1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.3
6 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
8 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
9 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
10 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
11 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
12 such as in system-wide init files.
14 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
15 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
16 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
17 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
19 * Support for Pointer Authentication on AArch64 Linux.
21 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
22 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
26 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
27 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
28 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
29 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
30 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
32 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
35 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
36 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
37 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
41 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
42 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
43 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
44 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
45 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
46 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
47 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
49 set may-call-functions [on|off]
50 show may-call-functions
51 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
52 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
53 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
54 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
55 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
56 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
59 set print finish [on|off]
61 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
62 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
63 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
68 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
69 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
70 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
71 the old behavior back.
73 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
74 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
75 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
77 set style title foreground COLOR
78 set style title background COLOR
79 set style title intensity VALUE
80 Control the styling of titles.
82 set style highlight foreground COLOR
83 set style highlight background COLOR
84 set style highlight intensity VALUE
85 Control the styling of highlightings.
87 maint test-settings KIND
88 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
94 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
95 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
99 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
100 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
101 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
102 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
103 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
106 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
107 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
108 the user visualize the different styles.
110 set print raw-frame-arguments
111 show print raw-frame-arguments
113 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
114 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
115 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
121 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
122 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
123 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
127 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
128 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
129 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
130 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
132 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
134 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
135 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
138 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
139 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
140 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
143 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
146 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
147 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
148 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
150 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
151 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
153 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
154 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
155 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
156 in the GDB user manual.
158 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
161 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
163 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
164 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
165 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
166 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
167 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
168 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
169 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
170 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
171 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
172 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
173 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
174 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
176 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
177 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
178 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
181 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
186 set debug compile-cplus-types
187 show debug compile-cplus-types
188 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
189 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
194 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
197 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
198 Apply a command to some frames.
199 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
200 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
203 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
204 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
207 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
208 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
211 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
213 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
215 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
216 maint show dwarf unwinders
217 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
220 Display a list of open files for a process.
224 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
225 These commands all now take a frame specification which
226 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
227 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
228 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
229 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
230 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
232 target remote FILENAME
233 target extended-remote FILENAME
234 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
235 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
237 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
238 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
239 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
240 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
241 These commands can now print only the searched entities
242 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
243 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
244 printing headers or informations messages.
250 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
251 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
252 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
255 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
256 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
257 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
258 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
260 set tui tab-width NCHARS
261 show tui tab-width NCHARS
262 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
264 set style enabled [on|off]
266 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
267 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
269 set style sources [on|off]
271 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
272 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
273 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
275 set style filename foreground COLOR
276 set style filename background COLOR
277 set style filename intensity VALUE
278 Control the styling of file names.
280 set style function foreground COLOR
281 set style function background COLOR
282 set style function intensity VALUE
283 Control the styling of function names.
285 set style variable foreground COLOR
286 set style variable background COLOR
287 set style variable intensity VALUE
288 Control the styling of variable names.
290 set style address foreground COLOR
291 set style address background COLOR
292 set style address intensity VALUE
293 Control the styling of addresses.
297 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
299 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
300 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
301 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
302 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
303 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
305 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
306 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
308 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
309 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
310 the following commands and events:
314 - =breakpoint-created
315 - =breakpoint-modified
317 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
318 this behavior with previous MI versions.
320 * New native configurations
322 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
323 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
327 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
329 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
330 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
332 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
336 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
341 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
343 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
344 space associated to that inferior.
346 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
347 of objfiles associated to that program space.
349 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
350 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
353 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
354 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
355 correct and did not work properly.
357 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
358 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
364 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
365 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
366 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
367 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
368 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
370 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
372 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
375 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
376 offset to all sections.
378 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
379 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
380 address of individual sections using '-s'.
382 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
383 (address of the text section).
385 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
386 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
387 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
388 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
391 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
392 for the rest of the current command.
394 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
395 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
397 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
398 files created on FreeBSD systems.
400 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
403 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
404 the vector length while the process is running.
410 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
412 set|show varsize-limit
413 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
414 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
415 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
417 set|show record btrace cpu
418 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
421 maint check libthread-db
422 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
425 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
426 maint show check-libthread-db
427 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
428 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
433 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
435 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
436 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
438 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
440 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
441 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
442 of convenience variables.
444 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
445 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
446 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
450 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
452 * Removed targets and native configurations
454 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
455 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
456 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
457 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
459 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
461 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
462 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
463 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
464 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
465 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
466 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
471 --enable-codesign=CERT
472 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
473 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
474 gdb to work properly.
476 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
477 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
479 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
481 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
482 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
483 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
485 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
486 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
488 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
489 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
490 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
491 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
492 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
494 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
495 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
496 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
497 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
499 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
500 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
502 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
503 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
504 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
506 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
507 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
508 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
510 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
511 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
512 environment" command.
514 * Completion improvements
516 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
517 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
518 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
519 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
522 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
523 (gdb) b function(int)
525 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
526 C++ anonymous namespaces:
529 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
530 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
531 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
533 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
534 completion support, that better understands what you're
535 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
536 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
537 setting a breakpoint.
539 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
541 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
543 * New command line options (gcore)
546 Dump all memory mappings.
548 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
550 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
551 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
552 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
554 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
559 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
562 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
563 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
564 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
565 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
566 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
567 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
568 a breakpoint from Python.
570 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
572 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
573 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
574 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
576 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
578 function[abi:cxx11](int)
581 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
584 (gdb) b function(int)
586 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
588 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
590 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
594 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
595 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
596 description of these.
598 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
599 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
600 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
602 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
603 manual for a further description of this feature.
606 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
608 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
609 specified initial working directory.
611 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
612 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
614 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
615 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
617 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
618 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
620 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
621 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
622 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
623 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
624 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
626 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
627 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
628 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
630 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
631 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
632 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
633 in the *stopped notification.
635 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
636 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
640 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
641 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
642 the inferior when starting it.
645 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
646 before starting the remote inferior.
649 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
650 user-set environment variables should be unset).
653 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
656 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
659 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
660 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
662 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
663 filter the tests to be run.
665 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
666 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
671 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
674 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
675 with the 'compile' commands.
677 set debug separate-debug-file
678 show debug separate-debug-file
679 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
681 set dump-excluded-mappings
682 show dump-excluded-mappings
683 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
684 dumped when generating a core file.
687 List the registered selftests.
690 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
693 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
695 set|show print type nested-type-limit
696 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
697 type printer will show.
699 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
702 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
704 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
707 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
708 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
709 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
710 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
712 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
713 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
714 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
715 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
716 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
717 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
719 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
720 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
721 unless you tell it the variable's type:
724 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
728 * New native configurations
730 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
731 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
735 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
736 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
737 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
739 * Removed targets and native configurations
741 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
743 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
745 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
746 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
747 available in future Intel CPUs.
749 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
753 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
754 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
756 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
759 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
761 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
763 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
764 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
767 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
769 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
770 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
772 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
774 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
775 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
776 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
777 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
780 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
782 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
783 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
786 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
788 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
789 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
791 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
793 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
798 eval "print $arg%d", $i
803 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
805 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
806 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
808 * New native configurations
810 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
814 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
815 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
817 * Removed targets and native configurations
819 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
820 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
825 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
827 maint print arc arc-instruction address
828 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
832 set disassembler-options
833 show disassembler-options
834 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
835 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
836 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
837 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
838 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
843 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
844 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
846 -file-list-shared-libraries
847 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
848 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
851 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
852 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
854 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
856 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
858 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
859 default. One must now explicitly configure with
860 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
861 option will be removed in a future release.
863 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
866 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
867 memory backward from the given address. For example:
870 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
871 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
872 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
873 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
874 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
875 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
876 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
877 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
878 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
880 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
881 arrays of dynamic types.
