1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.0
8 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
9 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
10 available in future Intel CPUs.
12 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
16 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
17 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
19 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
22 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
24 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
26 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
27 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
30 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
32 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
33 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
35 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
37 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
38 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
39 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
40 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
43 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
45 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
46 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
49 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
51 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
52 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
54 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
56 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
61 eval "print $arg%d", $i
66 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
68 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
69 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
71 * New native configurations
73 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
78 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
79 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
84 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
89 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
90 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
92 -file-list-shared-libraries
93 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
94 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
98 set disassembler-options
99 show disassembler-options
100 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
101 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
102 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
103 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
104 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
106 maint print arc arc-instruction address
107 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
109 * Removed targets and native configurations
111 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
112 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
114 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
116 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
118 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
119 default. One must now explicitly configure with
120 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
121 option will be removed in a future release.
123 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
126 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
127 memory backward from the given address. For example:
130 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
131 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
132 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
133 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
134 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
135 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
136 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
137 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
138 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
140 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
141 arrays of dynamic types.
143 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
144 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
145 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
146 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
147 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
148 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
150 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
153 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
154 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
155 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
157 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
159 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
160 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
161 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
162 signal received and code location.
166 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
167 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
168 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
169 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
171 * Rust language support.
172 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
173 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
176 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
178 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
179 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
180 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
181 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
182 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
183 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
184 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
185 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
186 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
187 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
190 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
192 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
193 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
198 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
199 skip -function function
200 skip -rfunction regular-expression
201 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
202 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
203 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
205 maint info line-table REGEXP
206 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
209 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
212 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
213 using the TTY file for input/output.
217 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
218 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
219 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
220 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
221 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
224 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
225 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
226 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
227 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
230 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
231 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
232 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
234 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
237 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
238 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
239 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
240 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
241 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
242 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
244 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
245 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
246 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
247 bytecode into native code.
249 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
250 recording. For example:
252 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
254 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
256 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
260 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
262 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
264 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
266 * Per-inferior thread numbers
268 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
269 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
270 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
274 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
275 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
276 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
277 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
279 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
280 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
281 are no longer unique between inferiors.
283 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
284 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
285 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
287 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
290 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
291 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
294 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
297 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
298 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
299 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
300 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
303 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
306 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
309 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
312 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
313 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
316 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
317 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
319 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
321 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
323 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
324 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
326 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
327 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
330 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
331 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
334 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
335 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
338 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
340 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
341 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
342 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
344 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
345 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
349 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
350 maint show target-non-stop
351 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
352 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
353 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
355 maint set bfd-sharing
356 maint show bfd-sharing
357 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
361 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
365 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
367 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
368 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
369 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
371 set remote thread-events
372 show remote thread-events
373 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
375 set ada print-signatures on|off
376 show ada print-signatures"
377 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
378 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
382 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
383 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
384 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
386 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
387 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
388 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
389 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
390 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
391 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
393 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
394 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
396 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
397 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
399 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
401 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
402 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
403 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
404 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
405 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
406 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
408 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
409 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
414 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
416 exec-events feature in qSupported
417 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
418 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
419 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
420 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
423 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
426 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
427 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
429 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
430 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
433 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
434 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
435 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
436 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
437 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
438 stop for that same thread.
441 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
442 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
443 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
446 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
447 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
449 syscall_entry stop reason
450 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
452 syscall_return stop reason
453 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
455 * Extended-remote exec events
457 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
458 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
459 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
461 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
462 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
463 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
465 * Thread names in remote protocol
467 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
470 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
472 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
473 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
474 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
475 fork and exec catchpoints.
477 * Remote syscall events
479 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
480 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
482 set remote catch-syscall-packet
483 show remote catch-syscall-packet
484 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
488 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
489 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
494 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
495 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
496 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
497 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
498 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
499 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
501 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
503 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
504 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
505 including advance SIMD instructions.
507 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
509 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
510 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
511 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
512 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
513 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
514 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
515 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
517 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
519 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
521 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
522 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
525 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
526 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
527 and may include things like its command line arguments.
529 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
530 is now available on all platforms.
532 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
533 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
534 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
535 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
536 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
537 backward compatibility.
539 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
540 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
541 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
542 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
544 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
545 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
546 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
547 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
550 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
552 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
554 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
555 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
556 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
557 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
558 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
559 See "New remote packets" below.
561 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
562 available register groups, including target specific groups.
564 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
565 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
566 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
567 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
572 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
576 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
577 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
578 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
579 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
580 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
581 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
582 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
583 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
584 "const" version of the value respectively.
588 maint print symbol-cache
589 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
591 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
592 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
594 maint flush-symbol-cache
595 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
599 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
602 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
606 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
609 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
610 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
614 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
617 Print information about branch tracing internals.
619 maint btrace packet-history
620 Print the raw branch tracing data.
622 maint btrace clear-packet-history
623 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
626 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
627 anew by the next "record" command.
632 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
634 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
637 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
638 show debug dwarf-read
639 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
641 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
642 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
643 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
644 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
646 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
647 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
648 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
649 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
652 show debug dwarf-line
653 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
657 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
658 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
659 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
660 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
662 set history remove-duplicates
663 show history remove-duplicates
664 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
666 maint set symbol-cache-size
667 maint show symbol-cache-size
668 Control the size of the symbol cache.
670 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
671 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
673 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
674 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
676 set debug linux-namespaces
677 show debug linux-namespaces
678 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
680 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
681 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
682 Intel Processor Trace format.
683 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
684 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
686 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
687 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
690 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
691 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
693 * Python/Guile scripting
695 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
696 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
700 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
701 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
703 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
704 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
707 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
708 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
712 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
716 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
717 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
718 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
722 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
723 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
726 Return information about files on the remote system.
729 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
730 create a process running on the remote system.
733 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
734 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
735 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
736 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
739 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
742 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
744 vforkdone stop reason
745 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
746 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
748 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
749 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
750 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
751 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
752 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
753 whether these features are enabled.
755 * Extended-remote fork events
757 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
758 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
759 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
760 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
762 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
763 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
764 the btrace record target.
765 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
767 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
768 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
770 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
773 * Removed command line options
775 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
777 * Removed targets and native configurations
779 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
780 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
782 * New configure options
785 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
786 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
788 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
789 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
790 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
791 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
793 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
797 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
799 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
801 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
805 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
806 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
807 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
808 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
809 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
810 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
811 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
812 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
813 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
814 selecting a new file to debug.
815 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
816 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
818 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
821 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
822 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
823 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
824 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
826 * New Python-based convenience functions:
828 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
829 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
830 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
831 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
833 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
834 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
835 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
836 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
837 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
838 interface with this new feature are:
840 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
841 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
845 demangle [-l language] [--] name
846 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
847 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
848 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
849 as "maint demangler-warning".
851 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
852 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
854 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
855 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
858 maint print user-registers
859 List all currently available "user" registers.
861 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
862 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
863 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
865 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
866 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
867 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
870 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
871 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
872 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
873 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
876 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
877 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
878 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
879 switched threads meanwhile.
881 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
883 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
884 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
885 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
886 is now the default mode.
