528 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1529 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1530 the installation instructions for more information.
1532 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1533 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1534 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1535 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1537 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1538 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1540 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1541 now complete on file names.
1543 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1544 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1545 For instance, consider:
1547 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1548 # struct example variable;
1551 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1552 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1554 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1555 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1557 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1558 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1561 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
1562 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1563 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1565 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1566 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1567 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1568 and simulator targets may also provide them.
1570 * New remote packets
1573 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1576 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1577 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1578 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1581 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1582 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1585 Obtains additional operating system information
1589 Read or write additional signal information.
1591 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1593 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1594 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1595 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1597 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
1598 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
1600 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
1601 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1602 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
1604 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1605 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1607 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1609 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1611 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1612 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1614 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
1615 list of section offsets.
1617 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1618 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1619 have also been fixed.
1621 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
1622 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1623 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
1625 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1628 template<typename T> class C { };
1631 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1633 ptype C<char const *>
1634 ptype C<char const*>
1635 ptype C<const char *>
1636 ptype C<const char*>
1638 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1640 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1641 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1643 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1644 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1645 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1647 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1648 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1650 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1653 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1654 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1656 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1657 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1662 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1663 available is determined at configure time.
1665 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1667 * Ada tasking support
1669 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1673 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1675 Print detailed information about task number N.
1677 Print the task number of the current task.
1679 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1681 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1682 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1684 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1686 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1687 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1688 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1689 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1690 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1691 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1694 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1695 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1698 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1699 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1700 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1701 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1704 * Multi-architecture debugging.
1706 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1707 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1708 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1709 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1710 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1712 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1713 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1714 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1715 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1716 --enable-targets configure option.
1718 * Non-stop mode debugging.
1720 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1721 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1722 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1723 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1724 section in the user manual for more information.
1726 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1727 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1728 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1729 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1730 extensions on linux targets.
1732 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1734 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1735 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1736 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1737 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1738 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1739 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1740 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1741 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1742 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1744 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1746 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1748 maint set python print-stack
1749 maint show python print-stack
1750 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1753 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1758 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1762 Show operating system information about processes.
1765 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1768 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1771 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1774 Kill inferior number NUM.
1778 set spu stop-on-load
1779 show spu stop-on-load
1780 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1782 set spu auto-flush-cache
1783 show spu auto-flush-cache
1784 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1785 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1787 set sh calling-convention
1788 show sh calling-convention
1789 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1792 show debug timestamp
1793 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1795 set disassemble-next-line
1796 show disassemble-next-line
1797 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1800 set remote noack-packet
1801 show remote noack-packet
1802 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1803 under "New remote packets."
1805 set remote query-attached-packet
1806 show remote query-attached-packet
1807 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1809 set remote read-siginfo-object
1810 show remote read-siginfo-object
1811 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1814 set remote write-siginfo-object
1815 show remote write-siginfo-object
1816 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1819 set remote reverse-continue
1820 show remote reverse-continue
1821 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1823 set remote reverse-step
1824 show remote reverse-step
1825 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1827 set displaced-stepping
1828 show displaced-stepping
1829 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1830 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1831 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1834 show debug displaced
1835 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1837 maint set internal-error
1838 maint show internal-error
1839 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1841 maint set internal-warning
1842 maint show internal-warning
1843 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1848 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1850 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1851 show multiple-symbols
1852 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1853 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1854 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1856 set breakpoint always-inserted
1857 show breakpoint always-inserted
1858 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1859 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1860 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1862 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1863 show arm fallback-mode
1864 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1866 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1867 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1868 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1869 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1871 set disable-randomization
1872 show disable-randomization
1873 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1874 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1875 multiple debugging sessions.
1879 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1884 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1885 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1886 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1887 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1889 set target-wide-charset
1890 show target-wide-charset
1891 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1892 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1894 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1896 set tcp connect-timeout
1897 show tcp connect-timeout
1898 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1899 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1900 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1902 set libthread-db-search-path
1903 show libthread-db-search-path
1904 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1907 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1908 show schedule-multiple
1909 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1910 the current process.