883 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
884 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
885 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
886 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
887 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
888 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
890 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
893 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
894 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
895 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
897 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
899 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
900 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
901 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
902 signal received and code location.
906 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
907 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
908 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
909 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
911 * Rust language support.
912 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
913 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
916 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
918 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
919 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
920 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
921 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
922 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
923 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
924 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
925 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
926 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
927 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
930 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
932 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
933 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
938 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
939 skip -function function
940 skip -rfunction regular-expression
941 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
942 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
943 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
945 maint info line-table REGEXP
946 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
949 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
952 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
953 using the TTY file for input/output.
957 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
958 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
959 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
960 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
961 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
964 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
965 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
966 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
967 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
970 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
971 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
972 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
974 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
977 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
978 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
979 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
980 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
981 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
982 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
984 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
985 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
986 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
987 bytecode into native code.
989 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
990 recording. For example:
992 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
994 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
996 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1000 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1002 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1004 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1006 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1008 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1009 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1010 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1014 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1015 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1016 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1017 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1019 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1020 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1021 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1023 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1024 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1025 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1027 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1030 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1031 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1034 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1037 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1038 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1039 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1040 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1043 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1046 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1049 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1052 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1053 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1056 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1057 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1059 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1061 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1063 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1064 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1066 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1067 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1070 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1071 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1074 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1075 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1078 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1080 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1081 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1082 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1084 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1085 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1089 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1090 maint show target-non-stop
1091 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1092 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1093 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1095 maint set bfd-sharing
1096 maint show bfd-sharing
1097 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1100 show debug bfd-cache
1101 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1105 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1107 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1108 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1109 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1111 set remote thread-events
1112 show remote thread-events
1113 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1115 set ada print-signatures on|off
1116 show ada print-signatures"
1117 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1118 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
1122 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1123 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1124 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1126 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1127 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1128 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1129 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1130 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1131 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1133 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1134 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1136 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1137 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1139 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1141 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1142 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1143 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1144 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1145 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1146 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1148 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1149 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1152 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1154 * New remote packets
1157 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1159 exec-events feature in qSupported
1160 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1161 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1162 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1163 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1166 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1169 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1170 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1172 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1173 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1176 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1177 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1178 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1179 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1180 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1181 stop for that same thread.
1184 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1185 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1186 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1189 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1190 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1192 syscall_entry stop reason
1193 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1195 syscall_return stop reason
1196 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1198 * Extended-remote exec events
1200 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1201 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1202 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1204 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1205 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1206 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1208 * Thread names in remote protocol
1210 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1213 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1215 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1216 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1217 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1218 fork and exec catchpoints.
1220 * Remote syscall events
1222 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1223 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1225 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1226 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1227 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1231 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1232 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1237 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1238 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1239 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1240 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1241 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1242 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1244 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1246 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1247 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1248 including advance SIMD instructions.
1250 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1252 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1253 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1254 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1255 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1256 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1257 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1258 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1260 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1262 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1264 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1265 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1268 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1269 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1270 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1272 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1273 is now available on all platforms.
1275 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1276 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1277 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1278 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1279 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1280 backward compatibility.
1282 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1283 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1284 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1285 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1287 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1288 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1289 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1290 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1293 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1295 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1297 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1298 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1299 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1300 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1301 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1302 See "New remote packets" below.
1304 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1305 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1307 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1308 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1309 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1310 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1315 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1319 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1320 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1321 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1322 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1323 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1324 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1325 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1326 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1327 "const" version of the value respectively.
1331 maint print symbol-cache
1332 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1334 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1335 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1337 maint flush-symbol-cache
1338 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1342 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1345 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1349 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1352 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1353 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1357 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1360 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1362 maint btrace packet-history
1363 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1365 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1366 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1369 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1370 anew by the next "record" command.
1375 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1376 show debug dwarf-die
1377 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1379 set debug dwarf-read
1380 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1381 show debug dwarf-read
1382 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1384 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1385 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1386 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1387 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1389 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1390 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1391 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1392 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1394 set debug dwarf-line
1395 show debug dwarf-line
1396 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1399 show max-completions
1400 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1401 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1402 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1403 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1405 set history remove-duplicates
1406 show history remove-duplicates
1407 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1409 maint set symbol-cache-size
1410 maint show symbol-cache-size
1411 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1413 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1414 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1416 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1417 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1419 set debug linux-namespaces
1420 show debug linux-namespaces
1421 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1423 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1424 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1425 Intel Processor Trace format.
1426 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1427 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1429 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1430 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1433 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1434 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1436 * Python/Guile scripting
1438 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1439 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1441 * New remote packets
1443 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1444 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1446 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1447 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1450 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1451 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1454 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1455 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1459 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1460 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1461 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1465 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1466 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1469 Return information about files on the remote system.
1471 qXfer:exec-file:read
1472 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1473 create a process running on the remote system.
1476 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1477 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1478 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1479 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1482 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1485 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1487 vforkdone stop reason
1488 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1489 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1491 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1492 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1493 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1494 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1495 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1496 whether these features are enabled.
1498 * Extended-remote fork events
1500 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1501 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1502 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1503 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1505 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1506 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1507 the btrace record target.
1508 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1510 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1511 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1513 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1516 * Removed command line options
1518 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1520 * Removed targets and native configurations
1522 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1523 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1525 * New configure options
1528 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1529 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1531 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1532 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1533 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1534 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1536 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1540 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1542 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1544 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1548 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1549 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1550 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1551 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1552 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1553 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1554 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1555 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1556 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1557 selecting a new file to debug.
1558 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1559 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1561 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1564 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1565 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1566 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1567 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1569 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1571 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1572 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1573 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1574 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1576 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1577 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1578 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1579 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1580 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1581 interface with this new feature are:
1583 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1584 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1588 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1589 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1590 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1591 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1592 as "maint demangler-warning".
1594 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1595 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1597 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1598 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1601 maint print user-registers
1602 List all currently available "user" registers.
1604 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1605 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1606 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1608 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1609 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1610 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1613 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1614 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1615 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1616 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1619 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1620 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1621 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1622 switched threads meanwhile.
1624 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1626 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1627 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1628 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1629 is now the default mode.
1633 set debug symbol-lookup
1634 show debug symbol-lookup
1635 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1639 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1640 inferiors that have exited.
1644 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1648 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1650 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1651 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1652 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1653 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1654 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1656 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1657 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1658 its alias "share", instead.
1660 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1662 * New command line options
1665 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1667 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1668 as specified in ISO C99.
1670 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1671 with or without disassembly.
1675 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1676 available is determined at configure time.
1677 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1678 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1680 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1684 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1688 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1690 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1691 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1693 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1694 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1698 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1699 show print symbol-loading
1700 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1701 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1702 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1703 becomes less useful.
1705 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1706 show guile print-stack
1707 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1709 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1710 show auto-load guile-scripts
1711 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1713 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1714 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1715 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1716 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1717 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1718 usage of this option.
1720 set auto-connect-native-target
1722 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1723 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1724 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1726 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1727 show record btrace replay-memory-access
1728 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1730 maint set target-async (on|off)
1731 maint show target-async
1732 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1733 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1734 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1735 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1737 set mi-async (on|off)
1739 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1740 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1742 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1743 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1745 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1746 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1747 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1748 "set target-async on" command.
1750 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1752 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1753 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1754 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1755 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1756 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1758 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1759 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1760 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1762 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1763 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1764 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1765 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1766 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1767 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1768 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1770 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1771 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1773 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1774 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1775 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1777 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1778 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1779 memory or registers.
1781 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1783 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1784 remote. It now works with all targets.
1786 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1787 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1788 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1789 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1790 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1791 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1792 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1793 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1794 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1797 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1798 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1799 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1801 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1803 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1804 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1805 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1807 * New remote packets
1809 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1810 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1811 branch trace incrementally.
