1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.4
8 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
10 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
11 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
13 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
15 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
16 the source at which the symbol was defined.
18 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
19 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
21 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
22 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
24 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
25 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
26 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
27 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
28 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
31 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
32 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
33 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
36 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
37 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
39 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
44 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
45 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
47 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
49 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
50 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
51 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
52 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
55 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
56 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
58 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
59 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
60 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
61 target hardware watchpoint.
63 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
64 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
65 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
66 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
70 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
71 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
74 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
75 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
76 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
77 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
78 now "message", which just prints the error message without
81 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
84 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
85 modules library. This module provides functionality for
86 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
87 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
90 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
91 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
92 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
95 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
96 static_block will return the global and static blocks
97 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
98 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
100 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
102 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
105 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
106 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
107 available in the CLI.
109 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
110 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
111 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
114 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
117 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
118 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
119 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
120 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
121 any anonymous fields.
125 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
128 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
129 "=breakpoint-modified".
131 ** New command -ada-task-info.
133 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
134 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
135 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
138 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
139 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
140 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
141 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
142 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
144 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
145 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
147 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
148 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
149 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
150 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
151 use this option to specify where to find it.
153 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
154 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
155 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
156 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
157 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
158 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
159 section in the user manual for more details.
161 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
162 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
163 become available after that.
165 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
167 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
168 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
174 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
175 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
179 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
180 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
181 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
183 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
184 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
185 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
187 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
188 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
189 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
190 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
191 name starts with a hyphen.
193 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
194 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
195 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
196 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
197 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
198 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
199 number of bytes that will be collected.
202 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
203 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
204 setting the variable trace-notes.
207 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
208 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
209 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
212 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
213 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
214 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
215 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
216 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
219 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
220 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
221 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
227 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
228 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
229 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
230 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
233 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
234 show print entry-values
235 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
236 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
237 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
239 set debug entry-values
240 show debug entry-values
241 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
242 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
244 set basenames-may-differ
245 show basenames-may-differ
246 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
247 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
248 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
249 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
250 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
251 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
252 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
253 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
259 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
260 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
261 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
262 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
265 show trace-stop-notes
266 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
267 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
268 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
269 started by someone else.
275 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
279 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
283 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
287 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
291 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
294 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
295 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
299 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
303 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
305 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
307 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
309 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
311 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
312 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
313 matches the given regular expression.
315 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
317 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
318 dumping the instruction opcodes.
320 * New command line options
322 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
323 This is mostly for testing purposes.
325 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
326 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
328 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
329 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
330 source path list instead of augmenting it.
332 * GDB now understands thread names.
334 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
335 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
337 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
338 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
341 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
342 has been integrated into GDB.
346 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
347 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
348 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
350 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
351 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
352 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
353 and allows for more dynamic content.
355 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
356 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
357 have an is_valid method.
359 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
360 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
361 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
363 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
365 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
366 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
367 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
368 that function like so:
370 result = some_value (10,20)
372 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
373 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
374 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
376 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
377 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
378 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
379 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
380 New function: register_pretty_printer.
382 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
383 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
385 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
387 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
390 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
391 holds the thread's name.
393 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
394 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
395 occurring in the process being debugged.
396 The following events are currently supported:
397 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
398 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
399 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
403 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
404 instantiation. For example, if you have:
406 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
408 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
409 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
410 was added to GCC 4.5.
412 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
413 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
414 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
415 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
416 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
417 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
419 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
420 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
421 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
422 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
423 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
425 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
426 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
427 execution to a label.
429 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
430 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
431 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
432 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
434 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
435 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
436 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
439 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
441 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
442 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
443 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
444 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
445 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
446 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
449 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
451 While now you see this:
454 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
456 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
459 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
460 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
461 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
462 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
464 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
465 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
466 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
467 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
468 section in the user manual for more details.
470 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
472 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
473 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
475 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
477 * New native configurations
479 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
483 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
485 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
486 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
487 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
488 in the GDB user manual.
490 * Guile support was removed.
492 * New features in the GNU simulator
494 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
496 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
498 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
500 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
502 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
503 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
504 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
505 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
506 was always disabled for such configurations.
510 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
512 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
513 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
523 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
524 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
525 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
527 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
529 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
530 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
531 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
532 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
534 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
535 mentioned flavors of operators.
537 ** static const class members
539 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
540 class definition has been fixed.
542 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
544 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
545 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
546 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
547 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
548 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
549 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
553 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
554 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
555 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
556 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
557 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
558 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
559 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
560 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
561 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
562 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
563 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
564 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
565 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
566 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
567 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
568 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
569 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
570 the "New remote packets" section below.
572 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
574 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
575 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
576 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
577 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
581 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
582 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
583 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
584 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
585 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
586 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
587 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
589 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
596 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
600 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
601 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
602 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
603 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
604 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
605 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
609 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
613 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
616 qXfer:statictrace:read
618 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
619 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
620 to gdb's qSupported query.
