1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
7 now complete on file names.
9 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
10 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
11 For instance, consider:
13 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
14 # struct example variable;
17 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
18 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
23 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
26 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
27 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
28 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
30 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
32 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
33 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
34 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
36 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
39 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
40 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
42 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
43 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
44 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
46 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
47 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
49 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
51 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
52 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
54 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
55 list of section offsets.
57 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
58 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
61 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
62 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
63 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
65 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
67 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
68 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
70 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
71 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
72 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
74 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
75 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
79 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
80 available is determined at configure time.
84 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
86 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
88 maint set python print-stack
89 maint show python print-stack
90 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
93 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
95 set print symbol-loading
96 show print symbol-loading
97 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
101 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
106 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
108 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
109 show multiple-symbols
110 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
111 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
112 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
114 set breakpoint always-inserted
115 show breakpoint always-inserted
116 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
117 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
118 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
120 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
121 show arm fallback-mode
122 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
124 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
125 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
126 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
127 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
129 set disable-randomization
130 show disable-randomization
131 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
132 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
133 multiple debugging sessions.
136 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
137 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
138 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
139 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
144 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
149 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
151 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
153 * New native configurations
155 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
156 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
160 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
161 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
163 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
165 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
166 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
167 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
168 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
170 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
171 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
173 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
176 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
177 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
178 and in inlined functions.
180 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
181 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
182 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
184 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
186 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
187 registers on PowerPC targets.
189 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
190 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
192 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
193 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
195 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
196 extended-remote mode.
198 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
199 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
200 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
201 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
203 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
204 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
205 target architectures.
207 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
208 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
209 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
210 stored in two consecutive float registers.
212 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
215 * Improved support for debugging Ada
216 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
218 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
219 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
220 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
221 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
223 - Improved command completion in Ada
226 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
231 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
232 show print frame-arguments
233 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
234 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
239 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
246 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
255 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
258 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
262 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
264 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
266 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
267 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
268 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
270 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
271 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
272 -Bsymbolic linker option.
274 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
275 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
278 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
279 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
281 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
282 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
284 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
286 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
287 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
288 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
290 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
291 automatically displayed as character or string data.
293 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
294 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
297 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
298 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
299 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
301 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
304 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
305 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
306 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
308 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
310 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
312 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
313 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
314 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
316 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
317 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
319 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
320 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
321 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
322 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
323 Windows and SymbianOS).
325 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
326 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
328 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
329 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
335 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
336 when debugging using remote targets.
338 set mem inaccessible-by-default
339 show mem inaccessible-by-default
340 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
341 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
342 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
343 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
344 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
346 set breakpoint auto-hw
347 show breakpoint auto-hw
348 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
349 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
350 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
351 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
352 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
353 including "next" and "finish".
356 catch exception unhandled
357 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
360 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
364 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
365 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
366 an alias to "set sysroot".
369 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
370 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
373 * New native configurations
375 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
380 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
381 not query the target for its built-in description.
385 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
386 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
387 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
392 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
393 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
396 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
401 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
402 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
404 qXfer:libraries:read:
405 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
406 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
407 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
408 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
412 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
421 i[34567]86-*-netware*
422 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
423 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
425 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
428 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
429 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
438 * Other removed features
445 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
452 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
457 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
458 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
463 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
464 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
466 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
468 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
469 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
470 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
471 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
475 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
476 in debugging information.
480 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
481 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
483 set mips stack-arg-size
484 set mips saved-gpreg-size
486 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
488 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
493 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
495 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
496 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
497 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
499 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
500 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
503 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
504 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
506 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
507 stub provides the required support.
509 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
510 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
515 unset substitute-path
517 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
518 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
519 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
520 between compilation and debugging.
524 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
525 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
526 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
530 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
532 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
533 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
535 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
540 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
541 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
542 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
543 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
547 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
548 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
550 qXfer:memory-map:read:
551 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
552 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
557 Erase and program a flash memory device.
559 * Removed remote packets
562 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
563 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
565 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
569 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
571 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
575 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
576 only if it doesn't already have a value.