1815 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1816 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1818 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1819 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1820 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1821 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1822 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
1825 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1827 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1828 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1829 its alias "share", instead.
1831 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1832 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1837 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1838 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1839 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1840 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1841 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1842 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1843 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1844 commands and CLI execution commands.
1846 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
1848 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1849 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1850 recording has been added.
1852 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1854 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1855 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1857 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1858 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1859 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1860 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1861 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1862 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1865 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1867 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1869 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1870 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1871 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1872 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1877 (gdb) info registers rax
1880 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1881 "*value not available*".
1883 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1888 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1889 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1890 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1891 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1892 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1893 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1897 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1898 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1899 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1901 * Removed native configurations
1903 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1904 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1906 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1907 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1908 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1909 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1910 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1911 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1912 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1916 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1917 maint check-psymtabs
1918 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1920 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1921 maint expand-symtabs
1922 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1925 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1927 maint set|show per-command
1928 maint set|show per-command space
1929 maint set|show per-command time
1930 maint set|show per-command symtab
1931 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1933 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1934 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1935 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1936 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1937 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1940 info exceptions REGEXP
1941 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1942 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1947 set debug symfile off|on
1949 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1950 symbol tables within those files
1952 set print raw frame-arguments
1953 show print raw frame-arguments
1954 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1955 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1957 set remote trace-status-packet
1958 show remote trace-status-packet
1959 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1963 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1967 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1969 set startup-with-shell
1970 show startup-with-shell
1971 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1976 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1977 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1979 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1980 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1981 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1982 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1985 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1986 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1987 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1989 * New command-line options
1991 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1993 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1994 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1996 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1999 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2001 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2002 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2004 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2005 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2007 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2008 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2009 due to an uncaught signal.
2013 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2014 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2015 command, which should contain "language-option".
2017 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2018 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2020 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2021 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2022 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2023 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2024 "undefined-command-error-code".
2026 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2029 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2031 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2032 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2035 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2036 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2038 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2039 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2040 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2042 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2043 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2044 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2045 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2046 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2047 "exec-run-start-option".
2049 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2050 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2052 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2053 the new "info exceptions" command.
2055 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2056 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2057 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2061 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2062 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2063 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2066 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2067 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2069 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2070 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2071 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2073 * New remote packets
2077 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2078 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2079 involvemement at each single-step.
2081 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2082 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2083 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2084 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2085 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2086 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2089 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2091 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2092 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2094 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2095 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2096 trace state variables.
2098 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2101 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2102 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2104 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2106 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2107 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2108 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2109 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2111 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2113 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2114 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2115 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2116 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2118 set|show record full insn-number-max
2119 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2120 set|show record full memory-query
2122 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2123 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2124 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2125 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2126 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2130 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2131 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2133 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2134 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2135 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2137 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2138 instruction granularity
2140 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2141 function granularity
2143 * New native configurations
2145 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2146 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2147 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2148 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2152 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2153 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2154 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2155 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2156 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2158 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2159 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2160 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2161 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2162 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2163 --data-directory command-line option.
2165 * New command line options:
2167 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2168 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2170 * Removed command line options
2172 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2175 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2178 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2182 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2184 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2186 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2188 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2190 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2191 of architecture in the Python API.
2193 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2194 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2196 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2198 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2199 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2201 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2203 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2206 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2207 default for GCC since November 2000.
2209 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2211 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2212 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2214 * New configure options
2216 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2217 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2218 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2219 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2220 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2221 options allow the user to override that default.
2222 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2223 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2224 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2226 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2229 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2230 conditions to be attached.
2233 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2235 python-interactive [command]
2237 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2238 and print the result of expressions.
2241 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2243 enable type-printer [name]...
2244 disable type-printer [name]...
2245 Enable or disable type printers.
2249 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2250 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2255 set print type methods (on|off)
2256 show print type methods
2257 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2258 The default is to show them.
2260 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2261 show print type typedefs
2262 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2263 The default is to show them.
2265 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2266 show filename-display
2267 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2268 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2270 set trace-buffer-size
2271 show trace-buffer-size
2272 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2274 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2275 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2276 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2280 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2283 set debug coff-pe-read
2284 show debug coff-pe-read
2285 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2290 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2293 set debug notification
2294 show debug notification
2295 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2299 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2300 "=cmd-param-changed".
2301 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2302 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2303 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2304 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2305 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2306 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2307 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2308 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2310 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2311 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2312 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2313 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2314 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2315 library load/unload events.
2316 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2317 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2318 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2319 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2320 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2321 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2322 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2323 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2325 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2326 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2327 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2328 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2330 * New remote packets
2333 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2334 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2337 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2338 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2342 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2343 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2346 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2347 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2349 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2351 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2352 for more x32 ABI info.
2354 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2356 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2358 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2359 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2360 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2361 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2362 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2363 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2364 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2365 "info os msg" lists message queues
2366 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2368 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2369 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2370 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2371 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2372 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2373 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2375 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2376 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2377 record/replay support.
2379 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2383 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2386 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2388 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2389 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2391 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2393 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2394 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2396 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2397 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2398 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2401 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2402 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2404 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2405 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2406 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2408 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2409 object associated with a PC value.
2411 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2412 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2414 * Go language support.
2415 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2418 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2419 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2421 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2422 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2424 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2425 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2426 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2427 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2428 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2431 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2432 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2433 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2434 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2436 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2437 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2439 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2440 since December 2007.
2442 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2443 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2444 command does. For instance:
2446 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2448 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2449 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2450 created, using the "condition" command.
2452 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2453 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2455 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2457 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2458 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2459 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2460 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2461 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2462 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2463 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2464 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2466 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2467 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2468 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2469 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2470 the .gdb_index section.
2472 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2474 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2479 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2481 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2485 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2486 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2487 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2489 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2490 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2492 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2495 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2496 C++ and Java objects.
2498 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2499 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2500 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2501 configured with '--with-python'.
2503 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2504 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2505 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2506 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2507 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2508 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2509 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2511 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2512 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2513 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2514 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2516 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2517 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2518 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2519 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2521 ** "set print symbol"
2523 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2524 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2525 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2527 * Deprecated commands
2529 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2530 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2534 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2535 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2537 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2538 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2539 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2540 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2545 set mips compression
2546 show mips compression
2547 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2548 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2551 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2553 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2554 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2555 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2556 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2558 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2562 Disable auto-loading globally.
2565 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2567 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2568 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2569 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2571 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2572 show auto-load python-scripts
2573 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2575 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2576 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2577 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2579 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2580 show auto-load libthread-db
2581 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2583 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2584 show auto-load scripts-directory
2585 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2586 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2587 of the directories listed by this option.
2588 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2590 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2591 show auto-load safe-path
2592 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2593 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2595 set debug auto-load on|off
2596 show debug auto-load
2597 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2599 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2601 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2602 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2603 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2604 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2606 set dprintf-function <expr>
2607 show dprintf-function
2608 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2609 show dprintf-channel
2610 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2611 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2613 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2614 show disconnected-dprintf
2615 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2616 after GDB disconnects.
2618 * New configure options
2620 --with-auto-load-dir
2621 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2622 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2623 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2624 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2625 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2627 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2628 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2629 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2631 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2632 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2635 * New remote packets
2637 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2639 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2640 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2641 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2642 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2646 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2647 program without GDB involvement.
2649 * New command line options
2651 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2652 before loading inferior.
2653 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2654 execute it before loading inferior.
2656 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2658 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2659 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2660 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2661 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2664 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2665 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2667 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2668 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2669 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2670 target hardware watchpoint.
2672 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2673 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2674 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2675 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2679 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2680 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2683 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2684 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2685 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2686 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2687 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2690 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2693 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2694 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2695 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2696 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2697 corresponding value.