624 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
628 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
629 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
631 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
632 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
635 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
637 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
638 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
639 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
640 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
642 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
643 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
644 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
645 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
646 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
647 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
648 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
650 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
651 for static tracepoints support.
653 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
655 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
656 it understands register description.
658 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
660 * X86 general purpose registers
662 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
663 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
664 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
665 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
666 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
668 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
669 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
670 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
671 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
672 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
673 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
675 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
676 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
677 in the specified file.
679 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
680 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
681 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
682 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
683 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
684 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
685 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
686 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
687 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
688 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
692 eval template, expressions...
693 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
694 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
696 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
697 show target-file-system-kind
698 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
701 save breakpoints <filename>
702 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
703 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
704 definitions, use the `source' command.
706 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
709 info static-tracepoint-markers
710 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
712 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
713 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
714 function, line, address, or marker ID.
718 Enable and disable observer mode.
720 set may-write-registers on|off
721 set may-write-memory on|off
722 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
723 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
724 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
725 set may-interrupt on|off
726 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
727 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
728 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
729 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
730 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
731 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
732 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
734 set record memory-query on|off
735 show record memory-query
736 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
737 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
742 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
746 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
747 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
748 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
749 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
750 GDB using Python' in the manual.
752 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
753 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
754 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
755 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
757 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
758 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
760 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
762 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
764 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
766 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
767 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
768 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
770 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
771 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
772 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
777 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
779 * D language support.
780 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
783 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
784 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
785 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
786 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
787 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
789 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
790 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
791 conditions of the form:
793 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
795 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
796 interface mentioned above.
798 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
804 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
805 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
806 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
807 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
808 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
812 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
813 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
818 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
819 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
823 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
828 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
831 * Multi-program debugging.
833 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
834 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
835 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
836 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
837 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
838 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
839 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
840 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
842 * New tracing features
844 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
846 ** Trace state variables
848 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
849 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
850 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
851 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
852 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
853 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
854 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
855 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
856 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
857 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
861 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
862 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
863 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
864 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
865 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
866 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
867 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
868 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
869 the regular trace command.
871 ** Disconnected tracing
873 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
874 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
875 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
876 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
877 connection is lost unexpectedly.
881 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
882 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
883 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
884 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
885 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
886 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
889 ** Circular trace buffer
891 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
892 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
893 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
894 not be available for all target agents.
899 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
900 the arguments to be comma-separated.
903 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
904 which only declare a variable are not shown.
907 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
908 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
911 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
912 "set script-extension" (see below).
914 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
916 record save [<FILENAME>]
917 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
918 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
920 record restore <FILENAME>
921 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
922 earlier time, for replay debugging.
924 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
927 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
928 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
934 maint info program-spaces
935 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
937 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
938 show remote interrupt-sequence
939 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
940 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
941 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
942 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
943 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
945 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
946 show remote interrupt-on-connect
947 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
948 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
951 set remotebreak [on | off]
953 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
955 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
956 Create or modify a trace state variable.
959 List trace state variables and their values.
961 delete tvariable $NAME ...
962 Delete one or more trace state variables.
965 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
966 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
968 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
969 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
971 * New expression syntax
973 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
974 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
978 set follow-exec-mode new|same
979 show follow-exec-mode
980 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
981 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
982 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
984 set default-collect EXPR, ...
986 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
987 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
988 such as registers or a critical global variable.
990 set disconnected-tracing
991 show disconnected-tracing
992 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
993 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
996 set circular-trace-buffer
997 show circular-trace-buffer
998 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
999 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1000 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1001 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1003 set script-extension off|soft|strict
1004 show script-extension
1005 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1006 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1007 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1008 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1010 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1012 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1013 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1014 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1015 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1016 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1017 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1018 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1021 * Python API Improvements
1023 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1024 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1025 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1027 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1028 `is_base_class' attribute.
1030 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1032 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1033 evaluate an expression.
1035 * New remote packets
1038 Define a trace state variable.
1041 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1044 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1047 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1050 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1054 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1056 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1057 much more reliable. In particular:
1058 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1059 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1060 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1061 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1062 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1063 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1064 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1065 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1066 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1067 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1068 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1069 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1070 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1071 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1072 non-threaded programs.
1074 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1075 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1076 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1079 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
1081 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1082 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1083 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1084 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1085 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1087 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1088 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1089 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1090 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1091 for tracepoint actions.
1093 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1094 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1095 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
1097 * Process record and replay
1099 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1100 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1101 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1104 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1105 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1106 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1109 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1110 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
1113 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1114 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1115 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1116 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1117 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1118 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1119 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1120 the installation instructions for more information.
1122 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1123 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1124 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1125 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1127 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1128 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1130 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1131 now complete on file names.
1133 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1134 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1135 For instance, consider:
1137 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1138 # struct example variable;
1141 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1142 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1144 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1145 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1147 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1148 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1151 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
1152 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1153 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1155 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1156 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1157 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1158 and simulator targets may also provide them.