1914 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1915 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1916 affecting correctness.
1918 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1919 show interactive-mode
1920 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1921 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1922 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1923 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1924 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1929 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1930 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1931 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1935 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1936 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1937 alias for the `fork' command.
1940 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1941 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1942 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1945 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1946 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1947 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1951 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1952 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1953 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1956 * New native configurations
1958 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1960 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1964 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1965 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1966 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1969 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1970 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1976 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1978 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1980 * New native configurations
1982 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1983 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1987 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1988 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1990 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1992 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1993 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1994 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1995 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1997 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1998 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2000 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
2003 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
2004 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2005 and in inlined functions.
2007 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2008 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2009 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2011 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2013 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2014 registers on PowerPC targets.
2016 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2017 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2019 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2020 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2022 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2023 extended-remote mode.
2025 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
2026 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2027 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2028 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
2030 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2031 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2032 target architectures.
2034 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2035 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2036 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2037 stored in two consecutive float registers.
2039 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2042 * Improved support for debugging Ada
2043 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2045 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2046 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2047 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2048 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2050 - Improved command completion in Ada
2053 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2058 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2059 show print frame-arguments
2060 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2061 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2066 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2073 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2075 * New remote packets
2082 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
2085 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2089 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2091 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
2093 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2094 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2095 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2097 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2098 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2099 -Bsymbolic linker option.
2101 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2102 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2105 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2106 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2108 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
2109 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
2111 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2113 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2114 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2115 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2117 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2118 automatically displayed as character or string data.
2120 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2121 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2124 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2125 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
2126 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
2128 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2131 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2132 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2133 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2135 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2137 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2139 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2140 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2141 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2143 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2144 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2146 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2147 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2148 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2149 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2150 Windows and SymbianOS).
2152 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2153 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
2155 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2156 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
2162 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2163 when debugging using remote targets.
2165 set mem inaccessible-by-default
2166 show mem inaccessible-by-default
2167 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2168 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2169 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2170 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2171 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2173 set breakpoint auto-hw
2174 show breakpoint auto-hw
2175 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2176 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2177 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2178 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2179 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2180 including "next" and "finish".
2183 catch exception unhandled
2184 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2187 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2191 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2192 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2193 an alias to "set sysroot".
2196 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2197 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2200 * New native configurations
2202 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2205 unset tdesc filename
2207 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2208 not query the target for its built-in description.
2212 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
2213 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
2214 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
2216 * New remote packets
2219 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2220 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2222 qXfer:features:read:
2223 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2228 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2229 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2231 qXfer:libraries:read:
2232 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2233 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2234 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2235 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2239 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2247 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2248 i[34567]86-*-netware*
2249 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2250 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2252 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2255 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2256 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2265 * Other removed features
2272 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2279 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2284 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2285 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2290 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2291 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2293 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2295 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2296 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2297 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2298 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2300 MIPS ".pdr" sections
2302 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2303 in debugging information.
2307 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2308 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2310 set mips stack-arg-size
2311 set mips saved-gpreg-size
2313 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2315 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
2320 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
2322 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2323 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2324 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2326 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2327 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2330 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2331 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2333 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2334 stub provides the required support.
2336 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2337 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2342 unset substitute-path
2343 show substitute-path
2344 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2345 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2346 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2347 between compilation and debugging.
2351 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2352 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2353 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2357 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2359 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2360 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2362 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2364 * New remote packets
2367 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2368 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2369 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2370 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2374 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2375 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2377 qXfer:memory-map:read:
2378 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2379 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2384 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2386 * Removed remote packets
2389 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2390 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2392 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
2396 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2398 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2402 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2403 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2405 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2407 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2409 restart <n> Return the program state to a
2410 previously saved state.