2699 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2700 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2701 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2704 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2705 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2706 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2707 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2709 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2711 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2714 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2715 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2716 available in the CLI.
2718 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2719 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2720 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2721 "some_type.items()".
2723 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2726 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2727 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2728 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2729 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2730 any anonymous fields.
2734 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2737 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2738 "=breakpoint-modified".
2740 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2742 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2743 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2744 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2747 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2748 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2749 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2750 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2751 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2753 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2754 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2756 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2757 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2758 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2759 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2760 use this option to specify where to find it.
2762 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2763 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2764 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2765 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2766 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2767 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2768 section in the user manual for more details.
2770 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2771 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2772 become available after that.
2774 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2776 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2777 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2783 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2784 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2788 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2789 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2790 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2792 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2793 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2794 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2796 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2797 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2798 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2799 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2800 name starts with a hyphen.
2802 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2803 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2804 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2805 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2806 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2807 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2808 number of bytes that will be collected.
2811 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2812 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2813 setting the variable trace-notes.
2816 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2817 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2818 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2821 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2822 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2823 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2824 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2825 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2828 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2829 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2830 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2834 set debug dwarf2-read
2835 show debug dwarf2-read
2836 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2837 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2839 set debug symtab-create
2840 show debug symtab-create
2841 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2842 creation. The default is off.
2845 show extended-prompt
2846 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2847 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2848 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2849 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2850 prompt is displayed.
2852 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2853 show print entry-values
2854 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2855 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2856 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2858 set debug entry-values
2859 show debug entry-values
2860 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2861 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2863 set basenames-may-differ
2864 show basenames-may-differ
2865 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2866 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2867 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2868 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2869 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2870 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2871 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2872 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2878 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2879 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2880 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2881 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2883 set trace-stop-notes
2884 show trace-stop-notes
2885 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2886 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2887 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2888 started by someone else.
2890 * New remote packets
2894 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2898 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2902 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2906 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2910 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2913 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2914 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2918 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2922 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2924 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2926 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2928 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2930 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2931 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2932 matches the given regular expression.
2934 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2936 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2937 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2939 * New command line options
2941 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2942 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2944 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2945 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2947 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2948 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2949 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2951 * GDB now understands thread names.
2953 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2954 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2956 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2957 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2960 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2961 has been integrated into GDB.
2965 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2966 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2967 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2969 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2970 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2971 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2972 and allows for more dynamic content.
2974 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2975 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2976 have an is_valid method.
2978 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2979 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2980 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2982 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2984 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2985 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2986 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2987 that function like so:
2989 result = some_value (10,20)
2991 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2992 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2993 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2995 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2996 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2997 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2998 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2999 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3001 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3002 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3004 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3006 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3009 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3010 holds the thread's name.
3012 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3013 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3014 occurring in the process being debugged.
3015 The following events are currently supported:
3016 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3017 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3018 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3022 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3023 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3025 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3027 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3028 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3029 was added to GCC 4.5.
3031 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3032 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3033 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3034 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3035 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3036 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3038 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3039 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3040 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3041 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3042 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3044 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3045 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3046 execution to a label.
3048 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3049 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3050 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3051 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3053 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3054 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3055 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3058 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3060 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3061 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3062 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3063 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3064 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3065 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3068 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3070 While now you see this:
3073 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3075 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3078 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3079 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3080 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3081 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3083 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3084 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3085 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3086 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3087 section in the user manual for more details.
3089 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3091 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3092 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3094 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3096 * New native configurations
3098 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3102 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3104 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3105 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3106 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3107 in the GDB user manual.
3109 * Guile support was removed.
3111 * New features in the GNU simulator
3113 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3115 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3117 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3119 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3121 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3122 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3123 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3124 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3125 was always disabled for such configurations.
3129 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3131 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3132 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3142 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3143 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3144 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3146 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3148 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3149 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3150 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3151 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3153 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3154 mentioned flavors of operators.
3156 ** static const class members
3158 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3159 class definition has been fixed.
3161 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3163 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3164 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3165 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3166 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3167 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3168 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3170 * Static tracepoints
3172 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3173 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3174 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3175 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3176 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3177 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3178 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3179 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3180 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3181 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3182 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3183 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3184 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3185 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3186 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3187 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3188 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3189 the "New remote packets" section below.
3191 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3193 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3194 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3195 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3196 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3200 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3201 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3202 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3203 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3204 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3205 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3206 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3208 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3211 * New remote packets
3215 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3219 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3220 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3221 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3222 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3223 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3224 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3228 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3232 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3235 qXfer:statictrace:read
3237 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3238 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3239 to gdb's qSupported query.
3243 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3247 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3248 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3250 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3251 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3254 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3256 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3257 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3258 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3259 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3261 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3262 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3263 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3264 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3265 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3266 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3267 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3269 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3270 for static tracepoints support.
3272 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3274 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3275 it understands register description.
3277 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3279 * X86 general purpose registers
3281 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3282 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3283 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3284 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3285 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3287 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3288 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3289 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3290 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3291 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3292 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3294 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3295 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3296 in the specified file.
3298 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3299 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3300 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3301 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3302 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3303 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3304 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3305 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3306 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3307 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3311 eval template, expressions...
3312 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3313 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3315 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3316 show target-file-system-kind
3317 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3320 save breakpoints <filename>
3321 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3322 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3323 definitions, use the `source' command.
3325 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3328 info static-tracepoint-markers
3329 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3331 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3332 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3333 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3337 Enable and disable observer mode.
3339 set may-write-registers on|off
3340 set may-write-memory on|off
3341 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3342 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3343 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3344 set may-interrupt on|off
3345 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3346 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3347 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3348 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3349 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3350 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3351 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3353 set record memory-query on|off
3354 show record memory-query
3355 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3356 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3361 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3365 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3366 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3367 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3368 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3369 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3371 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3372 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3373 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3374 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3376 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3377 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3379 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3381 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3383 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3385 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3386 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3387 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3389 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3390 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3391 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3392 regular breakpoints.
3396 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3398 * D language support.
3399 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3402 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3403 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3404 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3405 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3406 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3408 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3409 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3410 conditions of the form:
3412 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3414 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3415 interface mentioned above.
3417 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3421 ** Namespace Support
3423 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3424 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3425 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3426 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3427 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3431 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3432 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3437 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3438 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3442 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3447 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3450 * Multi-program debugging.
3452 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3453 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3454 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3455 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3456 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3457 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3458 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3459 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3461 * New tracing features
3463 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3465 ** Trace state variables
3467 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3468 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3469 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3470 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3471 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3472 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3473 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3474 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3475 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3476 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3480 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3481 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3482 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3483 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3484 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3485 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3486 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3487 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3488 the regular trace command.
3490 ** Disconnected tracing
3492 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3493 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3494 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3495 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3496 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3500 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3501 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3502 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3503 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3504 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3505 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3508 ** Circular trace buffer
3510 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3511 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3512 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3513 not be available for all target agents.
3518 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3519 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3522 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3523 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3526 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3527 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3530 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3531 "set script-extension" (see below).
3533 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3535 record save [<FILENAME>]
3536 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3537 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3539 record restore <FILENAME>
3540 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3541 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3543 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3546 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3547 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3548 inferior has loaded.
3553 maint info program-spaces
3554 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3556 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3557 show remote interrupt-sequence
3558 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3559 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3560 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3561 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3562 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3564 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3565 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3566 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3567 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3570 set remotebreak [on | off]
3572 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3574 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3575 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3578 List trace state variables and their values.