1160 * New remote packets
1163 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1166 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1167 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1168 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1171 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1172 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1175 Obtains additional operating system information
1179 Read or write additional signal information.
1181 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1183 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1184 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1185 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1187 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
1188 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
1190 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
1191 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1192 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
1194 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1195 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1197 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1199 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1201 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1202 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1204 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
1205 list of section offsets.
1207 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1208 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1209 have also been fixed.
1211 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
1212 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1213 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
1215 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1218 template<typename T> class C { };
1221 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1223 ptype C<char const *>
1224 ptype C<char const*>
1225 ptype C<const char *>
1226 ptype C<const char*>
1228 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1230 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1231 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1233 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1234 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1235 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1237 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1238 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1240 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1243 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1244 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1246 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1247 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1252 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1253 available is determined at configure time.
1255 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1257 * Ada tasking support
1259 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1263 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1265 Print detailed information about task number N.
1267 Print the task number of the current task.
1269 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1271 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1272 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1274 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1276 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1277 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1278 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1279 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1280 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1281 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1284 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1285 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1288 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1289 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1290 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1291 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1294 * Multi-architecture debugging.
1296 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1297 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1298 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1299 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1300 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1302 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1303 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1304 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1305 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1306 --enable-targets configure option.
1308 * Non-stop mode debugging.
1310 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1311 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1312 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1313 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1314 section in the user manual for more information.
1316 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1317 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1318 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1319 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1320 extensions on linux targets.
1322 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1324 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1325 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1326 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1327 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1328 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1329 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1330 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1331 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1332 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1334 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1336 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1338 maint set python print-stack
1339 maint show python print-stack
1340 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1343 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1348 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1352 Show operating system information about processes.
1355 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1358 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1361 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1364 Kill inferior number NUM.
1368 set spu stop-on-load
1369 show spu stop-on-load
1370 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1372 set spu auto-flush-cache
1373 show spu auto-flush-cache
1374 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1375 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1377 set sh calling-convention
1378 show sh calling-convention
1379 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1382 show debug timestamp
1383 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1385 set disassemble-next-line
1386 show disassemble-next-line
1387 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1390 set remote noack-packet
1391 show remote noack-packet
1392 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1393 under "New remote packets."
1395 set remote query-attached-packet
1396 show remote query-attached-packet
1397 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1399 set remote read-siginfo-object
1400 show remote read-siginfo-object
1401 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1404 set remote write-siginfo-object
1405 show remote write-siginfo-object
1406 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1409 set remote reverse-continue
1410 show remote reverse-continue
1411 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1413 set remote reverse-step
1414 show remote reverse-step
1415 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1417 set displaced-stepping
1418 show displaced-stepping
1419 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1420 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1421 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1424 show debug displaced
1425 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1427 maint set internal-error
1428 maint show internal-error
1429 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1431 maint set internal-warning
1432 maint show internal-warning
1433 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1438 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1440 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1441 show multiple-symbols
1442 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1443 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1444 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1446 set breakpoint always-inserted
1447 show breakpoint always-inserted
1448 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1449 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1450 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1452 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1453 show arm fallback-mode
1454 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1456 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1457 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1458 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1459 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1461 set disable-randomization
1462 show disable-randomization
1463 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1464 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1465 multiple debugging sessions.
1469 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1474 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1475 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1476 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1477 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1479 set target-wide-charset
1480 show target-wide-charset
1481 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1482 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1484 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1486 set tcp connect-timeout
1487 show tcp connect-timeout
1488 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1489 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1490 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1492 set libthread-db-search-path
1493 show libthread-db-search-path
1494 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1497 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1498 show schedule-multiple
1499 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1500 the current process.
1504 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1505 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1506 affecting correctness.
1508 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1509 show interactive-mode
1510 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1511 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1512 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1513 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1514 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1519 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1520 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1521 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1525 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1526 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1527 alias for the `fork' command.
1530 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1531 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1532 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1535 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1536 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1537 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1541 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1542 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1543 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1546 * New native configurations
1548 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1550 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1554 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1555 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1556 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1559 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1560 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1566 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1568 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1570 * New native configurations
1572 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1573 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1577 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1578 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1580 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1582 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1583 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1584 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1585 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1587 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1588 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1590 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1593 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1594 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1595 and in inlined functions.
1597 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1598 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1599 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1601 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1603 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1604 registers on PowerPC targets.
1606 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1607 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1609 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1610 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1612 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1613 extended-remote mode.
1615 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1616 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1617 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1618 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1620 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1621 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1622 target architectures.
1624 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1625 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1626 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1627 stored in two consecutive float registers.
1629 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1632 * Improved support for debugging Ada
1633 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1635 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1636 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1637 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1638 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1640 - Improved command completion in Ada
1643 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1648 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1649 show print frame-arguments
1650 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1651 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1656 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1663 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1665 * New remote packets
1672 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1675 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1679 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1681 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
1683 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1684 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1685 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1687 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1688 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1689 -Bsymbolic linker option.