890 set debug symbol-lookup
891 show debug symbol-lookup
892 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
896 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
897 inferiors that have exited.
901 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
905 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
907 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
908 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
909 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
910 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
911 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
913 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
914 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
915 its alias "share", instead.
917 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
919 * New command line options
922 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
924 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
925 as specified in ISO C99.
927 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
928 with or without disassembly.
932 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
933 available is determined at configure time.
934 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
935 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
937 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
941 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
945 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
947 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
948 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
950 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
951 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
955 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
956 show print symbol-loading
957 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
958 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
959 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
962 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
963 show guile print-stack
964 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
966 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
967 show auto-load guile-scripts
968 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
970 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
971 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
972 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
973 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
974 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
975 usage of this option.
977 set auto-connect-native-target
979 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
980 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
981 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
983 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
984 show record btrace replay-memory-access
985 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
987 maint set target-async (on|off)
988 maint show target-async
989 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
990 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
991 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
992 occurring only in synchronous mode.
994 set mi-async (on|off)
996 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
997 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
999 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1000 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1002 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1003 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1004 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1005 "set target-async on" command.
1007 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1009 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1010 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1011 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1012 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1013 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1015 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1016 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1017 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1019 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1020 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1021 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1022 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1023 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1024 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1025 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1027 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1028 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1030 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1031 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1032 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1034 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1035 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1036 memory or registers.
1038 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1040 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1041 remote. It now works with all targets.
1043 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1044 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1045 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1046 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1047 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1048 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1049 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1050 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1051 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1054 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1055 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1056 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1058 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1060 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1061 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1062 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1064 * New remote packets
1066 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1067 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1068 branch trace incrementally.
1072 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1073 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1075 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1076 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1077 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1078 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1079 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
1082 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1084 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1085 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1086 its alias "share", instead.
1088 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1089 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1094 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1095 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1096 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1097 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1098 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1099 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1100 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1101 commands and CLI execution commands.
1103 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
1105 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1106 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1107 recording has been added.
1109 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1111 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1112 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1114 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1115 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1116 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1117 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1118 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1119 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1122 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1124 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1126 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1127 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1128 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1129 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1134 (gdb) info registers rax
1137 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1138 "*value not available*".
1140 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1145 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1146 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1147 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1148 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1149 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1150 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1154 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1155 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1156 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1158 * Removed native configurations
1160 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1161 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1163 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1164 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1165 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1166 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1167 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1168 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1169 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1173 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1174 maint check-psymtabs
1175 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1177 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1178 maint expand-symtabs
1179 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1182 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1184 maint set|show per-command
1185 maint set|show per-command space
1186 maint set|show per-command time
1187 maint set|show per-command symtab
1188 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1190 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1191 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1192 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1193 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1194 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1197 info exceptions REGEXP
1198 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1199 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1204 set debug symfile off|on
1206 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1207 symbol tables within those files
1209 set print raw frame-arguments
1210 show print raw frame-arguments
1211 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1212 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1214 set remote trace-status-packet
1215 show remote trace-status-packet
1216 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1220 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1224 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1226 set startup-with-shell
1227 show startup-with-shell
1228 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1233 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1234 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1236 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1237 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1238 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1239 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1242 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1243 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1244 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1246 * New command-line options
1248 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1250 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1251 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1253 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1256 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1258 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1259 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1261 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1262 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1264 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1265 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1266 due to an uncaught signal.
1270 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1271 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1272 command, which should contain "language-option".
1274 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1275 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1277 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1278 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1279 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1280 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1281 "undefined-command-error-code".
1283 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1286 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1288 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1289 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1292 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1293 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1295 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1296 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1297 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1299 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1300 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1301 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1302 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1303 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1304 "exec-run-start-option".
1306 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1307 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1309 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1310 the new "info exceptions" command.
1312 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1313 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1314 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1318 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1319 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1320 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1323 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1324 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1326 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1327 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1328 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1330 * New remote packets
1334 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1335 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1336 involvemement at each single-step.
1338 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1339 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1340 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1341 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1342 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1343 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1346 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1348 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1349 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1351 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1352 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1353 trace state variables.
1355 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1358 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1359 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1361 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1363 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1364 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1365 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1366 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1368 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1370 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1371 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1372 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1373 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1375 set|show record full insn-number-max
1376 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1377 set|show record full memory-query
1379 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1380 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1381 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1382 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1383 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1387 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1388 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1390 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1391 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1392 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1394 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1395 instruction granularity
1397 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1398 function granularity
1400 * New native configurations
1402 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1403 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1404 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1405 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1409 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1410 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1411 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1412 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1413 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1415 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1416 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1417 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1418 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1419 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1420 --data-directory command-line option.
1422 * New command line options:
1424 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1425 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1427 * Removed command line options
1429 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1432 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1435 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1439 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1441 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1443 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1445 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1447 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1448 of architecture in the Python API.
1450 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1451 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1453 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1455 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1456 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1458 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1460 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1463 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1464 default for GCC since November 2000.
1466 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1468 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1469 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1471 * New configure options
1473 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1474 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1475 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1476 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1477 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1478 options allow the user to override that default.
1479 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1480 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1481 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1483 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1486 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1487 conditions to be attached.
1490 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1492 python-interactive [command]
1494 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1495 and print the result of expressions.
1498 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1500 enable type-printer [name]...
1501 disable type-printer [name]...
1502 Enable or disable type printers.
1506 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1507 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1512 set print type methods (on|off)
1513 show print type methods
1514 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1515 The default is to show them.
1517 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1518 show print type typedefs
1519 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1520 The default is to show them.
1522 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1523 show filename-display
1524 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1525 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1527 set trace-buffer-size
1528 show trace-buffer-size
1529 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1531 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1532 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1533 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1537 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1540 set debug coff-pe-read
1541 show debug coff-pe-read
1542 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1547 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1550 set debug notification
1551 show debug notification
1552 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1556 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1557 "=cmd-param-changed".
1558 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1559 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1560 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1561 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1562 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1563 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1564 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1565 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1567 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1568 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1569 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1570 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1571 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1572 library load/unload events.
1573 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1574 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1575 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1576 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1577 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1578 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1579 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1580 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1582 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1583 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1584 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1585 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1587 * New remote packets
1590 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1591 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1594 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1595 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1599 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1600 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1603 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1604 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1606 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1608 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1609 for more x32 ABI info.
1611 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1613 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1615 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1616 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1617 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1618 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1619 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1620 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1621 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1622 "info os msg" lists message queues
1623 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1625 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1626 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1627 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1628 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1629 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1630 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1632 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1633 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1634 record/replay support.
1636 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1640 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
1643 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
1645 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
1646 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
1648 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
1650 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
1651 the source at which the symbol was defined.
1653 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
1654 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
1655 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
1658 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
1659 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
1661 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
1662 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
1663 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
1665 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
1666 object associated with a PC value.
1668 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
1669 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
1671 * Go language support.
1672 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
1675 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1676 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1678 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1679 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1681 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
1682 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
1683 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
1684 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
1685 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
1688 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
1689 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
1690 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
1691 build/libcpp/expr.c.