3580 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3581 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3584 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3585 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3587 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3588 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3590 * New expression syntax
3592 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3593 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3597 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3598 show follow-exec-mode
3599 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3600 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3601 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3603 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3604 show default-collect
3605 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3606 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3607 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3609 set disconnected-tracing
3610 show disconnected-tracing
3611 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3612 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3615 set circular-trace-buffer
3616 show circular-trace-buffer
3617 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3618 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3619 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3620 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3622 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3623 show script-extension
3624 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3625 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3626 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3627 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3629 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3631 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3632 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3633 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3634 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3635 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3636 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3637 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3640 * Python API Improvements
3642 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3643 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3644 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3646 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3647 `is_base_class' attribute.
3649 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3651 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3652 evaluate an expression.
3654 * New remote packets
3657 Define a trace state variable.
3660 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3663 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3666 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3669 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3673 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3675 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3676 much more reliable. In particular:
3677 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3678 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3679 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3680 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3681 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3682 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3683 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3684 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3685 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3686 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3687 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3688 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3689 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3690 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3691 non-threaded programs.
3693 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3694 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3695 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3698 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
3700 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3701 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3702 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3703 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3704 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3706 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3707 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3708 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3709 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3710 for tracepoint actions.
3712 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3713 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3714 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
3716 * Process record and replay
3718 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3719 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3720 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3723 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3724 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3725 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3728 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3729 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3732 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3733 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3734 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3735 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3736 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3737 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3738 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3739 the installation instructions for more information.
3741 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3742 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3743 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3744 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3746 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3747 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3749 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3750 now complete on file names.
3752 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3753 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3754 For instance, consider:
3756 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3757 # struct example variable;
3760 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3761 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3763 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3764 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3766 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3767 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3770 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3771 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3772 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3774 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3775 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3776 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3777 and simulator targets may also provide them.
3779 * New remote packets
3782 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3785 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3786 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3787 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3790 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3791 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3794 Obtains additional operating system information
3798 Read or write additional signal information.
3800 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3802 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3803 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3804 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3806 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3807 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3809 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3810 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3811 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
3813 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3814 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3816 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3818 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3820 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3821 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3823 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
3824 list of section offsets.
3826 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3827 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3828 have also been fixed.
3830 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3831 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3832 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3834 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3837 template<typename T> class C { };
3840 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3842 ptype C<char const *>
3843 ptype C<char const*>
3844 ptype C<const char *>
3845 ptype C<const char*>
3847 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3849 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3850 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3852 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3853 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3854 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3856 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3857 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3859 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3862 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3863 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3865 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3866 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3871 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3872 available is determined at configure time.
3874 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3876 * Ada tasking support
3878 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3882 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3884 Print detailed information about task number N.
3886 Print the task number of the current task.
3888 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3890 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3891 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3893 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3895 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3896 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3897 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3898 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3899 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3900 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3903 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3904 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3907 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3908 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3909 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3910 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3913 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3915 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3916 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3917 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3918 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3919 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3921 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3922 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3923 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3924 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3925 --enable-targets configure option.
3927 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3929 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3930 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3931 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3932 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3933 section in the user manual for more information.
3935 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3936 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3937 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3938 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3939 extensions on linux targets.
3941 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3943 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3944 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3945 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3946 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3947 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3948 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3949 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3950 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3951 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3953 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3955 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3957 maint set python print-stack
3958 maint show python print-stack
3959 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3962 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3967 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3971 Show operating system information about processes.
3974 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3977 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3980 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3983 Kill inferior number NUM.
3987 set spu stop-on-load
3988 show spu stop-on-load
3989 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3991 set spu auto-flush-cache
3992 show spu auto-flush-cache
3993 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3994 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3996 set sh calling-convention
3997 show sh calling-convention
3998 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4001 show debug timestamp
4002 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4004 set disassemble-next-line
4005 show disassemble-next-line
4006 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4009 set remote noack-packet
4010 show remote noack-packet
4011 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4012 under "New remote packets."
4014 set remote query-attached-packet
4015 show remote query-attached-packet
4016 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4018 set remote read-siginfo-object
4019 show remote read-siginfo-object
4020 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4023 set remote write-siginfo-object
4024 show remote write-siginfo-object
4025 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4028 set remote reverse-continue
4029 show remote reverse-continue
4030 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4032 set remote reverse-step
4033 show remote reverse-step
4034 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4036 set displaced-stepping
4037 show displaced-stepping
4038 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4039 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4040 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4043 show debug displaced
4044 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4046 maint set internal-error
4047 maint show internal-error
4048 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4050 maint set internal-warning
4051 maint show internal-warning
4052 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4057 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4059 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4060 show multiple-symbols
4061 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4062 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4063 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4065 set breakpoint always-inserted
4066 show breakpoint always-inserted
4067 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4068 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4069 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4071 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4072 show arm fallback-mode
4073 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4075 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4076 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4077 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4078 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4080 set disable-randomization
4081 show disable-randomization
4082 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4083 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4084 multiple debugging sessions.
4088 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4093 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4094 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4095 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4096 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4098 set target-wide-charset
4099 show target-wide-charset
4100 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4101 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4103 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4105 set tcp connect-timeout
4106 show tcp connect-timeout
4107 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4108 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4109 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4111 set libthread-db-search-path
4112 show libthread-db-search-path
4113 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4116 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4117 show schedule-multiple
4118 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4119 the current process.
4123 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4124 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4125 affecting correctness.
4127 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4128 show interactive-mode
4129 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4130 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4131 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4132 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4133 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4138 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4139 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4140 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4144 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4145 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4146 alias for the `fork' command.
4149 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4150 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4151 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4154 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4155 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4156 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4160 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4161 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4162 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4165 * New native configurations
4167 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4169 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4173 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4174 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4175 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4178 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4179 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4185 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4187 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4189 * New native configurations
4191 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4192 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4196 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4197 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
4199 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4201 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4202 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4203 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4204 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4206 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4207 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4209 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4212 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4213 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4214 and in inlined functions.
4216 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4217 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4218 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4220 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4222 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4223 registers on PowerPC targets.
4225 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4226 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4228 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4229 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4231 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4232 extended-remote mode.
4234 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4235 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4236 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4237 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4239 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4240 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4241 target architectures.
4243 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4244 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4245 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4246 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4248 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4251 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4252 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4254 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4255 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4256 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4257 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4259 - Improved command completion in Ada
4262 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4267 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4268 show print frame-arguments
4269 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4270 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4275 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4282 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4284 * New remote packets
4291 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4294 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4298 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4300 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4302 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4303 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4304 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4306 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4307 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4308 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4310 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4311 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4314 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4315 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4317 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4318 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4320 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4322 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4323 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4324 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4326 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4327 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4329 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4330 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4333 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4334 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4335 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4337 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4340 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4341 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4342 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4344 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4346 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4348 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4349 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4350 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4352 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4353 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4355 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4356 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4357 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4358 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4359 Windows and SymbianOS).
4361 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4362 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4364 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4365 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4371 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4372 when debugging using remote targets.
4374 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4375 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4376 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4377 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4378 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4379 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4380 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4382 set breakpoint auto-hw
4383 show breakpoint auto-hw
4384 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4385 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4386 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4387 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4388 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4389 including "next" and "finish".
4392 catch exception unhandled
4393 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4396 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4400 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4401 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4402 an alias to "set sysroot".
4405 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4406 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4409 * New native configurations
4411 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4414 unset tdesc filename
4416 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4417 not query the target for its built-in description.
4421 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4422 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4423 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4425 * New remote packets
4428 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4429 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4431 qXfer:features:read:
4432 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4437 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4438 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4440 qXfer:libraries:read:
4441 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4442 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4443 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4444 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4448 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4456 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4457 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4458 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4459 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4461 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4464 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4465 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4474 * Other removed features
4481 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4488 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4493 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4494 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4499 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4500 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4502 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4504 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4505 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4506 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4507 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4509 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4511 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4512 in debugging information.