2412 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2414 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2416 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2417 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2419 info forks List forks of the user program that
2420 are available to be debugged.
2422 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2423 forks of the user program that are
2424 available to be debugged.
2426 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2427 that are available to be debugged (and
2428 kill the forked process).
2430 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2431 that are available to be debugged (and
2432 allow the process to continue).
2436 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2438 * Improved Windows host support
2440 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2441 native console support, and remote communications using either
2442 network sockets or serial ports.
2444 * Improved Modula-2 language support
2446 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2447 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2448 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2449 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2450 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2451 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2455 The ARM rdi-share module.
2457 The Netware NLM debug server.
2459 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
2461 * New native configurations
2463 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
2464 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2468 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2470 * New command line options
2472 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2473 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2474 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2475 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2476 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2477 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2478 with the --command (-x) option.
2480 * Deprecated commands removed
2482 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2486 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2487 othernames set arm disassembler
2488 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2489 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2490 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2493 * New BSD user-level threads support
2495 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2496 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2499 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2500 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2501 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2503 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2504 are not yet supported.
2506 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2507 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2509 * REMOVED configurations and files
2511 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
2512 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2513 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
2515 * New "set print array-indexes" command
2517 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2518 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2521 * VAX floating point support
2523 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2525 * User-defined command support
2527 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2528 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2529 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2531 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2533 * New command line option
2535 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2538 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2540 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2541 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2542 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2543 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2544 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
2546 * Internationalization
2548 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2549 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2550 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2554 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2555 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2556 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2558 * New native configurations
2560 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2564 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2565 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2567 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2569 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2570 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2571 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2574 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2575 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2576 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2586 powerpc bdm protocol
2588 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2589 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2591 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2593 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2594 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2595 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2596 permanently REMOVED.
2605 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2607 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2609 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2610 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2613 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2615 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2616 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2617 IRIX long double values).
2621 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2622 command. This problem has been fixed.
2624 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
2626 * Fix for ``many threads''
2628 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2629 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2632 ptrace: No such process.
2633 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2635 This problem has been fixed.
2637 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2639 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2642 * New ``start'' command.
2644 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2646 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2648 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2649 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2650 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2652 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2653 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2654 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2655 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2656 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2657 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2658 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2659 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2660 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2662 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
2664 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2665 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2666 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2667 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2668 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2670 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2671 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2672 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2674 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2676 * New native configurations
2678 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2679 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2680 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2681 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2682 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2683 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2684 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2686 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2688 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2689 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2690 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2691 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2692 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2693 work, was also included.
2695 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2696 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2706 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2707 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2709 * REMOVED configurations and files
2711 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2712 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2713 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2714 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2715 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2716 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2717 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2718 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2719 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2720 sonymips mips-sony-*
2721 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2723 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2725 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2727 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2728 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2729 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2730 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2733 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2735 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2736 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2737 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2738 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2739 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2740 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2743 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2745 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
2747 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2748 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2749 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2751 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2753 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2754 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2756 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2758 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2759 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2760 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2762 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2764 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2765 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2767 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2769 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2770 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2771 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2773 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2775 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2776 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2777 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2779 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2781 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2783 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2784 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2786 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2788 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2789 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2790 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2791 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2793 * Revised SPARC target
2795 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2796 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2797 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2798 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2799 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2803 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2804 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2805 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2808 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2810 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2811 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2814 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2816 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2817 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2818 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2819 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2820 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2821 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2822 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2823 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2824 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2826 * New native configurations
2828 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2829 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2830 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2831 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2832 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2834 * New debugging protocols
2836 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2838 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2840 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2841 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2842 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2844 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2846 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2847 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2848 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2849 permanently REMOVED.
2851 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2852 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2853 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2854 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2855 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2856 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2857 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2858 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2859 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2860 sonymips mips-sony-*
2861 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2863 * REMOVED configurations and files
2865 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2866 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2867 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2868 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2869 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2870 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2871 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2872 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2873 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2874 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2875 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2876 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2877 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2878 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2879 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2880 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2881 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2883 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2887 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2888 integrated into GDB.