1691 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1692 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1695 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1696 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1698 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1699 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
1701 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1703 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1704 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1705 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1707 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1708 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1710 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1711 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1714 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1715 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1716 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1718 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1721 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1722 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1723 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1725 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1727 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1729 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1730 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1731 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1733 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1734 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1736 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1737 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1738 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1739 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1740 Windows and SymbianOS).
1742 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1743 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1745 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1746 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1752 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1753 when debugging using remote targets.
1755 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1756 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1757 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1758 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1759 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1760 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1761 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1763 set breakpoint auto-hw
1764 show breakpoint auto-hw
1765 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1766 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1767 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1768 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1769 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1770 including "next" and "finish".
1773 catch exception unhandled
1774 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1777 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1781 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1782 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1783 an alias to "set sysroot".
1786 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1787 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1790 * New native configurations
1792 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1795 unset tdesc filename
1797 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1798 not query the target for its built-in description.
1802 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1803 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1804 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1806 * New remote packets
1809 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1810 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1812 qXfer:features:read:
1813 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1818 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1819 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1821 qXfer:libraries:read:
1822 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1823 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1824 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1825 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1829 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1837 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1838 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1839 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1840 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1842 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1845 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1846 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1855 * Other removed features
1862 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1869 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1874 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1875 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1880 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1881 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1883 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1885 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1886 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1887 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1888 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1890 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1892 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1893 in debugging information.
1897 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1898 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1900 set mips stack-arg-size
1901 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1903 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1905 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1910 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1912 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1913 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1914 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1916 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1917 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1920 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1921 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1923 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1924 stub provides the required support.
1926 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1927 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1932 unset substitute-path
1933 show substitute-path
1934 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1935 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1936 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1937 between compilation and debugging.
1941 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1942 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1943 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1947 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1949 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1950 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1952 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1954 * New remote packets
1957 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1958 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1959 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1960 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1964 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1965 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1967 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1968 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1969 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1974 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1976 * Removed remote packets
1979 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1980 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1982 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1986 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1988 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1992 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1993 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1995 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1997 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1999 restart <n> Return the program state to a
2000 previously saved state.
2002 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2004 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2006 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2007 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2009 info forks List forks of the user program that
2010 are available to be debugged.
2012 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2013 forks of the user program that are
2014 available to be debugged.
2016 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2017 that are available to be debugged (and
2018 kill the forked process).
2020 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2021 that are available to be debugged (and
2022 allow the process to continue).
2026 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2028 * Improved Windows host support
2030 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2031 native console support, and remote communications using either
2032 network sockets or serial ports.
2034 * Improved Modula-2 language support
2036 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2037 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2038 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2039 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2040 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2041 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2045 The ARM rdi-share module.
2047 The Netware NLM debug server.
2049 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
2051 * New native configurations
2053 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
2054 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2058 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2060 * New command line options
2062 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2063 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2064 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2065 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2066 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2067 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2068 with the --command (-x) option.
2070 * Deprecated commands removed
2072 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2076 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2077 othernames set arm disassembler
2078 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2079 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2080 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2083 * New BSD user-level threads support
2085 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2086 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2089 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2090 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2091 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2093 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2094 are not yet supported.
2096 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2097 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2099 * REMOVED configurations and files
2101 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
2102 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2103 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
2105 * New "set print array-indexes" command
2107 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2108 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2111 * VAX floating point support
2113 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2115 * User-defined command support
2117 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2118 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2119 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2121 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2123 * New command line option
2125 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2128 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2130 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2131 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2132 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2133 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2134 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
2136 * Internationalization
2138 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2139 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2140 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2144 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2145 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2146 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2148 * New native configurations
2150 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2154 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2155 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2157 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2159 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2160 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2161 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2164 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2165 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2166 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2176 powerpc bdm protocol
2178 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2179 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2181 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2183 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2184 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2185 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2186 permanently REMOVED.
2195 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2197 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2199 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2200 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2203 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2205 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2206 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2207 IRIX long double values).
2211 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2212 command. This problem has been fixed.
2214 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
2216 * Fix for ``many threads''
2218 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2219 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2222 ptrace: No such process.
2223 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2225 This problem has been fixed.
2227 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2229 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2232 * New ``start'' command.
2234 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2236 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2238 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2239 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2240 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2242 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2243 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2244 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2245 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2246 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2247 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2248 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2249 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2250 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2252 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
2254 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2255 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2256 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2257 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2258 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2260 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2261 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2262 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2264 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2266 * New native configurations
2268 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2269 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2270 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2271 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2272 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2273 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2274 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2276 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2278 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2279 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2280 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2281 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2282 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2283 work, was also included.