1693 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
1694 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
1696 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
1697 since December 2007.
1699 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
1700 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
1701 command does. For instance:
1703 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
1705 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
1706 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
1707 created, using the "condition" command.
1709 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
1710 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
1712 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
1714 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
1715 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
1716 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
1717 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
1718 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
1719 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
1720 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
1721 files with older .gdb_index sections.
1723 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
1724 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
1725 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
1726 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
1727 the .gdb_index section.
1729 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1731 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1736 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1738 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1742 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1743 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1744 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1746 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1747 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1749 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1752 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
1753 C++ and Java objects.
1755 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
1756 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
1757 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1758 configured with '--with-python'.
1760 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1761 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1762 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1763 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1764 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1765 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1766 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1768 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1769 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1770 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1771 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1773 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1774 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1775 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1776 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1778 ** "set print symbol"
1780 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1781 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1782 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1784 * Deprecated commands
1786 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1787 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1791 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1792 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
1794 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1795 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1796 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1797 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1802 set mips compression
1803 show mips compression
1804 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1805 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1808 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1810 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1811 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
1812 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
1813 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1815 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1819 Disable auto-loading globally.
1822 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1824 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1825 show auto-load gdb-scripts
1826 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1828 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1829 show auto-load python-scripts
1830 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1832 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1833 show auto-load local-gdbinit
1834 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1836 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1837 show auto-load libthread-db
1838 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1840 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1841 show auto-load scripts-directory
1842 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1843 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1844 of the directories listed by this option.
1845 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1847 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1848 show auto-load safe-path
1849 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1850 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1852 set debug auto-load on|off
1853 show debug auto-load
1854 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1856 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
1858 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1859 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1860 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1861 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
1863 set dprintf-function <expr>
1864 show dprintf-function
1865 set dprintf-channel <expr>
1866 show dprintf-channel
1867 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1868 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1870 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1871 show disconnected-dprintf
1872 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1873 after GDB disconnects.
1875 * New configure options
1877 --with-auto-load-dir
1878 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1879 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1880 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1881 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1882 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
1884 --with-auto-load-safe-path
1885 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
1886 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
1888 --without-auto-load-safe-path
1889 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1892 * New remote packets
1894 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1896 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1897 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1898 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1899 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1903 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1904 program without GDB involvement.
1906 * New command line options
1908 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1909 before loading inferior.
1910 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1911 execute it before loading inferior.
1913 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
1915 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1916 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1917 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1918 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1921 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1922 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1924 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1925 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1926 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1927 target hardware watchpoint.
1929 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1930 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1931 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1932 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1936 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
1937 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
1940 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
1941 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1942 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1943 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1944 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1947 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
1950 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1951 modules library. This module provides functionality for
1952 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
1953 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1954 corresponding value.
1956 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1957 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1958 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1961 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1962 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1963 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1964 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1966 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1968 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1971 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1972 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1973 available in the CLI.
1975 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1976 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1977 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1978 "some_type.items()".
1980 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1983 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1984 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1985 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1986 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1987 any anonymous fields.
1991 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1994 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1995 "=breakpoint-modified".
1997 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1999 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2000 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2001 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2004 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2005 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2006 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2007 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2008 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2010 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2011 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2013 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2014 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2015 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2016 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2017 use this option to specify where to find it.
2019 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2020 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2021 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2022 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2023 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2024 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2025 section in the user manual for more details.
2027 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2028 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2029 become available after that.
2031 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2033 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2034 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2040 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2041 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2045 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2046 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2047 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2049 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2050 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2051 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2053 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2054 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2055 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2056 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2057 name starts with a hyphen.
2059 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2060 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2061 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2062 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2063 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2064 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2065 number of bytes that will be collected.
2068 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2069 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2070 setting the variable trace-notes.
2073 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2074 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2075 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2078 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2079 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2080 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2081 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2082 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2085 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2086 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2087 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2091 set debug dwarf2-read
2092 show debug dwarf2-read
2093 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2094 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2096 set debug symtab-create
2097 show debug symtab-create
2098 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2099 creation. The default is off.
2102 show extended-prompt
2103 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2104 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2105 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2106 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2107 prompt is displayed.
2109 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2110 show print entry-values
2111 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2112 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2113 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2115 set debug entry-values
2116 show debug entry-values
2117 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2118 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2120 set basenames-may-differ
2121 show basenames-may-differ
2122 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2123 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2124 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2125 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2126 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2127 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2128 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2129 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2135 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2136 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2137 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2138 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2140 set trace-stop-notes
2141 show trace-stop-notes
2142 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2143 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2144 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2145 started by someone else.
2147 * New remote packets
2151 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2155 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2159 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2163 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2167 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2170 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2171 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2175 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2179 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2181 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2183 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2185 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2187 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2188 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2189 matches the given regular expression.
2191 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2193 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2194 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2196 * New command line options
2198 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2199 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2201 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2202 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2204 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2205 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2206 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2208 * GDB now understands thread names.
2210 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2211 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2213 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2214 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2217 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2218 has been integrated into GDB.
2222 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2223 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2224 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2226 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2227 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2228 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2229 and allows for more dynamic content.
2231 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2232 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2233 have an is_valid method.
2235 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2236 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2237 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2239 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2241 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2242 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2243 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2244 that function like so:
2246 result = some_value (10,20)
2248 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2249 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2250 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2252 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2253 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2254 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2255 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2256 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2258 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2259 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2261 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2263 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2266 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2267 holds the thread's name.
2269 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2270 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2271 occurring in the process being debugged.
2272 The following events are currently supported:
2273 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2274 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2275 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2279 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2280 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2282 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2284 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2285 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2286 was added to GCC 4.5.
2288 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2289 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2290 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2291 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2292 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2293 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2295 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2296 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2297 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2298 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2299 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2301 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2302 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2303 execution to a label.
2305 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2306 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2307 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2308 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2310 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2311 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2312 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2315 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2317 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2318 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2319 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2320 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2321 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2322 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2325 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2327 While now you see this:
2330 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2332 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2335 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2336 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2337 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2338 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2340 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2341 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2342 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2343 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2344 section in the user manual for more details.
2346 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2348 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2349 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2351 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2353 * New native configurations
2355 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2359 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2361 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2362 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2363 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2364 in the GDB user manual.
2366 * Guile support was removed.
2368 * New features in the GNU simulator
2370 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2372 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2374 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2376 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2378 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2379 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2380 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2381 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2382 was always disabled for such configurations.
2386 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2388 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2389 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2399 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2400 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2401 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2403 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2405 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2406 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2407 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2408 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2410 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2411 mentioned flavors of operators.
2413 ** static const class members
2415 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2416 class definition has been fixed.
2418 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2420 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2421 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2422 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2423 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2424 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2425 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2427 * Static tracepoints
2429 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2430 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2431 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2432 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2433 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2434 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2435 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2436 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2437 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2438 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2439 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2440 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2441 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2442 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2443 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2444 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2445 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2446 the "New remote packets" section below.