4516 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4517 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4519 set mips stack-arg-size
4520 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4522 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4524 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4529 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4531 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4532 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4533 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4535 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4536 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4539 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4540 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4542 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4543 stub provides the required support.
4545 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4546 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4551 unset substitute-path
4552 show substitute-path
4553 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4554 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4555 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4556 between compilation and debugging.
4560 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4561 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4562 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4566 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4568 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4569 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4571 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4573 * New remote packets
4576 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4577 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4578 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4579 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4583 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4584 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4586 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4587 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4588 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4593 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4595 * Removed remote packets
4598 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4599 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4601 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4605 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4607 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4611 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4612 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4614 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4616 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4618 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4619 previously saved state.
4621 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4623 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4625 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4626 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4628 info forks List forks of the user program that
4629 are available to be debugged.
4631 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4632 forks of the user program that are
4633 available to be debugged.
4635 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4636 that are available to be debugged (and
4637 kill the forked process).
4639 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4640 that are available to be debugged (and
4641 allow the process to continue).
4645 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4647 * Improved Windows host support
4649 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4650 native console support, and remote communications using either
4651 network sockets or serial ports.
4653 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4655 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4656 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4657 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4658 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4659 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4660 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4664 The ARM rdi-share module.
4666 The Netware NLM debug server.
4668 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4670 * New native configurations
4672 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4673 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4677 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4679 * New command line options
4681 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4682 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4683 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4684 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4685 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4686 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4687 with the --command (-x) option.
4689 * Deprecated commands removed
4691 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4695 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4696 othernames set arm disassembler
4697 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4698 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4699 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4702 * New BSD user-level threads support
4704 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4705 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4708 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4709 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4710 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4712 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4713 are not yet supported.
4715 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4716 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4718 * REMOVED configurations and files
4720 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4721 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4722 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4724 * New "set print array-indexes" command
4726 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4727 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4730 * VAX floating point support
4732 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4734 * User-defined command support
4736 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4737 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4738 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4740 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4742 * New command line option
4744 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4747 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4749 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4750 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4751 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4752 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4753 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4755 * Internationalization
4757 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4758 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4759 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4763 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4764 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4765 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4767 * New native configurations
4769 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4773 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4774 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4776 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4778 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4779 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4780 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4783 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4784 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4785 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4795 powerpc bdm protocol
4797 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4798 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4800 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4802 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4803 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4804 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4805 permanently REMOVED.
4814 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4816 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4818 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4819 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4822 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4824 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4825 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4826 IRIX long double values).
4830 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4831 command. This problem has been fixed.
4833 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4835 * Fix for ``many threads''
4837 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4838 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4841 ptrace: No such process.
4842 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4844 This problem has been fixed.
4846 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4848 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4851 * New ``start'' command.
4853 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4855 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4857 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4858 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4859 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4861 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4862 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4863 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4864 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4865 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4866 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4867 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4868 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4869 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4871 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
4873 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4874 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4875 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4876 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4877 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4879 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4880 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4881 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4883 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4885 * New native configurations
4887 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4888 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4889 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4890 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4891 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4892 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4893 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4895 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4897 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4898 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4899 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4900 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4901 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4902 work, was also included.
4904 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4905 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4915 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4916 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4918 * REMOVED configurations and files
4920 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4921 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4922 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4923 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4924 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4925 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4926 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4927 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4928 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4929 sonymips mips-sony-*
4930 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4932 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4934 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4936 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4937 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4938 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4939 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4942 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4944 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4945 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4946 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4947 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4948 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4949 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4952 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4954 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4956 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4957 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4958 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4960 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4962 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4963 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4965 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4967 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4968 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4969 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4971 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4973 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4974 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4976 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4978 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4979 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4980 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4982 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4984 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4985 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4986 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4988 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4990 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4992 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4993 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4995 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4997 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4998 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4999 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5000 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5002 * Revised SPARC target
5004 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5005 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5006 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5007 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5008 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5012 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5013 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5014 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5017 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5019 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5020 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5023 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5025 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5026 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5027 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5028 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5029 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5030 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5031 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5032 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5033 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5035 * New native configurations
5037 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5038 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5039 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5040 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5041 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5043 * New debugging protocols
5045 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5047 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5049 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5050 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5051 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5053 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5055 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5056 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5057 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5058 permanently REMOVED.
5060 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5061 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5062 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5063 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5064 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5065 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5066 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5067 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5068 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5069 sonymips mips-sony-*
5070 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5072 * REMOVED configurations and files
5074 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5075 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5076 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5077 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5078 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5079 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5080 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5081 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5082 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5083 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5084 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5085 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5086 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5087 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5088 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5089 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5090 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5092 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5096 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5097 integrated into GDB.
5099 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5101 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5102 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5103 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5106 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5107 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5108 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5112 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5113 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5114 remote protocol documentation for details.
5116 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5118 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5119 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5120 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5123 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5125 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5126 per-thread variables.
5128 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5130 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5131 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5133 * Separate debug info.
5135 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5136 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5137 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5138 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5139 and optional debug files.
5141 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5143 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5144 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5147 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5148 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5152 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5153 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5154 considered "useable".
5156 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5158 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5159 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5162 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5164 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5165 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5167 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5169 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5170 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5173 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5175 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5176 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5180 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5181 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5182 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5183 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5184 data, for more informative profiling results.
5186 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5188 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5189 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5190 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5192 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5195 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5196 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5197 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5198 in a subsequent -var-update.
5200 * New native configurations.
5202 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5204 * Multi-arched targets.
5206 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5207 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5209 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5211 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5212 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5213 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5214 permanently REMOVED.
5216 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5217 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5218 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5219 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5220 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5221 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5222 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5223 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5224 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5225 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5226 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5227 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5229 * REMOVED configurations and files
5232 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5233 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5234 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5235 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5236 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5237 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5239 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5240 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5241 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5242 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5243 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5244 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5246 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5248 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5249 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5250 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5251 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5252 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5254 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5256 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5258 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5259 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5260 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5261 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5262 shared libs like mad''.
5264 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5266 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5267 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5268 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5269 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5271 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5273 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5274 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5277 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5278 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5280 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5281 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5283 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5284 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5285 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5286 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5288 * Multi-arched targets.
5290 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5291 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5293 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5294 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5295 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5299 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5302 * New native configurations
5304 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5305 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5306 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5307 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5309 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5311 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5312 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5313 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5314 permanently REMOVED.
5316 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5317 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5318 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5319 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5320 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5321 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5322 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5323 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5324 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5325 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5327 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5328 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5330 * OBSOLETE languages
5332 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5334 * REMOVED configurations and files
5336 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5337 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5338 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5339 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5340 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5342 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5344 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5346 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5347 commands. The default is 1024.
5349 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5351 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5353 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5355 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5356 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5357 from a file into memory (restore).
5359 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5361 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5362 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5363 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5365 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5373 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5374 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5375 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5377 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5378 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5379 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5381 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5382 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5383 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5385 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5386 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5387 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5389 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5391 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5393 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5394 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5395 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5396 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5397 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5398 (notably embedded) targets.
5400 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5402 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5403 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5404 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5405 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5407 * New command line option
5409 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5411 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5413 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5414 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5415 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5416 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5417 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5418 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5419 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5420 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5421 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5422 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5424 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5426 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5427 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5429 * New native configurations
5431 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5432 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5433 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5434 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5438 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5440 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5442 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5443 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5444 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5445 permanently REMOVED.
5447 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5448 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5449 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5450 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5451 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5453 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5455 * REMOVED configurations and files
5457 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5459 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5460 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5461 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5462 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5463 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5464 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5465 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5466 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5467 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5468 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5469 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5471 * Changes to command line processing
5473 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5474 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5476 * Changes to key bindings
5478 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5480 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5482 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5484 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5487 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5489 Numerous documentation fixes.