2890 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2892 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2893 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2894 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2897 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2898 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2899 DWARF 2 CFI support.
2903 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2904 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2905 remote protocol documentation for details.
2907 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
2909 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2910 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2911 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2914 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2916 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2917 per-thread variables.
2919 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2921 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2922 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2924 * Separate debug info.
2926 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2927 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2928 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2929 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2930 and optional debug files.
2932 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2934 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2935 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2938 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2939 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2943 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2944 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2945 considered "useable".
2947 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2949 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2950 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2953 * GDB supports logging output to a file
2955 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2956 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2958 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2960 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2961 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2964 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2966 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2967 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2971 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2972 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2973 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2974 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2975 data, for more informative profiling results.
2977 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2979 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2980 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2981 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2983 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2986 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2987 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2988 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2989 in a subsequent -var-update.
2991 * New native configurations.
2993 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2995 * Multi-arched targets.
2997 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2998 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3000 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3002 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3003 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3004 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3005 permanently REMOVED.
3007 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3008 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3009 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3010 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3011 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3012 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3013 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3014 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3015 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3016 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3017 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3018 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3020 * REMOVED configurations and files
3023 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3024 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3025 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3026 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3027 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3028 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3030 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3031 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3032 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3033 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3034 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3035 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3037 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
3039 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3040 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3041 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3042 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3043 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3045 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
3047 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3049 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3050 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3051 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3052 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3053 shared libs like mad''.
3055 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
3057 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3058 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3059 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3060 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
3062 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3064 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3065 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3068 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3069 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3071 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3072 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3074 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3075 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3076 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3077 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3079 * Multi-arched targets.
3081 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3082 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
3084 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
3085 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3086 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3090 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3093 * New native configurations
3095 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
3096 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
3097 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
3098 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
3100 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3102 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3103 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3104 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3105 permanently REMOVED.
3107 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3108 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3109 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3110 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3111 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3112 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3113 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3114 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3115 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3116 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3118 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3119 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3121 * OBSOLETE languages
3123 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3125 * REMOVED configurations and files
3127 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3128 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3129 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3130 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3131 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3133 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3135 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3137 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3138 commands. The default is 1024.
3140 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3142 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3144 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3146 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3147 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3148 from a file into memory (restore).
3150 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3152 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3153 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3154 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3156 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3164 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3165 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3166 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3168 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3169 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3170 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3172 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3173 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3174 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3176 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3177 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3178 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3180 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
3182 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3184 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3185 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3186 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3187 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3188 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3189 (notably embedded) targets.
3191 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3193 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3194 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3195 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3196 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
3198 * New command line option
3200 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3202 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3204 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3205 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3206 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3207 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3208 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3209 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3210 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3211 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3212 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3213 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3215 * Changes in ARM configurations.
3217 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3218 configuration is fully multi-arch.
3220 * New native configurations
3222 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
3223 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
3224 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
3225 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
3229 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3231 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3233 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3234 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3235 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3236 permanently REMOVED.
3238 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3239 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3240 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3241 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3242 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3244 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3246 * REMOVED configurations and files
3248 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3250 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3251 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3252 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3253 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3254 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3255 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3256 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3257 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3258 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3259 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3260 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
3262 * Changes to command line processing
3264 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3265 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3267 * Changes to key bindings
3269 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3271 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3273 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3275 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3278 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3280 Numerous documentation fixes.
3282 Numerous testsuite fixes.
3284 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
3286 * New native configurations
3288 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3289 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
3290 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
3291 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3292 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
3293 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
3297 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
3299 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
3301 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3303 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
3304 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3305 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3306 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3307 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3309 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3310 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3311 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3312 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3313 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3314 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3315 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3316 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
3318 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3319 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3321 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3322 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3323 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3324 permanently REMOVED.