2448 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2450 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2451 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2452 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2453 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2457 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2458 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2459 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2460 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2461 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2462 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2463 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2465 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2468 * New remote packets
2472 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2476 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2477 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2478 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2479 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2480 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2481 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2485 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2489 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2492 qXfer:statictrace:read
2494 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2495 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2496 to gdb's qSupported query.
2500 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2504 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2505 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2507 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2508 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2511 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2513 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2514 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2515 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2516 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2518 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2519 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2520 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2521 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2522 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2523 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2524 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2526 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2527 for static tracepoints support.
2529 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2531 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2532 it understands register description.
2534 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2536 * X86 general purpose registers
2538 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2539 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2540 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2541 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2542 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2544 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2545 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2546 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2547 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2548 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2549 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2551 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2552 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2553 in the specified file.
2555 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2556 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2557 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2558 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2559 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2560 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2561 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2562 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2563 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2564 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2568 eval template, expressions...
2569 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2570 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2572 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2573 show target-file-system-kind
2574 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2577 save breakpoints <filename>
2578 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2579 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2580 definitions, use the `source' command.
2582 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2585 info static-tracepoint-markers
2586 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2588 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2589 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2590 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2594 Enable and disable observer mode.
2596 set may-write-registers on|off
2597 set may-write-memory on|off
2598 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2599 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2600 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2601 set may-interrupt on|off
2602 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2603 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2604 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2605 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2606 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2607 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2608 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2610 set record memory-query on|off
2611 show record memory-query
2612 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2613 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2618 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2622 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2623 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2624 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2625 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2626 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2628 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
2629 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2630 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2631 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
2633 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
2634 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2636 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
2638 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
2640 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
2642 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
2643 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
2644 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
2646 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
2647 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
2648 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
2649 regular breakpoints.
2653 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2655 * D language support.
2656 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
2659 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
2660 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
2661 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
2662 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
2663 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
2665 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
2666 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
2667 conditions of the form:
2669 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
2671 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
2672 interface mentioned above.
2674 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
2678 ** Namespace Support
2680 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
2681 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
2682 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
2683 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
2684 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
2688 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
2689 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
2694 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
2695 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
2699 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
2704 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
2707 * Multi-program debugging.
2709 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
2710 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
2711 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
2712 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
2713 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
2714 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
2715 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
2716 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
2718 * New tracing features
2720 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
2722 ** Trace state variables
2724 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
2725 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
2726 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
2727 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2728 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2729 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2730 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2731 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2732 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2733 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
2737 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2738 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2739 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2740 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2741 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2742 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2743 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2744 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2745 the regular trace command.
2747 ** Disconnected tracing
2749 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2750 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2751 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2752 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2753 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2757 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2758 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2759 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2760 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2761 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2762 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2765 ** Circular trace buffer
2767 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2768 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2769 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2770 not be available for all target agents.
2775 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2776 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2779 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2780 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2783 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2784 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2787 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2788 "set script-extension" (see below).
2790 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2792 record save [<FILENAME>]
2793 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2794 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2796 record restore <FILENAME>
2797 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2798 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2800 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2803 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2804 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2805 inferior has loaded.
2810 maint info program-spaces
2811 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2813 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2814 show remote interrupt-sequence
2815 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2816 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2817 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2818 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2819 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2821 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2822 show remote interrupt-on-connect
2823 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2824 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2827 set remotebreak [on | off]
2829 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2831 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2832 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2835 List trace state variables and their values.
2837 delete tvariable $NAME ...
2838 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2841 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2842 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2844 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2845 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2847 * New expression syntax
2849 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2850 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2854 set follow-exec-mode new|same
2855 show follow-exec-mode
2856 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2857 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2858 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2860 set default-collect EXPR, ...
2861 show default-collect
2862 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2863 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2864 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2866 set disconnected-tracing
2867 show disconnected-tracing
2868 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2869 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2872 set circular-trace-buffer
2873 show circular-trace-buffer
2874 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2875 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2876 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2877 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2879 set script-extension off|soft|strict
2880 show script-extension
2881 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2882 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2883 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2884 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2886 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2888 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2889 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2890 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2891 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2892 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2893 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2894 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2897 * Python API Improvements
2899 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2900 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2901 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2903 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2904 `is_base_class' attribute.
2906 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2908 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2909 evaluate an expression.
2911 * New remote packets
2914 Define a trace state variable.
2917 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2920 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2923 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2926 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2930 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2932 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2933 much more reliable. In particular:
2934 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2935 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2936 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2937 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2938 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2939 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2940 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2941 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2942 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2943 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2944 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2945 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2946 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2947 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2948 non-threaded programs.
2950 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2951 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2952 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2955 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
2957 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2958 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2959 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2960 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2961 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2963 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2964 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2965 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2966 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2967 for tracepoint actions.
2969 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2970 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2971 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
2973 * Process record and replay
2975 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2976 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2977 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2980 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2981 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2982 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2985 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2986 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
2989 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2990 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2991 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2992 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2993 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2994 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2995 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2996 the installation instructions for more information.
2998 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2999 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3000 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3001 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3003 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3004 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3006 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3007 now complete on file names.
3009 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3010 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3011 For instance, consider:
3013 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3014 # struct example variable;
3017 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3018 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3020 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3021 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3023 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3024 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3027 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3028 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3029 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3031 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3032 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3033 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3034 and simulator targets may also provide them.
3036 * New remote packets
3039 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3042 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3043 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3044 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3047 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3048 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3051 Obtains additional operating system information
3055 Read or write additional signal information.
3057 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3059 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3060 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3061 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3063 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3064 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3066 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3067 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3068 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
3070 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3071 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3073 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3075 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3077 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3078 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3080 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
3081 list of section offsets.
3083 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3084 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3085 have also been fixed.
3087 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3088 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3089 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3091 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3094 template<typename T> class C { };
3097 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3099 ptype C<char const *>
3100 ptype C<char const*>
3101 ptype C<const char *>
3102 ptype C<const char*>
3104 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3106 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3107 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3109 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3110 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3111 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3113 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3114 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3116 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3119 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3120 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3122 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3123 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3128 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3129 available is determined at configure time.
3131 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3133 * Ada tasking support
3135 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3139 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3141 Print detailed information about task number N.
3143 Print the task number of the current task.
3145 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3147 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3148 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3150 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3152 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3153 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3154 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3155 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3156 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3157 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3160 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3161 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3164 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3165 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3166 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3167 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3170 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3172 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3173 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3174 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3175 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3176 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3178 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3179 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3180 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3181 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3182 --enable-targets configure option.
3184 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3186 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3187 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3188 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3189 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3190 section in the user manual for more information.
3192 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3193 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3194 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3195 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3196 extensions on linux targets.
3198 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3200 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3201 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3202 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3203 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3204 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3205 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3206 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3207 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3208 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3210 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3212 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3214 maint set python print-stack
3215 maint show python print-stack
3216 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3219 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3224 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3228 Show operating system information about processes.
3231 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3234 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3237 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3240 Kill inferior number NUM.