2285 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2286 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2296 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2297 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2299 * REMOVED configurations and files
2301 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2302 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2303 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2304 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2305 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2306 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2307 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2308 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2309 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2310 sonymips mips-sony-*
2311 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2313 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2315 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2317 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2318 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2319 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2320 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2323 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2325 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2326 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2327 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2328 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2329 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2330 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2333 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2335 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
2337 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2338 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2339 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2341 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2343 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2344 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2346 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2348 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2349 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2350 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2352 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2354 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2355 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2357 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2359 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2360 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2361 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2363 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2365 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2366 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2367 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2369 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2371 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2373 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2374 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2376 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2378 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2379 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2380 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2381 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2383 * Revised SPARC target
2385 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2386 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2387 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2388 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2389 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2393 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2394 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2395 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2398 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2400 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2401 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2404 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2406 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2407 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2408 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2409 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2410 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2411 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2412 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2413 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2414 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2416 * New native configurations
2418 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2419 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2420 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2421 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2422 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2424 * New debugging protocols
2426 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2428 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2430 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2431 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2432 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2434 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2436 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2437 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2438 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2439 permanently REMOVED.
2441 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2442 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2443 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2444 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2445 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2446 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2447 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2448 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2449 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2450 sonymips mips-sony-*
2451 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2453 * REMOVED configurations and files
2455 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2456 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2457 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2458 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2459 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2460 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2461 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2462 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2463 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2464 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2465 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2466 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2467 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2468 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2469 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2470 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2471 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2473 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2477 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2478 integrated into GDB.
2480 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2482 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2483 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2484 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2487 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2488 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2489 DWARF 2 CFI support.
2493 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2494 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2495 remote protocol documentation for details.
2497 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
2499 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2500 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2501 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2504 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2506 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2507 per-thread variables.
2509 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2511 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2512 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2514 * Separate debug info.
2516 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2517 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2518 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2519 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2520 and optional debug files.
2522 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2524 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2525 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2528 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2529 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2533 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2534 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2535 considered "useable".
2537 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2539 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2540 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2543 * GDB supports logging output to a file
2545 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2546 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2548 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2550 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2551 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2554 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2556 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2557 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2561 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2562 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2563 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2564 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2565 data, for more informative profiling results.
2567 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2569 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2570 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2571 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2573 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2576 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2577 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2578 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2579 in a subsequent -var-update.
2581 * New native configurations.
2583 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2585 * Multi-arched targets.
2587 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2588 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2590 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2592 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2593 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2594 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2595 permanently REMOVED.
2597 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2598 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2599 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2600 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2601 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2602 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2603 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2604 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2605 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2606 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2607 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2608 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2610 * REMOVED configurations and files
2613 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2614 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2615 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2616 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2617 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2618 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2620 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2621 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2622 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2623 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2624 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2625 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2627 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
2629 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2630 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2631 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2632 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2633 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2635 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2637 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2639 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2640 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2641 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2642 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2643 shared libs like mad''.
2645 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2647 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2648 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2649 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2650 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2652 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2654 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2655 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2658 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2659 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2661 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2662 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2664 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2665 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2666 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2667 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2669 * Multi-arched targets.
2671 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2672 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2674 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2675 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2676 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2680 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2683 * New native configurations
2685 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2686 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2687 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2688 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2690 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2692 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2693 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2694 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2695 permanently REMOVED.
2697 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2698 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2699 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2700 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2701 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2702 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2703 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2704 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2705 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2706 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2708 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2709 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2711 * OBSOLETE languages
2713 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2715 * REMOVED configurations and files
2717 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2718 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2719 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2720 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2721 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2723 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2725 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2727 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2728 commands. The default is 1024.
2730 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2732 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2734 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2736 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2737 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2738 from a file into memory (restore).
2740 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2742 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2743 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2744 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2746 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2754 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2755 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2756 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2758 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2759 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2760 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2762 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2763 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2764 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2766 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2767 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2768 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2770 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2772 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2774 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2775 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2776 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2777 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2778 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2779 (notably embedded) targets.
2781 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2783 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2784 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2785 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2786 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2788 * New command line option
2790 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2792 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2794 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2795 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2796 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2797 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2798 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2799 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2800 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2801 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2802 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2803 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2805 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2807 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2808 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2810 * New native configurations
2812 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2813 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2814 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2815 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2819 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2821 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2823 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2824 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2825 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2826 permanently REMOVED.
2828 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2829 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2830 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2831 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2832 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2834 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2836 * REMOVED configurations and files
2838 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2840 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2841 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2842 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2843 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2844 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2845 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2846 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2847 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2848 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2849 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2850 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2852 * Changes to command line processing
2854 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2855 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2857 * Changes to key bindings
2859 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2861 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2863 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2865 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2868 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2870 Numerous documentation fixes.
2872 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2874 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2876 * New native configurations
2878 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2879 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2880 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2881 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2882 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2883 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2887 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2889 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2891 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2893 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2894 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2895 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2896 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2897 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2899 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2900 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2901 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2902 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2903 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2904 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2905 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2906 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2908 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2909 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2911 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2912 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2913 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2914 permanently REMOVED.
2916 * REMOVED configurations and files
2918 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2919 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2921 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2925 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2927 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2928 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2933 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2935 * The MI enabled by default.
2937 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2938 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2939 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2940 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2941 which is now deprecated.
2943 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2945 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2946 main features are supported:
2948 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2950 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2953 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2955 - a Pascal expression parser.
2957 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2959 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2961 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2963 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2964 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2966 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2968 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2970 * Changes in completion.