578 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
580 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
582 restart <n> Return the program state to a
583 previously saved state.
585 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
587 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
589 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
590 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
592 info forks List forks of the user program that
593 are available to be debugged.
595 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
596 forks of the user program that are
597 available to be debugged.
599 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
600 that are available to be debugged (and
601 kill the forked process).
603 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
604 that are available to be debugged (and
605 allow the process to continue).
609 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
611 * Improved Windows host support
613 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
614 native console support, and remote communications using either
615 network sockets or serial ports.
617 * Improved Modula-2 language support
619 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
620 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
621 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
622 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
623 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
624 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
628 The ARM rdi-share module.
630 The Netware NLM debug server.
632 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
634 * New native configurations
636 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
637 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
641 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
643 * New command line options
645 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
646 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
647 the child (debugged) program exited with.
648 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
649 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
650 specified multiple times and in conjunction
651 with the --command (-x) option.
653 * Deprecated commands removed
655 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
659 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
660 othernames set arm disassembler
661 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
662 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
663 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
666 * New BSD user-level threads support
668 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
669 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
672 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
673 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
674 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
676 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
677 are not yet supported.
679 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
680 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
682 * REMOVED configurations and files
684 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
685 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
686 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
688 * New "set print array-indexes" command
690 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
691 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
694 * VAX floating point support
696 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
698 * User-defined command support
700 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
701 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
702 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
704 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
706 * New command line option
708 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
711 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
713 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
714 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
715 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
716 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
717 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
719 * Internationalization
721 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
722 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
723 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
727 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
728 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
729 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
731 * New native configurations
733 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
737 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
738 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
740 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
742 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
743 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
744 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
747 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
748 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
749 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
761 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
762 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
764 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
766 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
767 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
768 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
778 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
780 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
782 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
783 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
786 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
788 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
789 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
790 IRIX long double values).
794 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
795 command. This problem has been fixed.
797 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
799 * Fix for ``many threads''
801 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
802 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
805 ptrace: No such process.
806 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
808 This problem has been fixed.
810 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
812 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
815 * New ``start'' command.
817 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
819 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
821 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
822 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
823 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
825 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
826 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
827 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
828 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
829 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
830 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
831 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
832 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
833 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
835 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
837 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
838 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
839 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
840 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
841 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
843 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
844 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
845 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
847 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
849 * New native configurations
851 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
852 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
853 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
854 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
855 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
856 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
857 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
859 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
861 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
862 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
863 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
864 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
865 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
866 work, was also included.
868 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
869 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
879 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
880 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
882 * REMOVED configurations and files
884 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
885 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
886 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
887 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
888 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
889 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
890 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
891 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
892 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
894 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
896 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
898 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
900 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
901 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
902 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
903 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
906 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
908 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
909 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
910 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
911 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
912 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
913 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
916 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
918 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
920 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
921 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
922 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
924 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
926 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
927 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
929 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
931 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
932 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
933 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
935 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
937 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
938 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
940 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
942 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
943 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
944 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
946 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
948 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
949 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
950 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
952 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
954 * Removed --with-mmalloc
956 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
957 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
959 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
961 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
962 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
963 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
964 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
966 * Revised SPARC target
968 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
969 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
970 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
971 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
972 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
976 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
977 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
978 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
981 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
983 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
984 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
987 * C++ nested types and namespaces
989 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
990 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
991 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
992 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
993 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
994 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
995 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
996 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
997 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
999 * New native configurations
1001 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1002 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1003 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1004 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1005 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1007 * New debugging protocols
1009 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1011 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1013 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1014 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1015 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1017 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1019 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1020 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1021 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1022 permanently REMOVED.
1024 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1025 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1026 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1027 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1028 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1029 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1030 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1031 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1032 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1033 sonymips mips-sony-*
1034 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1036 * REMOVED configurations and files
1038 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1039 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1040 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1041 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1042 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1043 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1044 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1045 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1046 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1047 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1048 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1049 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1050 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1051 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1052 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1053 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1054 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1056 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1060 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1061 integrated into GDB.