3244 set spu stop-on-load
3245 show spu stop-on-load
3246 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3248 set spu auto-flush-cache
3249 show spu auto-flush-cache
3250 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3251 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3253 set sh calling-convention
3254 show sh calling-convention
3255 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3258 show debug timestamp
3259 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3261 set disassemble-next-line
3262 show disassemble-next-line
3263 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3266 set remote noack-packet
3267 show remote noack-packet
3268 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3269 under "New remote packets."
3271 set remote query-attached-packet
3272 show remote query-attached-packet
3273 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3275 set remote read-siginfo-object
3276 show remote read-siginfo-object
3277 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3280 set remote write-siginfo-object
3281 show remote write-siginfo-object
3282 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3285 set remote reverse-continue
3286 show remote reverse-continue
3287 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3289 set remote reverse-step
3290 show remote reverse-step
3291 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3293 set displaced-stepping
3294 show displaced-stepping
3295 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3296 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3297 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3300 show debug displaced
3301 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3303 maint set internal-error
3304 maint show internal-error
3305 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3307 maint set internal-warning
3308 maint show internal-warning
3309 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3314 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3316 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3317 show multiple-symbols
3318 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3319 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3320 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3322 set breakpoint always-inserted
3323 show breakpoint always-inserted
3324 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3325 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3326 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3328 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3329 show arm fallback-mode
3330 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3332 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3333 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3334 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3335 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3337 set disable-randomization
3338 show disable-randomization
3339 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3340 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3341 multiple debugging sessions.
3345 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3350 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3351 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3352 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3353 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3355 set target-wide-charset
3356 show target-wide-charset
3357 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3358 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3360 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3362 set tcp connect-timeout
3363 show tcp connect-timeout
3364 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3365 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3366 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3368 set libthread-db-search-path
3369 show libthread-db-search-path
3370 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3373 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3374 show schedule-multiple
3375 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3376 the current process.
3380 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3381 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3382 affecting correctness.
3384 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3385 show interactive-mode
3386 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3387 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3388 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3389 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3390 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3395 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3396 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3397 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3401 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3402 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3403 alias for the `fork' command.
3406 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3407 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3408 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3411 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3412 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3413 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3417 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3418 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3419 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3422 * New native configurations
3424 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3426 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3430 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3431 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3432 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3435 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3436 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3442 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3444 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3446 * New native configurations
3448 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3449 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3453 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3454 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3456 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3458 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3459 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3460 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3461 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3463 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3464 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3466 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3469 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3470 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3471 and in inlined functions.
3473 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3474 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3475 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3477 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3479 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3480 registers on PowerPC targets.
3482 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3483 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3485 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3486 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3488 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3489 extended-remote mode.
3491 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3492 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3493 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3494 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3496 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3497 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3498 target architectures.
3500 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3501 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3502 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3503 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3505 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3508 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3509 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3511 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3512 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3513 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3514 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3516 - Improved command completion in Ada
3519 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3524 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3525 show print frame-arguments
3526 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3527 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3532 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3539 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3541 * New remote packets
3548 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3551 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3555 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3557 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3559 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3560 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3561 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3563 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3564 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3565 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3567 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3568 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3571 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3572 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3574 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3575 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3577 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3579 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3580 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3581 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3583 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3584 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3586 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3587 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3590 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3591 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3592 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3594 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3597 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3598 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3599 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3601 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3603 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3605 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3606 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3607 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3609 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3610 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3612 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3613 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3614 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3615 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3616 Windows and SymbianOS).
3618 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3619 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3621 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3622 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3628 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3629 when debugging using remote targets.
3631 set mem inaccessible-by-default
3632 show mem inaccessible-by-default
3633 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3634 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3635 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3636 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3637 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3639 set breakpoint auto-hw
3640 show breakpoint auto-hw
3641 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3642 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3643 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
3644 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
3645 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
3646 including "next" and "finish".
3649 catch exception unhandled
3650 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
3653 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
3657 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
3658 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
3659 an alias to "set sysroot".
3662 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
3663 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
3666 * New native configurations
3668 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
3671 unset tdesc filename
3673 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
3674 not query the target for its built-in description.
3678 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
3679 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
3680 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
3682 * New remote packets
3685 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
3686 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
3688 qXfer:features:read:
3689 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
3694 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
3695 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
3697 qXfer:libraries:read:
3698 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
3699 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
3700 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
3701 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
3705 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3713 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
3714 i[34567]86-*-netware*
3715 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
3716 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
3718 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
3721 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
3722 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
3731 * Other removed features
3738 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3745 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3750 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3751 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3756 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3757 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3759 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3761 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3762 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3763 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3764 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3766 MIPS ".pdr" sections
3768 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3769 in debugging information.
3773 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3774 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3776 set mips stack-arg-size
3777 set mips saved-gpreg-size
3779 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3781 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
3786 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
3788 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3789 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3790 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3792 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3793 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3796 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3797 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3799 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3800 stub provides the required support.
3802 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3803 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3808 unset substitute-path
3809 show substitute-path
3810 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3811 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3812 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3813 between compilation and debugging.
3817 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3818 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3819 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3823 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3825 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3826 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3828 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3830 * New remote packets
3833 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3834 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3835 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3836 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3840 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3841 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3843 qXfer:memory-map:read:
3844 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3845 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3850 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3852 * Removed remote packets
3855 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3856 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3858 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
3862 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3864 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3868 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3869 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3871 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3873 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3875 restart <n> Return the program state to a
3876 previously saved state.
3878 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3880 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3882 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3883 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3885 info forks List forks of the user program that
3886 are available to be debugged.
3888 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3889 forks of the user program that are
3890 available to be debugged.
3892 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3893 that are available to be debugged (and
3894 kill the forked process).
3896 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3897 that are available to be debugged (and
3898 allow the process to continue).
3902 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3904 * Improved Windows host support
3906 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3907 native console support, and remote communications using either
3908 network sockets or serial ports.
3910 * Improved Modula-2 language support
3912 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3913 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3914 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3915 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3916 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3917 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3921 The ARM rdi-share module.
3923 The Netware NLM debug server.
3925 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
3927 * New native configurations
3929 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
3930 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3934 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3936 * New command line options
3938 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3939 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3940 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3941 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3942 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3943 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3944 with the --command (-x) option.
3946 * Deprecated commands removed
3948 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3952 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3953 othernames set arm disassembler
3954 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3955 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3956 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3959 * New BSD user-level threads support
3961 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3962 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3965 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3966 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3967 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3969 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3970 are not yet supported.
3972 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3973 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3975 * REMOVED configurations and files
3977 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
3978 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3979 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
3981 * New "set print array-indexes" command
3983 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3984 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3987 * VAX floating point support
3989 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3991 * User-defined command support
3993 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3994 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3995 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3997 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3999 * New command line option
4001 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4004 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4006 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4007 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4008 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4009 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4010 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4012 * Internationalization
4014 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4015 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4016 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4020 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4021 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4022 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4024 * New native configurations
4026 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4030 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4031 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4033 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4035 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4036 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4037 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4040 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4041 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4042 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4052 powerpc bdm protocol
4054 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4055 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4057 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4059 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4060 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4061 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4062 permanently REMOVED.
4071 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4073 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4075 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4076 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4079 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4081 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4082 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4083 IRIX long double values).