5491 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5493 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5495 * New native configurations
5497 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5498 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5499 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5500 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5501 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5502 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5506 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5508 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5510 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5512 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5513 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5514 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5515 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5516 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5518 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5519 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5520 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5521 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5522 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5523 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5524 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5525 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5527 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5528 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5530 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5531 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5532 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5533 permanently REMOVED.
5535 * REMOVED configurations and files
5537 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5538 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5540 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5544 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5546 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5547 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5552 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5554 * The MI enabled by default.
5556 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5557 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5558 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5559 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5560 which is now deprecated.
5562 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5564 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5565 main features are supported:
5567 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5569 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5572 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5574 - a Pascal expression parser.
5576 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5578 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5580 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5582 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5583 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5585 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5587 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5589 * Changes in completion.
5591 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5592 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5593 users expect at the shell prompt.
5595 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5596 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5597 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5598 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5599 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5600 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5601 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5603 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5605 * New platform-independent commands:
5607 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5608 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5609 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5611 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5613 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5614 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5615 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5617 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5619 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5620 multi-threaded programs though.
5622 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5624 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5626 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5627 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5630 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5632 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5633 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5634 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5635 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5636 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5639 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5640 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5641 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5643 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5645 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5646 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5648 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5649 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5652 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5653 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5654 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5655 a given linear address.
5657 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5658 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5659 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5661 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5663 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5665 * Changes in documentation.
5667 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5668 Documentation License.
5670 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5673 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5675 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5678 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5679 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5680 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5682 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5684 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5685 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5686 contents of this file.
5690 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5692 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5694 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5696 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5697 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5698 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5699 greater level of detail.
5701 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5703 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5704 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5705 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5708 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5710 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5711 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5712 machines ``out of the box''.
5714 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5715 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5716 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5717 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5718 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5720 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5721 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5722 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5723 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5724 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5726 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5727 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5730 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5733 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5734 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5735 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5736 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5738 * New native configurations
5740 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5741 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5745 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5746 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5747 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5748 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5750 * OBSOLETE configurations
5752 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5753 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5755 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5758 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5759 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5760 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5761 be permanently REMOVED.
5763 * Gould support removed
5765 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5767 * New features for SVR4
5769 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5770 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5771 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5773 * Many C++ enhancements
5775 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5776 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5778 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5780 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5781 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5782 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5783 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5785 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5786 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5788 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
5790 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5791 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5792 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5794 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5795 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5797 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5799 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5800 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5801 include ``set remote P-packet''.
5803 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5805 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5806 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5807 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5809 * ``apropos'' command added.
5811 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5812 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5813 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5817 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5818 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
5819 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5820 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5821 enabled by configuring with:
5823 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5825 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5827 * New native configurations
5829 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5830 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5831 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5835 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5836 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5837 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5839 * OBSOLETE configurations
5841 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5843 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5844 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5845 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5846 be permanently REMOVED.
5850 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5851 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5852 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5853 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5854 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5855 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5856 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5861 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5863 * set extension-language
5865 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5866 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5867 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5868 set extension-language .c c++
5869 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5870 and their associated languages.
5872 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5874 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5875 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5876 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5880 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5881 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5883 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5884 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5886 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5887 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5888 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5889 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5890 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5891 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5892 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5893 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5895 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5896 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5897 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5898 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5902 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5903 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5904 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5905 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5906 for xdb and dbx commands.
5910 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5911 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5912 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5914 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5915 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5916 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5918 * Debugging across forks
5920 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5925 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5926 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5927 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5929 * GDB remote protocol additions
5931 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5932 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5933 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5934 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5936 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5937 full 64-bit address. The command
5939 set remoteaddresssize 32
5941 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5942 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5945 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5946 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5948 maint packet heythere
5950 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5951 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5954 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5955 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5956 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5958 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5960 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5961 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5962 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5964 * mask-address variable for Mips
5966 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5967 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5968 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5970 * Higher serial baud rates
5972 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5973 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5974 to achieve all of these rates.)
5978 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5979 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5982 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5984 * New native configurations
5986 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5987 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5988 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5989 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5990 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5991 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5992 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5996 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5997 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5998 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5999 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6000 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6001 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6002 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6003 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6004 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6005 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6006 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6008 * New debugging protocols
6010 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6011 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6012 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6013 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6014 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6015 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6019 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6020 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6025 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6026 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6028 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6030 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6031 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6032 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6034 * Live range splitting
6036 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6037 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6038 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6042 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6043 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6047 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6048 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6049 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6054 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6059 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6060 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6061 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6062 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6063 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6064 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6068 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6069 the symbol at the specified address.
6073 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6074 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6075 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6076 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6077 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6081 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6082 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6083 of most MIPS variants.
6087 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6088 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6089 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6093 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6094 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6095 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6096 the possible architectures.
6098 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6100 * New native configurations
6102 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6103 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6104 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6105 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6106 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6107 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6111 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6112 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6113 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6114 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6115 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6117 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6121 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6122 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6123 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6124 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6125 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6129 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6131 * Windows 95/NT native
6133 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6134 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6135 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6136 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6137 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6139 * dont-repeat command
6141 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6142 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6143 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6144 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6146 * Send break instead of ^C
6148 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6149 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6150 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6152 * Remote protocol timeout
6154 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6155 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6156 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6158 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6160 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6161 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6162 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6163 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6164 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6166 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6167 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6168 automatically on hpux10.
6170 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6172 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6174 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6176 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6177 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6178 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6179 every character. The default value is 1050.
6181 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6183 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6184 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6185 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6186 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6187 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6188 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6190 * Speedups for remote debugging
6192 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6193 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6194 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6196 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6198 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6199 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6201 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6203 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6205 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6206 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6208 * Remote targets use caching
6210 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6211 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6212 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6213 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6214 off' turns the the data cache off.
6216 * Remote targets may have threads
6218 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6219 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6220 gdb/remote.c for details.
6224 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6225 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6226 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6227 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6228 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6229 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6230 sequence is something like
6232 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6234 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6238 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6239 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6240 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6241 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6242 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6243 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6244 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6245 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6249 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6250 but does simplify configuration and building.
6254 GDB now supports hpux10.
6256 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6258 * New native configurations
6260 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6261 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6262 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6263 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6267 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6268 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6269 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6270 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6273 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6275 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6276 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6277 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6278 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6279 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6281 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6283 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6284 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6287 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6289 To execute the command use:
6292 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6293 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6294 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6296 * New `if' and `while' commands
6298 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6299 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6300 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6301 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6302 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6303 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6304 if the expression is zero.
6306 * Fortran source language mode
6308 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6309 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6310 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6311 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6314 * Better HPUX support
6316 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6317 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6318 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6319 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6320 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6326 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6327 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6333 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6334 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6337 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6338 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6340 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6342 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6343 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6344 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6345 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6346 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6347 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6349 * New DOS host serial code
6351 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6352 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6355 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6357 * New "complete" command
6359 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6360 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6362 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6364 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6365 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6367 * Breakpoint hit counts
6369 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6370 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6371 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6372 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6373 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6376 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6378 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6379 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6380 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6382 * Shared library breakpoints
6384 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6385 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6387 * Hardware watchpoints
6389 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6390 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6392 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6396 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6397 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6399 * Improved Irix 5 support
6401 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6403 * Improved HPPA support
6405 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6407 * New native configurations
6409 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6410 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6411 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6412 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6416 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6417 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6420 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6422 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6423 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6427 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6428 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6430 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6432 * Irix 5 is now supported
6436 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6437 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6438 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6439 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6440 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6443 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6445 * User visible changes:
6449 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6450 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6451 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6452 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6453 debugging info for the mips target).