3326 * REMOVED configurations and files
3328 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3329 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3331 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3335 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
3337 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
3338 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3343 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3345 * The MI enabled by default.
3347 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3348 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3349 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3350 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3351 which is now deprecated.
3353 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3355 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3356 main features are supported:
3358 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3360 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3363 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3365 - a Pascal expression parser.
3367 However, some important features are not yet supported.
3369 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3371 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3373 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3374 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3376 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3378 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3380 * Changes in completion.
3382 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3383 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3384 users expect at the shell prompt.
3386 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3387 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3388 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3389 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3390 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3391 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3392 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3394 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3396 * New platform-independent commands:
3398 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3399 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3400 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3402 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3404 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3405 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3406 many threads as your system allows you to have.
3408 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3410 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3411 multi-threaded programs though.
3413 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
3415 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3417 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3418 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3421 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3423 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3424 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3425 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3426 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3427 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3430 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3431 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3432 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3434 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3436 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3437 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3439 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3440 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3443 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3444 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3445 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3446 a given linear address.
3448 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3449 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3450 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3452 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3454 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3456 * Changes in documentation.
3458 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3459 Documentation License.
3461 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3464 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3466 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3469 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3470 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3471 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3473 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3475 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3476 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3477 contents of this file.
3481 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
3483 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
3485 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3487 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3488 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3489 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3490 greater level of detail.
3492 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3494 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3495 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3496 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3499 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3501 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3502 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3503 machines ``out of the box''.
3505 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3506 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3507 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3508 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3509 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3511 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3512 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3513 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3514 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3515 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3517 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3518 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3521 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3524 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3525 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3526 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3527 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3529 * New native configurations
3531 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
3532 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3536 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
3537 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3538 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
3539 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3541 * OBSOLETE configurations
3543 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3544 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3546 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3549 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3550 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3551 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3552 be permanently REMOVED.
3554 * Gould support removed
3556 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3558 * New features for SVR4
3560 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3561 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3562 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3564 * Many C++ enhancements
3566 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3567 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3569 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3571 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3572 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3573 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3574 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3576 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3577 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3579 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
3581 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3582 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3583 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3585 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3586 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3588 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3590 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3591 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3592 include ``set remote P-packet''.
3594 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3596 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3597 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3598 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3600 * ``apropos'' command added.
3602 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3603 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3604 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3608 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3609 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
3610 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3611 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3612 enabled by configuring with:
3614 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3616 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3618 * New native configurations
3620 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3621 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
3622 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
3626 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3627 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3628 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3630 * OBSOLETE configurations
3632 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3634 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3635 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3636 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3637 be permanently REMOVED.
3641 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3642 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3643 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3644 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3645 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3646 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3647 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3652 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3654 * set extension-language
3656 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3657 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3658 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3659 set extension-language .c c++
3660 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3661 and their associated languages.
3663 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3665 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3666 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3667 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3671 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3672 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3674 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3675 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3677 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3678 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3679 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3680 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3681 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3682 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3683 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3684 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3686 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3687 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3688 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3689 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3693 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3694 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3695 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3696 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3697 for xdb and dbx commands.
3701 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3702 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3703 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3705 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3706 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3707 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3709 * Debugging across forks
3711 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3716 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3717 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3718 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3720 * GDB remote protocol additions
3722 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3723 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3724 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3725 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3727 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3728 full 64-bit address. The command
3730 set remoteaddresssize 32
3732 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3733 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3736 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3737 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3739 maint packet heythere
3741 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3742 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3745 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3746 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3747 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3749 * Tracing can collect general expressions
3751 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3752 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3753 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3755 * mask-address variable for Mips
3757 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3758 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3759 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3761 * Higher serial baud rates
3763 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3764 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3765 to achieve all of these rates.)