4087 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4088 command. This problem has been fixed.
4090 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4092 * Fix for ``many threads''
4094 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4095 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4098 ptrace: No such process.
4099 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4101 This problem has been fixed.
4103 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4105 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4108 * New ``start'' command.
4110 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4112 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4114 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4115 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4116 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4118 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4119 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4120 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4121 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4122 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4123 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4124 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4125 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4126 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4128 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
4130 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4131 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4132 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4133 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4134 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4136 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4137 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4138 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4140 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4142 * New native configurations
4144 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4145 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4146 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4147 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4148 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4149 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4150 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4152 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4154 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4155 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4156 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4157 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4158 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4159 work, was also included.
4161 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4162 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4172 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4173 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4175 * REMOVED configurations and files
4177 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4178 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4179 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4180 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4181 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4182 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4183 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4184 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4185 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4186 sonymips mips-sony-*
4187 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4189 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4191 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4193 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4194 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4195 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4196 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4199 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4201 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4202 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4203 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4204 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4205 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4206 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4209 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4211 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4213 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4214 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4215 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4217 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4219 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4220 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4222 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4224 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4225 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4226 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4228 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4230 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4231 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4233 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4235 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4236 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4237 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4239 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4241 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4242 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4243 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4245 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4247 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4249 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4250 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4252 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4254 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4255 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4256 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4257 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4259 * Revised SPARC target
4261 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4262 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4263 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4264 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4265 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4269 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4270 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4271 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4274 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4276 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4277 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4280 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4282 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4283 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4284 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4285 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4286 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4287 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4288 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4289 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4290 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4292 * New native configurations
4294 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4295 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4296 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4297 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4298 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4300 * New debugging protocols
4302 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4304 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4306 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4307 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4308 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4310 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4312 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4313 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4314 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4315 permanently REMOVED.
4317 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4318 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4319 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4320 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4321 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4322 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4323 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4324 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4325 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4326 sonymips mips-sony-*
4327 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4329 * REMOVED configurations and files
4331 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4332 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4333 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4334 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4335 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4336 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4337 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4338 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4339 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4340 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4341 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4342 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4343 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4344 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4345 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4346 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4347 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4349 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4353 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4354 integrated into GDB.
4356 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4358 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4359 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4360 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4363 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4364 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4365 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4369 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4370 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4371 remote protocol documentation for details.
4373 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4375 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4376 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4377 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4380 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4382 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4383 per-thread variables.
4385 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4387 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4388 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4390 * Separate debug info.
4392 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4393 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4394 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4395 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4396 and optional debug files.
4398 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4400 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4401 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4404 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4405 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4409 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4410 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4411 considered "useable".
4413 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4415 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4416 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4419 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4421 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4422 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4424 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4426 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4427 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4430 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4432 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4433 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4437 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4438 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4439 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4440 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4441 data, for more informative profiling results.
4443 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4445 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4446 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4447 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4449 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4452 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4453 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4454 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4455 in a subsequent -var-update.
4457 * New native configurations.
4459 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4461 * Multi-arched targets.
4463 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4464 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4466 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4468 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4469 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4470 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4471 permanently REMOVED.
4473 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4474 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4475 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4476 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4477 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4478 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4479 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4480 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4481 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4482 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4483 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4484 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4486 * REMOVED configurations and files
4489 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4490 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4491 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4492 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4493 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4494 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4496 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4497 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4498 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4499 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4500 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4501 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4503 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4505 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4506 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4507 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4508 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4509 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4511 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4513 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4515 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4516 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4517 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4518 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4519 shared libs like mad''.
4521 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4523 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4524 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4525 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4526 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4528 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4530 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4531 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4534 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4535 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4537 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4538 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4540 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4541 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4542 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4543 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4545 * Multi-arched targets.
4547 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4548 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4550 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4551 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4552 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4556 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4559 * New native configurations
4561 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4562 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4563 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4564 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4566 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4568 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4569 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4570 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4571 permanently REMOVED.
4573 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4574 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4575 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4576 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4577 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4578 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4579 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4580 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4581 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4582 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4584 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4585 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4587 * OBSOLETE languages
4589 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4591 * REMOVED configurations and files
4593 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4594 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4595 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4596 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4597 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4599 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4601 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4603 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4604 commands. The default is 1024.
4606 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4608 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4610 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4612 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4613 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4614 from a file into memory (restore).
4616 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4618 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4619 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4620 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4622 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4630 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4631 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4632 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4634 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4635 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4636 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4638 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
4639 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
4640 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
4642 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
4643 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
4644 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
4646 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
4648 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
4650 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
4651 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
4652 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
4653 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
4654 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
4655 (notably embedded) targets.
4657 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
4659 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
4660 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
4661 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
4662 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
4664 * New command line option
4666 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
4668 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4670 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
4671 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
4672 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
4673 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
4674 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4675 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4676 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4677 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4678 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4679 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4681 * Changes in ARM configurations.
4683 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
4684 configuration is fully multi-arch.
4686 * New native configurations
4688 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
4689 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
4690 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
4691 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
4695 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
4697 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4699 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4700 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4701 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4702 permanently REMOVED.
4704 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4705 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4706 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4707 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4708 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4710 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4712 * REMOVED configurations and files
4714 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4716 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4717 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4718 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4719 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4720 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4721 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4722 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4723 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4724 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4725 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4726 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
4728 * Changes to command line processing
4730 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4731 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4733 * Changes to key bindings
4735 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4737 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4739 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4741 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4744 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4746 Numerous documentation fixes.
4748 Numerous testsuite fixes.
4750 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
4752 * New native configurations
4754 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4755 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
4756 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
4757 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4758 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
4759 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
4763 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
4765 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
4767 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4769 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
4770 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4771 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4772 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4773 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4775 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4776 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4777 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4778 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4779 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4780 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4781 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4782 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
4784 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4785 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4787 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4788 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4789 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4790 permanently REMOVED.
4792 * REMOVED configurations and files
4794 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4795 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4797 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4801 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
4803 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
4804 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4809 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4811 * The MI enabled by default.
4813 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4814 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4815 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4816 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4817 which is now deprecated.
4819 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4821 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4822 main features are supported:
4824 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4826 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4829 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4831 - a Pascal expression parser.
4833 However, some important features are not yet supported.
4835 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4837 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4839 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4840 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4842 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4844 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4846 * Changes in completion.
4848 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4849 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4850 users expect at the shell prompt.
4852 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4853 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4854 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4855 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4856 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4857 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4858 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4860 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4862 * New platform-independent commands:
4864 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4865 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4866 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4868 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4870 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4871 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4872 many threads as your system allows you to have.
4874 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4876 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4877 multi-threaded programs though.
4879 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
4881 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4883 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4884 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4887 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4889 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4890 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4891 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4892 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4893 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4896 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4897 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4898 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4900 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4902 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4903 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4905 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4906 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4909 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4910 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4911 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4912 a given linear address.
4914 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4915 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4916 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4918 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4920 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4922 * Changes in documentation.
4924 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4925 Documentation License.