1063 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1065 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1066 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1067 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1070 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1071 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1072 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1076 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1077 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1078 remote protocol documentation for details.
1080 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1082 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1083 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1084 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1087 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1089 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1090 per-thread variables.
1092 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1094 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1095 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1097 * Separate debug info.
1099 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1100 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1101 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1102 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1103 and optional debug files.
1105 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1107 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1108 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1111 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1112 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1116 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1117 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1118 considered "useable".
1120 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1122 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1123 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1126 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1128 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1129 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1131 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1133 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1134 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1137 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1139 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1140 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1144 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1145 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1146 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1147 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1148 data, for more informative profiling results.
1150 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1152 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1153 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1154 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1156 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1159 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1160 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1161 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1162 in a subsequent -var-update.
1164 * New native configurations.
1166 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1168 * Multi-arched targets.
1170 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1171 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1173 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1175 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1176 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1177 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1178 permanently REMOVED.
1180 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1181 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1182 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1183 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1184 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1185 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1186 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1187 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1188 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1189 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1190 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1191 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1193 * REMOVED configurations and files
1196 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1197 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1198 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1199 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1200 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1201 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1203 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1204 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1205 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1206 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1207 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1208 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1210 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1212 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1213 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1214 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1215 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1216 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1218 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1220 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1222 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1223 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1224 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1225 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1226 shared libs like mad''.
1228 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1230 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1231 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1232 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1233 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1235 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1237 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1238 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1241 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1242 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1244 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1245 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1247 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1248 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1249 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1250 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1252 * Multi-arched targets.
1254 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1255 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1257 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1258 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1259 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1263 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1266 * New native configurations
1268 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1269 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1270 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1271 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1273 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1275 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1276 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1277 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1278 permanently REMOVED.
1280 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1281 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1282 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1283 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1284 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1285 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1286 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1287 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1288 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1289 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1291 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1292 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1294 * OBSOLETE languages
1296 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1298 * REMOVED configurations and files
1300 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1301 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1302 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1303 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1304 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1306 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1308 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1310 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1311 commands. The default is 1024.
1313 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1315 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1317 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1319 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1320 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1321 from a file into memory (restore).
1323 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1325 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1326 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1327 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1329 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1337 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1338 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1339 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1341 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1342 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1343 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1345 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1346 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1347 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1349 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1350 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1351 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1353 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1355 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1357 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1358 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1359 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1360 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1361 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1362 (notably embedded) targets.
1364 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1366 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1367 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1368 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1369 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1371 * New command line option
1373 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1375 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1377 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1378 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1379 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1380 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1381 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1382 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1383 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1384 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1385 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1386 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1388 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1390 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1391 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1393 * New native configurations
1395 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1396 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1397 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1398 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1402 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1404 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1406 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1407 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1408 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1409 permanently REMOVED.
1411 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1412 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1413 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1414 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1415 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1417 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1419 * REMOVED configurations and files
1421 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1423 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1424 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1425 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1426 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1427 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1428 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1429 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1430 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1431 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1432 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1433 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1435 * Changes to command line processing
1437 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1438 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1440 * Changes to key bindings
1442 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1444 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1446 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1448 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1451 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1453 Numerous documentation fixes.
1455 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1457 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1459 * New native configurations
1461 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1462 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1463 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1464 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1465 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1466 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1470 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1472 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1474 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1476 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1477 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1478 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1479 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1480 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1482 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1483 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1484 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1485 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1486 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1487 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1488 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1489 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1491 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1492 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1494 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1495 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1496 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1497 permanently REMOVED.
1499 * REMOVED configurations and files
1501 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1502 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1504 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1508 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1510 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1511 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1516 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1518 * The MI enabled by default.
1520 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1521 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1522 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1523 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1524 which is now deprecated.
1526 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1528 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1529 main features are supported:
1531 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1533 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1536 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1538 - a Pascal expression parser.