2972 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2973 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2974 users expect at the shell prompt.
2976 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2977 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2978 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2979 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2980 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2981 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2982 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2984 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2986 * New platform-independent commands:
2988 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2989 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2990 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2992 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2994 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2995 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2996 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2998 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3000 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3001 multi-threaded programs though.
3003 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
3005 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3007 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3008 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3011 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3013 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3014 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3015 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3016 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3017 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3020 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3021 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3022 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3024 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3026 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3027 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3029 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3030 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3033 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3034 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3035 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3036 a given linear address.
3038 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3039 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3040 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3042 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3044 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3046 * Changes in documentation.
3048 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3049 Documentation License.
3051 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3054 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3056 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3059 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3060 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3061 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3063 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3065 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3066 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3067 contents of this file.
3071 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
3073 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
3075 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3077 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3078 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3079 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3080 greater level of detail.
3082 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3084 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3085 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3086 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3089 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3091 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3092 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3093 machines ``out of the box''.
3095 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3096 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3097 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3098 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3099 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3101 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3102 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3103 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3104 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3105 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3107 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3108 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3111 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3114 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3115 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3116 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3117 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3119 * New native configurations
3121 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
3122 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3126 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
3127 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3128 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
3129 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3131 * OBSOLETE configurations
3133 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3134 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3136 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3139 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3140 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3141 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3142 be permanently REMOVED.
3144 * Gould support removed
3146 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3148 * New features for SVR4
3150 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3151 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3152 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3154 * Many C++ enhancements
3156 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3157 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3159 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3161 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3162 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3163 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3164 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3166 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3167 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3169 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
3171 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3172 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3173 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3175 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3176 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3178 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3180 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3181 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3182 include ``set remote P-packet''.
3184 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3186 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3187 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3188 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3190 * ``apropos'' command added.
3192 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3193 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3194 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3198 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3199 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
3200 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3201 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3202 enabled by configuring with:
3204 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3206 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3208 * New native configurations
3210 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3211 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
3212 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
3216 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3217 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3218 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3220 * OBSOLETE configurations
3222 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3224 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3225 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3226 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3227 be permanently REMOVED.
3231 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3232 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3233 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3234 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3235 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3236 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3237 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3242 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3244 * set extension-language
3246 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3247 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3248 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3249 set extension-language .c c++
3250 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3251 and their associated languages.
3253 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3255 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3256 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3257 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3261 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3262 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3264 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3265 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3267 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3268 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3269 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3270 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3271 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3272 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3273 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3274 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3276 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3277 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3278 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3279 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3283 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3284 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3285 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3286 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3287 for xdb and dbx commands.
3291 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3292 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3293 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3295 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3296 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3297 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3299 * Debugging across forks
3301 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3306 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3307 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3308 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3310 * GDB remote protocol additions
3312 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3313 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3314 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3315 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3317 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3318 full 64-bit address. The command
3320 set remoteaddresssize 32
3322 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3323 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3326 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3327 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3329 maint packet heythere
3331 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3332 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3335 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3336 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3337 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3339 * Tracing can collect general expressions
3341 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3342 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3343 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3345 * mask-address variable for Mips
3347 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3348 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3349 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3351 * Higher serial baud rates
3353 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3354 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3355 to achieve all of these rates.)
3359 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3360 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3363 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3365 * New native configurations
3367 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3368 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3369 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3370 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3371 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3372 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3373 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3377 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3378 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3379 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3380 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3381 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3382 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3383 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3384 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3385 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3386 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3387 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3389 * New debugging protocols
3391 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3392 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3393 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3394 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3395 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3396 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3400 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3401 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3406 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3407 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3409 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3411 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3412 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3413 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3415 * Live range splitting
3417 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3418 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3419 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3423 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3424 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3428 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3429 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3430 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3435 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3440 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3441 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3442 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3443 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3444 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3445 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3449 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3450 the symbol at the specified address.
3454 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3455 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3456 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3457 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3458 file tracepoint.c for more details.
3462 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3463 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3464 of most MIPS variants.
3468 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3469 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3470 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3474 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3475 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3476 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3477 the possible architectures.
3479 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3481 * New native configurations
3483 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3484 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3485 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3486 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3487 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3488 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3492 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3493 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3494 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3495 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3496 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3498 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3502 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3503 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3504 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3505 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3506 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3510 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3512 * Windows 95/NT native
3514 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3515 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3516 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3517 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3518 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3520 * dont-repeat command
3522 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3523 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3524 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3525 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3527 * Send break instead of ^C
3529 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3530 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3531 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3533 * Remote protocol timeout
3535 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3536 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3537 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3539 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3541 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3542 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3543 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3544 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3545 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3547 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3548 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3549 automatically on hpux10.
3551 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3553 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3555 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3557 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3558 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3559 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3560 every character. The default value is 1050.