6455 * DEC Alpha native support
6457 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6458 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6459 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6460 Alpha-specific notes.
6462 * Preliminary thread implementation
6464 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6466 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6468 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6469 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6472 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6474 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6475 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6476 call methods, ...etc.
6478 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6480 * User visible changes:
6482 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6483 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6484 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6485 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6487 Filename completion now works.
6489 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6490 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6491 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6493 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6494 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6495 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6496 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6497 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6501 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6502 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6505 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6509 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6510 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6511 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6515 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6516 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6517 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6518 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6519 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6523 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6524 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6525 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6527 * New targets supported
6529 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6530 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6531 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6532 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6533 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6535 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6536 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6537 GO32 memory extender.
6539 * New remote protocols
6541 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6543 * New source languages supported
6545 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6546 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6547 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6550 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6552 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6554 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6555 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6556 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6557 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6558 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6559 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6561 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6563 * Faster and better demangling
6565 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6566 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6567 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6568 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6569 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6570 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6573 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6574 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6575 compiler does not actually implement.
6577 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6579 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6580 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6581 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6582 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6583 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6584 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6587 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6588 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6590 * Improved configure script
6592 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6593 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6594 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6595 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6597 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6598 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6599 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6600 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6601 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6602 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6604 * Documentation improvements
6606 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6607 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6608 before submitting changes.
6610 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6611 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6612 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6613 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6614 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6616 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6617 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6618 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6619 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6620 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6621 around this problem.
6625 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6626 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6627 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6630 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6631 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6633 * New native hosts supported
6635 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6636 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6638 * New targets supported
6640 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6642 * New file formats supported
6644 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6645 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6649 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6651 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6652 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6654 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6655 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6656 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6658 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6659 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6661 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6662 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6663 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6666 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6667 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6668 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6669 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6670 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6672 * Internal improvements
6674 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6675 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6677 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6678 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6679 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6680 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6681 shared code that handles any of them.
6683 * New command line options
6685 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6689 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6690 General Public License.
6692 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6694 * Host/native/target split
6696 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6697 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6698 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6699 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6700 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6702 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6703 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6704 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6705 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6706 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6707 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6708 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6710 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6711 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6712 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6714 * New hosts supported
6716 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6717 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6718 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6720 * New targets supported
6722 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6723 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6725 * New native hosts supported
6727 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6728 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6729 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6731 * New file formats supported
6733 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6734 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6735 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6739 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6740 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6741 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6743 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6745 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6746 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6747 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6748 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6752 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6753 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6754 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6756 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6760 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6761 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6764 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6765 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6767 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6768 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6769 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6770 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6771 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6772 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6774 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6775 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6776 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6777 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6781 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6782 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6783 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6784 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6785 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6787 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6788 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6789 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6790 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6794 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6795 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6796 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6797 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6798 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6799 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6800 each instruction being stepped through.
6802 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6803 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6805 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6806 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6807 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6808 processor with a serial port.
6812 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6813 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6814 supported, and what files each one uses.
6818 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6819 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6820 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6821 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6823 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6824 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6825 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6826 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6830 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6831 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6832 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6833 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6834 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6835 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6837 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6840 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6842 * Better support for C++ function names
6844 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6845 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6846 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6847 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6848 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6850 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6851 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6852 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6853 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6854 for the list of formats.
6856 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6858 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6859 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6860 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6861 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6862 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6863 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6866 * New 'maintenance' command
6868 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6869 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6870 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6872 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6873 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6874 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6875 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6876 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6877 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6879 The following commands are new:
6881 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6882 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6883 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6885 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6887 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6888 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6889 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6890 read after argv processing.
6892 * New hosts supported
6894 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6896 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6898 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6899 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6900 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6901 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6902 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6905 * New targets supported
6907 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6909 * More smarts about finding #include files
6911 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6912 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6913 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6914 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6915 the one that contains your sources.
6917 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6918 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6919 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6921 * Interesting infernals change
6923 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6924 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6925 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6926 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6928 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6930 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6931 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6932 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6934 See the ChangeLog for details.
6936 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6938 * New machines supported (host and target)
6940 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6942 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6944 * New malloc package
6946 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6947 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6948 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6949 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6950 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6951 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6955 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6956 'help info proc' for details.
6958 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6960 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6961 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6964 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6966 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6967 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6968 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6969 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6970 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6971 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6973 * Cross byte order fixes
6975 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6976 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6978 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6980 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6981 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6982 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6983 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6984 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6985 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6986 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6987 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6988 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6989 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6991 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6992 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6993 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6994 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6996 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6997 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6998 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7001 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7003 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7004 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7005 shared across multiple host platforms.
7007 * longjmp() handling
7009 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7010 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7011 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7012 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7016 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7017 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7022 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7023 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7024 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7026 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7028 * New machines supported (host and target)
7030 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7032 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7033 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7035 * New machines supported (target)
7037 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7041 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7042 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7043 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7045 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7046 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7047 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7048 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7049 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7052 * New features for SVR4
7054 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7055 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7056 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7058 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7059 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7060 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7062 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7063 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7065 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7067 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7068 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7069 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7070 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7071 same code linked statically.
7075 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7076 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7077 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7078 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7079 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7080 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7084 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7085 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7086 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7089 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7091 * New machines supported (host and target)
7093 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7094 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7095 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7097 * Almost SCO Unix support
7099 We had hoped to support:
7100 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7101 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7102 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7103 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7105 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7107 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7108 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7109 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7110 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7115 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7116 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7117 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7121 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7122 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7123 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7125 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7127 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7128 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7129 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7131 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7132 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7133 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7134 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7137 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7138 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7139 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7140 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7143 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7144 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7147 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7148 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7149 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7152 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7154 * Improved configuration
7156 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7157 Porting BFD is simpler.
7161 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7162 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7163 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7164 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7168 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7170 * New host supported (not target)
7172 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7175 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7177 * Multiple source language support
7179 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7180 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7181 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7182 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7183 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7184 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7188 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7189 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7190 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7191 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7193 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7194 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7195 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7197 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7198 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7202 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7203 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7204 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7205 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7208 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7210 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7211 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7212 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7213 examining core files.
7217 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7220 * New machines supported (host and target)
7222 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7223 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7224 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7226 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7228 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7230 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7232 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7233 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7234 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7236 * New remote interfaces
7242 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7246 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7248 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7249 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7250 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7251 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7252 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7253 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7254 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7255 stub on the target system.
7257 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7259 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7260 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7261 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7263 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7264 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7267 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7269 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7270 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7272 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7273 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7274 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7276 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7277 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7278 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7279 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7281 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7282 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7283 it is already running. Default is ON.
7285 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7286 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7287 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7288 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7291 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7292 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7293 or the value of the environment variable
7296 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7297 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7300 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7301 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7302 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7304 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7305 history expansion will be performed on
7306 command line input. The default is OFF.
7308 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7309 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7310 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7312 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7313 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7314 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7317 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7318 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7319 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7322 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7323 ``set width'' instead.
7325 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7326 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7327 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7328 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7330 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7333 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7336 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7339 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7342 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7344 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7345 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7346 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7350 * Support for Shared Libraries
7352 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7353 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7354 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7355 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7356 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7357 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7358 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7359 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7361 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7362 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7363 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7365 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7370 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7371 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7372 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7373 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7374 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7375 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7377 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7379 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7381 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7382 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7383 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7386 * C++ multiple inheritance
7388 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7391 * C++ exception handling
7393 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7394 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7395 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7398 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7399 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7400 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7402 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7403 current stack frame.
7406 * Minor command changes
7408 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7409 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7410 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7412 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7413 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7414 frames without printing.
7416 * New directory command
7418 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7419 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7420 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7421 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7422 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7424 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7426 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7429 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7430 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7431 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7432 where the program that you are debugging will run.