1540 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1542 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1544 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1546 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1547 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1549 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1551 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1553 * Changes in completion.
1555 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1556 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1557 users expect at the shell prompt.
1559 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1560 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1561 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1562 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1563 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1564 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1565 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1567 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1569 * New platform-independent commands:
1571 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1572 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1573 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1575 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1577 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1578 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1579 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1581 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1583 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1584 multi-threaded programs though.
1586 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1588 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1590 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1591 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1594 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1596 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1597 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1598 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1599 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1600 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1603 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1604 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1605 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1607 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1609 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1610 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1612 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1613 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1616 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1617 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1618 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1619 a given linear address.
1621 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1622 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1623 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1625 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1627 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1629 * Changes in documentation.
1631 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1632 Documentation License.
1634 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1637 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1639 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1642 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1643 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1644 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1646 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1648 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1649 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1650 contents of this file.
1654 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1656 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1658 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1660 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1661 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1662 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1663 greater level of detail.
1665 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1667 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1668 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1669 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1672 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1674 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1675 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1676 machines ``out of the box''.
1678 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1679 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1680 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1681 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1682 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1684 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1685 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1686 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1687 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1688 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1690 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1691 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1694 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1697 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1698 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1699 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1700 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1702 * New native configurations
1704 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1705 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1709 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1710 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1711 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1712 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1714 * OBSOLETE configurations
1716 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1717 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1719 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1722 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1723 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1724 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1725 be permanently REMOVED.
1727 * Gould support removed
1729 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1731 * New features for SVR4
1733 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1734 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1735 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1737 * Many C++ enhancements
1739 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1740 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1742 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1744 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1745 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1746 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1747 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1749 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1750 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1752 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1754 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1755 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1756 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1758 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1759 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1761 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1763 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1764 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1765 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1767 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1769 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1770 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1771 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1773 * ``apropos'' command added.
1775 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1776 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1777 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1781 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1782 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1783 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1784 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1785 enabled by configuring with:
1787 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1789 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1791 * New native configurations
1793 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1794 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1795 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1799 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1800 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1801 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1803 * OBSOLETE configurations
1805 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1807 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1808 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1809 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1810 be permanently REMOVED.
1814 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1815 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1816 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1817 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1818 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1819 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1820 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1825 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1827 * set extension-language
1829 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1830 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1831 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1832 set extension-language .c c++
1833 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1834 and their associated languages.
1836 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1838 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1839 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1840 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1844 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1845 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1847 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1848 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1850 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1851 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1852 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1853 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1854 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1855 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1856 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1857 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1859 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1860 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1861 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1862 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1866 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1867 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1868 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1869 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1870 for xdb and dbx commands.
1874 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1875 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1876 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1878 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1879 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1880 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1882 * Debugging across forks
1884 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1889 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1890 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1891 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1893 * GDB remote protocol additions
1895 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1896 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1897 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1898 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1900 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1901 full 64-bit address. The command
1903 set remoteaddresssize 32
1905 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1906 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1909 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1910 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1912 maint packet heythere
1914 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1915 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1918 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1919 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1920 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1922 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1924 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1925 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1926 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1928 * mask-address variable for Mips
1930 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1931 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1932 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1934 * Higher serial baud rates
1936 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1937 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1938 to achieve all of these rates.)
1942 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1943 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1946 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1948 * New native configurations
1950 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1951 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1952 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1953 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1954 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1955 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1956 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1960 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1961 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1962 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1963 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1964 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1965 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1966 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1967 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1968 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1969 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1970 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1972 * New debugging protocols
1974 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1975 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1976 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1977 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1978 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1979 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1983 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1984 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1989 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1990 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1992 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1994 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1995 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1996 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1998 * Live range splitting
2000 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2001 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2002 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2006 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2007 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2011 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2012 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2013 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2018 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2023 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2024 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2025 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2026 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2027 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2028 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2032 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2033 the symbol at the specified address.
2037 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2038 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2039 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2040 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2041 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2045 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2046 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2047 of most MIPS variants.