3562 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3564 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3565 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3566 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3567 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3568 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3569 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3571 * Speedups for remote debugging
3573 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3574 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3575 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3577 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3579 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3580 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3582 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3584 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3586 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3587 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3589 * Remote targets use caching
3591 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3592 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3593 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3594 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3595 off' turns the the data cache off.
3597 * Remote targets may have threads
3599 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3600 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3601 gdb/remote.c for details.
3605 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3606 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3607 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3608 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3609 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3610 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3611 sequence is something like
3613 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3615 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3619 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3620 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3621 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3622 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3623 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3624 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3625 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3626 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3630 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3631 but does simplify configuration and building.
3635 GDB now supports hpux10.
3637 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3639 * New native configurations
3641 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3642 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3643 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3644 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3648 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3649 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3650 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3651 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3654 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3656 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3657 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3658 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3659 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3660 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3662 * Arguments to user-defined commands
3664 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3665 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3668 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3670 To execute the command use:
3673 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3674 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3675 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3677 * New `if' and `while' commands
3679 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3680 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3681 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3682 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3683 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3684 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3685 if the expression is zero.
3687 * Fortran source language mode
3689 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3690 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3691 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3692 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3695 * Better HPUX support
3697 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3698 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3699 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3700 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3701 that behavior do the following before running the program:
3707 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3708 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3714 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3715 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3718 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3719 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3721 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3723 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3724 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3725 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3726 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3727 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3728 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3730 * New DOS host serial code
3732 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3733 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3736 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3738 * New "complete" command
3740 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3741 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3743 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3745 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3746 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3748 * Breakpoint hit counts
3750 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3751 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3752 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3753 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3754 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3757 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3759 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3760 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3761 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3763 * Shared library breakpoints
3765 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3766 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3768 * Hardware watchpoints
3770 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3771 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3773 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3777 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3778 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3780 * Improved Irix 5 support
3782 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3784 * Improved HPPA support
3786 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3788 * New native configurations
3790 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3791 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3792 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3793 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3797 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3798 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3801 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3803 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3804 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3808 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3809 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3811 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3813 * Irix 5 is now supported
3817 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3818 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3819 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3820 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3821 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3824 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3826 * User visible changes:
3830 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3831 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3832 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3833 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3834 debugging info for the mips target).
3836 * DEC Alpha native support
3838 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3839 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3840 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3841 Alpha-specific notes.
3843 * Preliminary thread implementation
3845 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3847 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3849 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3850 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3853 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3855 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3856 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3857 call methods, ...etc.
3859 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3861 * User visible changes:
3863 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3864 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3865 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3866 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3868 Filename completion now works.
3870 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3871 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3872 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3874 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3875 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3876 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3877 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3878 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3882 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3883 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3886 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3890 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3891 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3892 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3896 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3897 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3898 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3899 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3900 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3904 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3905 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3906 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3908 * New targets supported
3910 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3911 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3912 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3913 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3914 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3916 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3917 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3918 GO32 memory extender.
3920 * New remote protocols
3922 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3924 * New source languages supported
3926 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3927 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3928 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3931 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3933 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3935 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3936 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3937 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3938 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3939 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3940 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3942 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3944 * Faster and better demangling
3946 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3947 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3948 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3949 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3950 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3951 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3954 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3955 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3956 compiler does not actually implement.
3958 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3960 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3961 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3962 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3963 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3964 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3965 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3968 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3969 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3971 * Improved configure script
3973 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3974 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3975 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3976 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3978 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3979 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3980 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3981 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3982 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3983 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3985 * Documentation improvements
3987 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3988 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3989 before submitting changes.
3991 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3992 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3993 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3994 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3995 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3997 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3998 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3999 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4000 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4001 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4002 around this problem.
4006 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4007 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4008 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4011 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4012 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4014 * New native hosts supported
4016 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4017 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4019 * New targets supported
4021 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4023 * New file formats supported
4025 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4026 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4030 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4032 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4033 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4035 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4036 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4037 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4039 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4040 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4042 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4043 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4044 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4047 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4048 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4049 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4050 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4051 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4053 * Internal improvements
4055 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4056 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4058 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4059 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4060 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4061 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4062 shared code that handles any of them.
4064 * New command line options
4066 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4070 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4071 General Public License.
4073 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4075 * Host/native/target split
4077 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4078 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4079 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4080 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4081 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4083 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4084 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4085 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4086 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4087 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4088 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4089 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4091 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4092 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4093 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4095 * New hosts supported
4097 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4098 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4099 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4101 * New targets supported
4103 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4104 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4106 * New native hosts supported
4108 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4109 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4110 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4112 * New file formats supported
4114 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4115 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4116 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4120 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4121 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4122 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4124 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4126 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4127 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4128 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4129 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4133 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4134 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4135 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4137 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4141 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4142 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4145 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4146 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4148 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4149 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4150 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4151 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4152 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4153 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4155 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4156 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4157 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4158 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4162 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4163 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4164 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4165 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4166 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4168 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4169 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4170 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4171 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4175 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4176 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4177 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4178 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4179 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4180 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4181 each instruction being stepped through.
4183 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4184 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4186 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4187 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4188 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4189 processor with a serial port.