4927 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4930 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4932 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4935 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4936 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4937 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4939 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4941 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4942 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4943 contents of this file.
4947 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
4949 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
4951 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4953 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4954 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4955 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4956 greater level of detail.
4958 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4960 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4961 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4962 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4965 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4967 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4968 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4969 machines ``out of the box''.
4971 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4972 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4973 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4974 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4975 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4977 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4978 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4979 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4980 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4981 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4983 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4984 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4987 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4990 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4991 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4992 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4993 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4995 * New native configurations
4997 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
4998 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5002 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5003 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5004 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5005 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5007 * OBSOLETE configurations
5009 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5010 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5012 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5015 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5016 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5017 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5018 be permanently REMOVED.
5020 * Gould support removed
5022 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5024 * New features for SVR4
5026 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5027 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5028 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5030 * Many C++ enhancements
5032 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5033 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5035 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5037 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5038 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5039 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5040 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5042 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5043 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5045 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
5047 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5048 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5049 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5051 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5052 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5054 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5056 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5057 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5058 include ``set remote P-packet''.
5060 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5062 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5063 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5064 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5066 * ``apropos'' command added.
5068 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5069 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5070 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5074 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5075 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
5076 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5077 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5078 enabled by configuring with:
5080 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5082 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5084 * New native configurations
5086 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5087 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5088 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5092 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5093 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5094 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5096 * OBSOLETE configurations
5098 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5100 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5101 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5102 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5103 be permanently REMOVED.
5107 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5108 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5109 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5110 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5111 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5112 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5113 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5118 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5120 * set extension-language
5122 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5123 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5124 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5125 set extension-language .c c++
5126 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5127 and their associated languages.
5129 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5131 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5132 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5133 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5137 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5138 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5140 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5141 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5143 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5144 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5145 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5146 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5147 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5148 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5149 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5150 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5152 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5153 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5154 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5155 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5159 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5160 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5161 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5162 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5163 for xdb and dbx commands.
5167 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5168 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5169 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5171 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5172 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5173 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5175 * Debugging across forks
5177 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5182 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5183 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5184 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5186 * GDB remote protocol additions
5188 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5189 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5190 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5191 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5193 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5194 full 64-bit address. The command
5196 set remoteaddresssize 32
5198 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5199 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5202 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5203 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5205 maint packet heythere
5207 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5208 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5211 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5212 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5213 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5215 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5217 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5218 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5219 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5221 * mask-address variable for Mips
5223 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5224 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5225 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5227 * Higher serial baud rates
5229 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5230 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5231 to achieve all of these rates.)
5235 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5236 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5239 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5241 * New native configurations
5243 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5244 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5245 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5246 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5247 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5248 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5249 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5253 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5254 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5255 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5256 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5257 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5258 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5259 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5260 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5261 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5262 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5263 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5265 * New debugging protocols
5267 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5268 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5269 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5270 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5271 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5272 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5276 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5277 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5282 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5283 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5285 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5287 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5288 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5289 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5291 * Live range splitting
5293 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5294 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5295 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5299 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5300 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5304 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5305 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5306 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5311 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5316 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5317 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5318 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5319 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5320 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5321 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5325 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5326 the symbol at the specified address.
5330 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5331 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5332 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5333 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5334 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5338 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5339 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5340 of most MIPS variants.
5344 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5345 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5346 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5350 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5351 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5352 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5353 the possible architectures.
5355 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5357 * New native configurations
5359 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5360 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5361 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5362 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5363 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5364 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5368 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5369 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5370 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5371 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5372 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5374 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5378 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5379 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5380 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5381 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5382 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5386 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5388 * Windows 95/NT native
5390 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5391 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5392 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5393 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5394 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5396 * dont-repeat command
5398 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5399 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5400 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5401 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5403 * Send break instead of ^C
5405 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5406 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5407 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5409 * Remote protocol timeout
5411 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5412 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5413 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5415 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5417 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5418 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5419 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5420 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5421 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5423 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5424 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5425 automatically on hpux10.
5427 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5429 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5431 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5433 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5434 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5435 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5436 every character. The default value is 1050.
5438 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5440 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5441 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5442 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5443 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5444 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5445 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5447 * Speedups for remote debugging
5449 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5450 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5451 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5453 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5455 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5456 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5458 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5460 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5462 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5463 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5465 * Remote targets use caching
5467 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5468 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5469 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5470 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5471 off' turns the the data cache off.
5473 * Remote targets may have threads
5475 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5476 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5477 gdb/remote.c for details.
5481 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5482 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5483 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5484 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5485 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5486 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5487 sequence is something like
5489 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5491 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5495 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5496 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5497 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5498 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5499 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5500 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5501 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5502 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5506 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5507 but does simplify configuration and building.
5511 GDB now supports hpux10.
5513 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5515 * New native configurations
5517 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5518 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5519 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5520 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5524 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5525 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5526 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5527 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5530 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5532 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5533 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5534 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5535 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5536 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5538 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5540 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5541 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5544 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5546 To execute the command use:
5549 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5550 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5551 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5553 * New `if' and `while' commands
5555 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5556 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5557 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5558 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5559 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5560 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5561 if the expression is zero.
5563 * Fortran source language mode
5565 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5566 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5567 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5568 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5571 * Better HPUX support
5573 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5574 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5575 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5576 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5577 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5583 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5584 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5590 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5591 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5594 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5595 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5597 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5599 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5600 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5601 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5602 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5603 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5604 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5606 * New DOS host serial code
5608 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5609 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5612 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5614 * New "complete" command
5616 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5617 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5619 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5621 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5622 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5624 * Breakpoint hit counts
5626 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5627 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5628 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5629 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5630 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5633 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5635 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5636 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5637 arrays actually contain only short strings.
5639 * Shared library breakpoints
5641 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
5642 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
5644 * Hardware watchpoints
5646 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
5647 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
5649 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
5653 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
5654 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
5656 * Improved Irix 5 support
5658 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
5660 * Improved HPPA support
5662 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
5664 * New native configurations
5666 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
5667 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5668 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
5669 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
5673 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5674 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5677 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5679 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5680 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
5684 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
5685 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
5687 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
5689 * Irix 5 is now supported
5693 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
5694 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
5695 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
5696 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
5697 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
5700 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
5702 * User visible changes:
5706 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
5707 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
5708 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
5709 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
5710 debugging info for the mips target).
5712 * DEC Alpha native support
5714 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
5715 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
5716 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
5717 Alpha-specific notes.
5719 * Preliminary thread implementation
5721 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
5723 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
5725 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
5726 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
5729 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5731 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5732 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5733 call methods, ...etc.
5735 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5737 * User visible changes:
5739 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5740 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5741 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5742 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5744 Filename completion now works.
5746 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5747 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5748 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5750 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5751 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5752 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5753 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5754 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5758 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5759 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5762 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5766 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5767 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5768 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5772 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5773 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5774 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5775 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5776 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5780 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5781 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5782 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5784 * New targets supported
5786 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5787 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5788 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5789 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5790 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5792 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5793 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5794 GO32 memory extender.