2051 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2052 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2053 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2057 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2058 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2059 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2060 the possible architectures.
2062 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2064 * New native configurations
2066 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2067 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2068 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2069 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2070 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2071 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2075 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2076 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2077 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2078 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2079 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2081 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2085 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2086 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2087 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2088 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2089 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2093 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2095 * Windows 95/NT native
2097 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2098 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2099 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2100 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2101 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2103 * dont-repeat command
2105 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2106 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2107 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2108 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2110 * Send break instead of ^C
2112 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2113 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2114 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2116 * Remote protocol timeout
2118 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2119 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2120 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2122 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2124 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2125 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2126 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2127 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2128 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2130 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2131 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2132 automatically on hpux10.
2134 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2136 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2138 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2140 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2141 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2142 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2143 every character. The default value is 1050.
2145 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2147 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2148 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2149 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2150 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2151 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2152 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2154 * Speedups for remote debugging
2156 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2157 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2158 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2160 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2162 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2163 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2165 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2167 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2169 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2170 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2172 * Remote targets use caching
2174 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2175 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2176 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2177 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2178 off' turns the the data cache off.
2180 * Remote targets may have threads
2182 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2183 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2184 gdb/remote.c for details.
2188 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2189 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2190 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2191 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2192 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2193 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2194 sequence is something like
2196 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2198 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2202 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2203 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2204 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2205 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2206 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2207 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2208 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2209 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2213 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2214 but does simplify configuration and building.
2218 GDB now supports hpux10.
2220 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2222 * New native configurations
2224 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2225 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2226 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2227 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2231 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2232 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2233 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2234 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2237 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2239 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2240 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2241 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2242 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2243 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2245 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2247 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2248 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2251 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2253 To execute the command use:
2256 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2257 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2258 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2260 * New `if' and `while' commands
2262 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2263 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2264 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2265 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2266 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2267 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2268 if the expression is zero.
2270 * Fortran source language mode
2272 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2273 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2274 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2275 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2278 * Better HPUX support
2280 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2281 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2282 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2283 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2284 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2290 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2291 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2297 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2298 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2301 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2302 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2304 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2306 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2307 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2308 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2309 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2310 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2311 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2313 * New DOS host serial code
2315 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2316 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2319 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2321 * New "complete" command
2323 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2324 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2326 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2328 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2329 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2331 * Breakpoint hit counts
2333 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2334 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2335 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2336 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2337 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2340 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2342 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2343 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2344 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2346 * Shared library breakpoints
2348 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2349 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2351 * Hardware watchpoints
2353 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2354 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2356 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2360 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2361 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2363 * Improved Irix 5 support
2365 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2367 * Improved HPPA support
2369 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2371 * New native configurations
2373 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2374 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2375 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2376 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2380 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2381 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2384 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2386 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2387 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2391 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2392 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2394 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2396 * Irix 5 is now supported
2400 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2401 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2402 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2403 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2404 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2407 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2409 * User visible changes:
2413 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2414 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2415 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2416 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2417 debugging info for the mips target).
2419 * DEC Alpha native support
2421 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2422 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2423 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2424 Alpha-specific notes.
2426 * Preliminary thread implementation
2428 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2430 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2432 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2433 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2436 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2438 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2439 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2440 call methods, ...etc.
2442 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2444 * User visible changes:
2446 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2447 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2448 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2449 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2451 Filename completion now works.
2453 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2454 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2455 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2457 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2458 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2459 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2460 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2461 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2465 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2466 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2469 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2473 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2474 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2475 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2479 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2480 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2481 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2482 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2483 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2487 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2488 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2489 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2491 * New targets supported
2493 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2494 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2495 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2496 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2497 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2499 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2500 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2501 GO32 memory extender.
2503 * New remote protocols
2505 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2507 * New source languages supported
2509 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2510 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2511 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2514 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2516 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2518 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2519 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2520 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2521 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2522 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2523 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2525 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2527 * Faster and better demangling
2529 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2530 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2531 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2532 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2533 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2534 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2537 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2538 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2539 compiler does not actually implement.