3769 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3770 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3773 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3775 * New native configurations
3777 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3778 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3779 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3780 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3781 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3782 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3783 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3787 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3788 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3789 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3790 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3791 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3792 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3793 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3794 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3795 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3796 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3797 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3799 * New debugging protocols
3801 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3802 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3803 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3804 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3805 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3806 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3810 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3811 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3816 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3817 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3819 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3821 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3822 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3823 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3825 * Live range splitting
3827 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3828 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3829 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3833 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3834 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3838 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3839 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3840 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3845 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3850 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3851 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3852 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3853 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3854 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3855 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3859 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3860 the symbol at the specified address.
3864 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3865 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3866 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3867 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3868 file tracepoint.c for more details.
3872 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3873 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3874 of most MIPS variants.
3878 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3879 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3880 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3884 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3885 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3886 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3887 the possible architectures.
3889 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3891 * New native configurations
3893 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3894 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3895 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3896 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3897 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3898 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3902 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3903 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3904 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3905 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3906 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3908 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3912 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3913 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3914 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3915 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3916 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3920 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3922 * Windows 95/NT native
3924 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3925 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3926 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3927 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3928 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3930 * dont-repeat command
3932 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3933 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3934 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3935 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3937 * Send break instead of ^C
3939 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3940 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3941 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3943 * Remote protocol timeout
3945 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3946 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3947 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3949 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3951 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3952 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3953 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3954 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3955 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3957 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3958 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3959 automatically on hpux10.
3961 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3963 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3965 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3967 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3968 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3969 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3970 every character. The default value is 1050.
3972 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3974 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3975 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3976 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3977 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3978 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3979 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3981 * Speedups for remote debugging
3983 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3984 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3985 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3987 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3989 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3990 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3992 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3994 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3996 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3997 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3999 * Remote targets use caching
4001 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4002 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4003 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4004 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4005 off' turns the the data cache off.
4007 * Remote targets may have threads
4009 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4010 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4011 gdb/remote.c for details.
4015 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4016 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4017 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4018 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4019 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4020 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4021 sequence is something like
4023 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4025 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4029 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4030 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4031 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4032 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4033 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4034 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4035 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4036 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4040 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4041 but does simplify configuration and building.
4045 GDB now supports hpux10.
4047 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4049 * New native configurations
4051 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4052 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4053 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4054 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4058 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4059 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4060 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4061 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4064 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4066 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4067 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4068 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4069 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4070 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4072 * Arguments to user-defined commands
4074 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4075 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4078 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4080 To execute the command use:
4083 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4084 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4085 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4087 * New `if' and `while' commands
4089 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4090 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4091 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4092 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4093 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4094 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4095 if the expression is zero.
4097 * Fortran source language mode
4099 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4100 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4101 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4102 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4105 * Better HPUX support
4107 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4108 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4109 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4110 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4111 that behavior do the following before running the program:
4117 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4118 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4124 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4125 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4128 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4129 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4131 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4133 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4134 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4135 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4136 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4137 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4138 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4140 * New DOS host serial code
4142 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4143 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4146 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4148 * New "complete" command
4150 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4151 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4153 * Trailing space optional in prompt
4155 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4156 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4158 * Breakpoint hit counts
4160 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4161 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4162 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4163 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4164 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4167 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4169 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4170 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4171 arrays actually contain only short strings.
4173 * Shared library breakpoints
4175 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4176 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4178 * Hardware watchpoints
4180 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4181 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4183 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
4187 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4188 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4190 * Improved Irix 5 support
4192 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4194 * Improved HPPA support
4196 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4198 * New native configurations
4200 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4201 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4202 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4203 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4207 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4208 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4211 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4213 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4214 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4218 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4219 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4221 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4223 * Irix 5 is now supported
4227 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4228 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4229 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4230 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4231 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4234 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4236 * User visible changes:
4240 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4241 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4242 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4243 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4244 debugging info for the mips target).
4246 * DEC Alpha native support
4248 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4249 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4250 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4251 Alpha-specific notes.