4193 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4194 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4195 supported, and what files each one uses.
4199 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4200 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4201 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4202 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4204 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4205 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4206 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4207 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4211 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4212 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4213 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4214 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4215 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4216 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4218 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4221 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4223 * Better support for C++ function names
4225 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4226 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4227 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4228 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4229 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4231 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4232 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4233 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4234 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4235 for the list of formats.
4237 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4239 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4240 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4241 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4242 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4243 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4244 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4247 * New 'maintenance' command
4249 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4250 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4251 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4253 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4254 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4255 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4256 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4257 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4258 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4260 The following commands are new:
4262 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4263 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4264 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4266 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4268 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4269 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4270 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4271 read after argv processing.
4273 * New hosts supported
4275 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4277 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4279 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4280 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4281 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4282 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4283 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4286 * New targets supported
4288 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4290 * More smarts about finding #include files
4292 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4293 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4294 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4295 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4296 the one that contains your sources.
4298 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4299 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4300 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4302 * Interesting infernals change
4304 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4305 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4306 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4307 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4309 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4311 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4312 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4313 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4315 See the ChangeLog for details.
4317 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4319 * New machines supported (host and target)
4321 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4323 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4325 * New malloc package
4327 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4328 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4329 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4330 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4331 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4332 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4336 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4337 'help info proc' for details.
4339 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4341 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4342 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4345 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4347 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4348 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4349 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4350 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4351 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4352 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4354 * Cross byte order fixes
4356 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4357 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4359 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4361 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4362 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4363 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4364 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4365 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4366 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4367 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4368 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4369 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4370 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4372 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4373 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4374 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4375 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4377 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4378 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4379 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4382 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4384 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4385 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4386 shared across multiple host platforms.
4388 * longjmp() handling
4390 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4391 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4392 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4393 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4397 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4398 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4403 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4404 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4405 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4407 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4409 * New machines supported (host and target)
4411 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4413 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4414 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4416 * New machines supported (target)
4418 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4422 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4423 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4424 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4426 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4427 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4428 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4429 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4430 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4433 * New features for SVR4
4435 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4436 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4437 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4439 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4440 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4441 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4443 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4444 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4446 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4448 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4449 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4450 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4451 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4452 same code linked statically.
4456 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4457 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4458 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4459 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4460 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4461 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4465 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4466 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4467 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4470 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4472 * New machines supported (host and target)
4474 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4475 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4476 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4478 * Almost SCO Unix support
4480 We had hoped to support:
4481 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4482 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4483 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4484 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4486 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4488 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4489 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4490 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4491 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4496 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4497 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4498 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4502 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4503 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4504 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4506 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4508 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4509 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4510 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4512 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4513 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4514 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4515 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4518 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4519 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4520 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4521 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4524 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4525 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4528 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4529 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4530 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4533 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4535 * Improved configuration
4537 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4538 Porting BFD is simpler.
4542 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4543 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4544 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4545 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4549 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4551 * New host supported (not target)
4553 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4556 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4558 * Multiple source language support
4560 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4561 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4562 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4563 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4564 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4565 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4569 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4570 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4571 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4572 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4574 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4575 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4576 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4578 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4579 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4583 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4584 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4585 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4586 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4589 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4591 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4592 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4593 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4594 examining core files.
4598 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4601 * New machines supported (host and target)
4603 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4604 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4605 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4607 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4609 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4611 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4613 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4614 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4615 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4617 * New remote interfaces
4623 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4627 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4629 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4630 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4631 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4632 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4633 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4634 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4635 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4636 stub on the target system.
4638 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4640 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4641 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4642 object file types such as a.out and coff.
4644 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4645 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4648 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4650 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4651 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4653 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4654 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4655 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4657 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4658 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4659 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4660 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4662 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4663 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4664 it is already running. Default is ON.
4666 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4667 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4668 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4669 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4672 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4673 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4674 or the value of the environment variable
4677 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4678 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4681 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4682 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4683 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4685 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4686 history expansion will be performed on
4687 command line input. The default is OFF.
4689 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4690 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4691 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4693 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4694 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4695 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4698 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4699 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4700 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4703 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4704 ``set width'' instead.
4706 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4707 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4708 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4709 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4711 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4714 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4717 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4720 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4723 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4725 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4726 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4727 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4731 * Support for Shared Libraries
4733 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4734 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4735 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4736 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4737 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4738 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4739 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4740 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4742 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4743 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4744 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4746 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4751 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4752 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4753 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4754 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4755 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4756 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4758 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4760 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4762 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4763 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4764 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4767 * C++ multiple inheritance
4769 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4772 * C++ exception handling
4774 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4775 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4776 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4779 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4780 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4781 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4783 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4784 current stack frame.
4787 * Minor command changes
4789 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4790 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4791 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4793 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4794 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4795 frames without printing.
4797 * New directory command
4799 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4800 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4801 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4802 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4803 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4805 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4807 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4810 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4811 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4812 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4813 where the program that you are debugging will run.