5796 * New remote protocols
5798 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5800 * New source languages supported
5802 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5803 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5804 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5807 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5809 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5811 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5812 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5813 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5814 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5815 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5816 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5818 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5820 * Faster and better demangling
5822 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5823 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5824 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5825 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5826 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5827 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5830 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5831 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5832 compiler does not actually implement.
5834 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5836 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5837 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5838 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5839 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5840 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5841 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5844 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5845 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5847 * Improved configure script
5849 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5850 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5851 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5852 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5854 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5855 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5856 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5857 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5858 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5859 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5861 * Documentation improvements
5863 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5864 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5865 before submitting changes.
5867 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5868 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5869 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5870 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5871 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5873 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5874 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5875 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5876 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5877 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5878 around this problem.
5882 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5883 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5884 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5887 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5888 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5890 * New native hosts supported
5892 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5893 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5895 * New targets supported
5897 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5899 * New file formats supported
5901 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5902 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5906 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5908 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5909 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5911 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5912 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5913 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5915 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5916 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5918 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5919 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5920 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5923 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5924 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5925 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5926 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5927 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5929 * Internal improvements
5931 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5932 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5934 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5935 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5936 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5937 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5938 shared code that handles any of them.
5940 * New command line options
5942 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5946 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5947 General Public License.
5949 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5951 * Host/native/target split
5953 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5954 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5955 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5956 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5957 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5959 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5960 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5961 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5962 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5963 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5964 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5965 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5967 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5968 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5969 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5971 * New hosts supported
5973 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5974 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5975 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5977 * New targets supported
5979 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5980 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5982 * New native hosts supported
5984 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5985 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5986 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5988 * New file formats supported
5990 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5991 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5992 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5996 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5997 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5998 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6000 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6002 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6003 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6004 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6005 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6009 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6010 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6011 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6013 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6017 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6018 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6021 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6022 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6024 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6025 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6026 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6027 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6028 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6029 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6031 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6032 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6033 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6034 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6038 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6039 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6040 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6041 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6042 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6044 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6045 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6046 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6047 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6051 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6052 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6053 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6054 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6055 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6056 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6057 each instruction being stepped through.
6059 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6060 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6062 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6063 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6064 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6065 processor with a serial port.
6069 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6070 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6071 supported, and what files each one uses.
6075 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6076 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6077 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6078 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6080 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6081 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6082 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6083 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6087 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6088 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6089 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6090 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6091 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6092 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6094 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6097 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6099 * Better support for C++ function names
6101 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6102 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6103 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6104 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6105 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6107 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6108 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6109 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6110 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6111 for the list of formats.
6113 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6115 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6116 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6117 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6118 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6119 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6120 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6123 * New 'maintenance' command
6125 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6126 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6127 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6129 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6130 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6131 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6132 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6133 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6134 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6136 The following commands are new:
6138 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6139 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6140 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6142 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6144 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6145 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6146 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6147 read after argv processing.
6149 * New hosts supported
6151 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6153 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6155 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6156 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6157 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6158 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6159 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6162 * New targets supported
6164 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6166 * More smarts about finding #include files
6168 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6169 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6170 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6171 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6172 the one that contains your sources.
6174 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6175 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6176 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6178 * Interesting infernals change
6180 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6181 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6182 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6183 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6185 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6187 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6188 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6189 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6191 See the ChangeLog for details.
6193 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6195 * New machines supported (host and target)
6197 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6199 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6201 * New malloc package
6203 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6204 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6205 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6206 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6207 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6208 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6212 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6213 'help info proc' for details.
6215 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6217 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6218 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6221 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6223 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6224 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6225 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6226 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6227 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6228 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6230 * Cross byte order fixes
6232 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6233 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6235 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6237 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6238 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6239 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6240 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6241 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6242 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6243 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6244 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6245 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6246 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6248 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6249 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6250 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6251 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6253 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6254 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6255 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6258 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6260 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6261 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6262 shared across multiple host platforms.
6264 * longjmp() handling
6266 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6267 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6268 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6269 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6273 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6274 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6279 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6280 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6281 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6283 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6285 * New machines supported (host and target)
6287 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6289 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6290 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6292 * New machines supported (target)
6294 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6298 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6299 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6300 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6302 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6303 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6304 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6305 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6306 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6309 * New features for SVR4
6311 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6312 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6313 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6315 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6316 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6317 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6319 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6320 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6322 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6324 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6325 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6326 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6327 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6328 same code linked statically.
6332 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6333 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6334 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6335 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6336 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6337 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6341 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6342 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6343 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6346 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6348 * New machines supported (host and target)
6350 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6351 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6352 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6354 * Almost SCO Unix support
6356 We had hoped to support:
6357 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6358 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6359 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6360 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6362 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6364 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6365 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6366 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6367 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6372 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6373 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6374 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6378 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6379 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6380 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6382 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6384 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6385 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6386 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6388 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6389 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6390 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6391 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6394 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6395 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6396 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6397 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6400 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6401 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6404 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6405 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6406 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6409 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6411 * Improved configuration
6413 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6414 Porting BFD is simpler.
6418 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6419 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6420 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6421 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6425 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6427 * New host supported (not target)
6429 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6432 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6434 * Multiple source language support
6436 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6437 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6438 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6439 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6440 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6441 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6445 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6446 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6447 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6448 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6450 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6451 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6452 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6454 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6455 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6459 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6460 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6461 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6462 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6465 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6467 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6468 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6469 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6470 examining core files.
6474 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6477 * New machines supported (host and target)
6479 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6480 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6481 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6483 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6485 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6487 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6489 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6490 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6491 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6493 * New remote interfaces
6499 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6503 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6505 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6506 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6507 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6508 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6509 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6510 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6511 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6512 stub on the target system.
6514 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6516 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6517 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6518 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6520 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6521 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6524 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6526 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6527 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6529 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6530 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6531 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6533 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6534 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6535 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6536 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6538 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6539 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6540 it is already running. Default is ON.
6542 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6543 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6544 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6545 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6548 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6549 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6550 or the value of the environment variable
6553 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6554 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6557 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6558 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6559 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6561 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6562 history expansion will be performed on
6563 command line input. The default is OFF.
6565 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6566 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6567 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6569 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6570 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6571 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6574 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6575 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6576 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6579 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6580 ``set width'' instead.
6582 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6583 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6584 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6585 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6587 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6590 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6593 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6596 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6599 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6601 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6602 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6603 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6607 * Support for Shared Libraries
6609 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6610 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6611 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6612 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6613 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6614 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6615 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6616 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6618 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6619 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6620 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6622 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6627 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6628 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6629 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6630 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6631 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6632 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6634 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6636 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6638 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6639 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6640 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6643 * C++ multiple inheritance
6645 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
6648 * C++ exception handling
6650 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
6651 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
6652 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
6655 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
6656 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
6657 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
6659 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
6660 current stack frame.
6663 * Minor command changes
6665 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
6666 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
6667 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
6669 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
6670 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
6671 frames without printing.
6673 * New directory command
6675 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6676 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6677 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6678 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6679 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6681 * Configuring GDB for compilation
6683 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
6686 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
6687 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
6688 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
6689 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / external / binutils.git / blob