4253 * Preliminary thread implementation
4255 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4257 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
4259 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4260 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4263 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4265 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4266 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4267 call methods, ...etc.
4269 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4271 * User visible changes:
4273 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4274 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4275 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4276 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4278 Filename completion now works.
4280 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4281 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4282 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4284 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4285 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4286 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4287 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4288 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4292 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4293 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4296 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4300 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4301 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4302 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4306 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4307 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4308 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4309 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4310 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4314 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4315 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4316 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4318 * New targets supported
4320 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4321 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4322 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4323 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4324 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4326 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4327 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4328 GO32 memory extender.
4330 * New remote protocols
4332 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4334 * New source languages supported
4336 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4337 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4338 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4341 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4343 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4345 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4346 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4347 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4348 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4349 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4350 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4352 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4354 * Faster and better demangling
4356 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4357 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4358 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4359 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4360 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4361 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4364 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4365 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4366 compiler does not actually implement.
4368 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4370 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4371 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4372 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4373 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4374 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4375 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4378 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4379 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4381 * Improved configure script
4383 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4384 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4385 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4386 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4388 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4389 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4390 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4391 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4392 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4393 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4395 * Documentation improvements
4397 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4398 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4399 before submitting changes.
4401 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4402 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4403 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4404 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4405 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4407 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4408 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4409 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4410 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4411 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4412 around this problem.
4416 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4417 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4418 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4421 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4422 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4424 * New native hosts supported
4426 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4427 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4429 * New targets supported
4431 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4433 * New file formats supported
4435 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4436 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4440 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4442 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4443 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4445 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4446 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4447 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4449 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4450 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4452 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4453 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4454 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4457 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4458 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4459 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4460 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4461 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4463 * Internal improvements
4465 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4466 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4468 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4469 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4470 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4471 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4472 shared code that handles any of them.
4474 * New command line options
4476 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4480 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4481 General Public License.
4483 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4485 * Host/native/target split
4487 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4488 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4489 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4490 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4491 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4493 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4494 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4495 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4496 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4497 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4498 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4499 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4501 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4502 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4503 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4505 * New hosts supported
4507 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4508 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4509 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4511 * New targets supported
4513 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4514 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4516 * New native hosts supported
4518 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4519 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4520 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4522 * New file formats supported
4524 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4525 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4526 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4530 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4531 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4532 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4534 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4536 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4537 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4538 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4539 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4543 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4544 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4545 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4547 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4551 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4552 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4555 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4556 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4558 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4559 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4560 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4561 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4562 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4563 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4565 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4566 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4567 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4568 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4572 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4573 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4574 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4575 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4576 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4578 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4579 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4580 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4581 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4585 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4586 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4587 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4588 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4589 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4590 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4591 each instruction being stepped through.
4593 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4594 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4596 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4597 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4598 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4599 processor with a serial port.
4603 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4604 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4605 supported, and what files each one uses.
4609 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4610 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4611 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4612 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4614 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4615 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4616 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4617 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4621 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4622 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4623 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4624 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4625 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4626 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4628 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4631 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4633 * Better support for C++ function names
4635 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4636 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4637 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4638 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4639 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4641 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4642 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4643 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4644 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4645 for the list of formats.
4647 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4649 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4650 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4651 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4652 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4653 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4654 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4657 * New 'maintenance' command
4659 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4660 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4661 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4663 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4664 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4665 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4666 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4667 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4668 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4670 The following commands are new:
4672 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4673 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4674 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4676 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4678 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4679 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4680 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4681 read after argv processing.
4683 * New hosts supported
4685 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4687 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4689 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4690 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4691 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4692 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4693 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4696 * New targets supported
4698 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4700 * More smarts about finding #include files
4702 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4703 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4704 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4705 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4706 the one that contains your sources.
4708 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4709 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4710 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4712 * Interesting infernals change
4714 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4715 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4716 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4717 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4719 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4721 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4722 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4723 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4725 See the ChangeLog for details.
4727 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4729 * New machines supported (host and target)
4731 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4733 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4735 * New malloc package
4737 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4738 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4739 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4740 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4741 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4742 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4746 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4747 'help info proc' for details.
4749 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4751 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4752 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4755 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4757 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4758 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4759 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4760 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4761 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4762 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4764 * Cross byte order fixes
4766 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4767 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4769 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4771 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4772 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4773 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4774 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4775 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4776 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4777 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4778 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4779 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4780 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4782 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4783 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4784 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4785 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4787 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4788 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4789 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4792 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4794 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4795 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4796 shared across multiple host platforms.
4798 * longjmp() handling
4800 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4801 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4802 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4803 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4807 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4808 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4813 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4814 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4815 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4817 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4819 * New machines supported (host and target)
4821 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4823 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4824 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4826 * New machines supported (target)
4828 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4832 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4833 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4834 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4836 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4837 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4838 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4839 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4840 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4843 * New features for SVR4
4845 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4846 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4847 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4849 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4850 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4851 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4853 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4854 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4856 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4858 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4859 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4860 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4861 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4862 same code linked statically.
4866 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4867 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4868 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4869 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4870 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4871 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4875 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4876 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4877 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4880 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4882 * New machines supported (host and target)
4884 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4885 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4886 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4888 * Almost SCO Unix support
4890 We had hoped to support:
4891 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4892 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4893 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4894 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4896 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4898 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4899 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4900 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4901 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4906 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4907 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4908 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4912 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4913 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4914 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4916 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4918 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4919 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4920 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4922 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4923 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4924 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4925 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4928 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4929 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4930 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4931 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4934 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4935 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4938 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4939 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4940 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4943 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4945 * Improved configuration
4947 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4948 Porting BFD is simpler.
4952 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4953 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4954 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4955 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4959 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4961 * New host supported (not target)
4963 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4966 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4968 * Multiple source language support
4970 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4971 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4972 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4973 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4974 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4975 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4979 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4980 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4981 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4982 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4984 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4985 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4986 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4988 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4989 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4993 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4994 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4995 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4996 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4999 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5001 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5002 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5003 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5004 examining core files.
5008 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5011 * New machines supported (host and target)
5013 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5014 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5015 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5017 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5019 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5021 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5023 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5024 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5025 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5027 * New remote interfaces
5033 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5037 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5039 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5040 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5041 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5042 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5043 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5044 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5045 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5046 stub on the target system.
5048 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5050 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5051 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5052 object file types such as a.out and coff.
5054 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5055 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5058 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5060 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5061 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5063 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5064 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5065 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5067 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5068 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5069 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5070 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5072 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5073 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5074 it is already running. Default is ON.
5076 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5077 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5078 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5079 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5082 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5083 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5084 or the value of the environment variable
5087 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5088 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5091 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5092 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5093 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5095 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5096 history expansion will be performed on
5097 command line input. The default is OFF.
5099 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5100 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5101 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5103 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5104 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5105 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5108 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5109 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5110 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5113 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5114 ``set width'' instead.
5116 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5117 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5118 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5119 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5121 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5124 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5127 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5130 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5133 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5135 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5136 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5137 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5141 * Support for Shared Libraries
5143 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5144 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5145 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5146 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5147 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5148 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5149 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5150 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5152 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5153 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5154 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5156 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5161 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5162 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5163 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5164 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5165 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5166 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5168 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5170 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5172 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5173 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5174 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5177 * C++ multiple inheritance
5179 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5182 * C++ exception handling
5184 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5185 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5186 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5189 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5190 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5191 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5193 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5194 current stack frame.
5197 * Minor command changes
5199 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5200 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5201 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5203 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5204 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5205 frames without printing.
5207 * New directory command
5209 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5210 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5211 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5212 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5213 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5215 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5217 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5220 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5221 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5222 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5223 where the program that you are debugging will run.