2541 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2543 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2544 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2545 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2546 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2547 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2548 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2551 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2552 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2554 * Improved configure script
2556 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2557 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2558 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2559 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2561 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2562 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2563 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2564 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2565 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2566 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2568 * Documentation improvements
2570 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2571 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2572 before submitting changes.
2574 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2575 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2576 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2577 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2578 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2580 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2581 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2582 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2583 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2584 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2585 around this problem.
2589 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2590 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2591 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2594 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2595 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2597 * New native hosts supported
2599 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2600 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2602 * New targets supported
2604 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2606 * New file formats supported
2608 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2609 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2613 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2615 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2616 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2618 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2619 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2620 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2622 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2623 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2625 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2626 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2627 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2630 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2631 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2632 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2633 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2634 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2636 * Internal improvements
2638 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2639 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2641 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2642 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2643 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2644 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2645 shared code that handles any of them.
2647 * New command line options
2649 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2653 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2654 General Public License.
2656 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2658 * Host/native/target split
2660 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2661 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2662 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2663 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2664 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2666 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2667 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2668 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2669 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2670 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2671 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2672 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2674 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2675 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2676 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2678 * New hosts supported
2680 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2681 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2682 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2684 * New targets supported
2686 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2687 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2689 * New native hosts supported
2691 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2692 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2693 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2695 * New file formats supported
2697 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2698 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2699 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2703 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2704 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2705 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2707 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2709 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2710 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2711 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2712 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2716 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2717 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2718 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2720 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2724 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2725 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2728 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2729 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2731 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2732 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2733 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2734 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2735 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2736 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2738 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2739 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2740 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2741 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2745 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2746 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2747 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2748 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2749 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2751 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2752 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2753 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2754 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2758 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2759 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2760 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2761 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2762 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2763 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2764 each instruction being stepped through.
2766 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2767 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2769 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2770 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2771 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2772 processor with a serial port.
2776 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2777 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2778 supported, and what files each one uses.
2782 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2783 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2784 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2785 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2787 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2788 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2789 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2790 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2794 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2795 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2796 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2797 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2798 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2799 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2801 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2804 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2806 * Better support for C++ function names
2808 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2809 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2810 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2811 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2812 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2814 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2815 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2816 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2817 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2818 for the list of formats.
2820 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2822 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2823 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2824 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2825 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2826 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2827 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2830 * New 'maintenance' command
2832 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2833 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2834 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2836 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2837 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2838 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2839 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2840 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2841 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2843 The following commands are new:
2845 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2846 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2847 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2849 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2851 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2852 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2853 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2854 read after argv processing.
2856 * New hosts supported
2858 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2860 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2862 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2863 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2864 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2865 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2866 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2869 * New targets supported
2871 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2873 * More smarts about finding #include files
2875 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2876 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2877 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2878 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2879 the one that contains your sources.
2881 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2882 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2883 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2885 * Interesting infernals change
2887 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2888 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2889 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2890 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2892 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2894 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2895 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2896 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2898 See the ChangeLog for details.
2900 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2902 * New machines supported (host and target)
2904 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2906 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2908 * New malloc package
2910 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2911 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2912 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2913 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2914 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2915 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2919 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2920 'help info proc' for details.
2922 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2924 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2925 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2928 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2930 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2931 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2932 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2933 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2934 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2935 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2937 * Cross byte order fixes
2939 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2940 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2942 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2944 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2945 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2946 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2947 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2948 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2949 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2950 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2951 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2952 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2953 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2955 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2956 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2957 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2958 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2960 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2961 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2962 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2965 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2967 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2968 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2969 shared across multiple host platforms.
2971 * longjmp() handling
2973 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2974 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2975 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2976 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2980 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2981 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2986 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2987 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2988 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2990 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2992 * New machines supported (host and target)
2994 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2996 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2997 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2999 * New machines supported (target)
3001 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3005 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3006 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3007 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3009 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3010 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3011 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3012 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3013 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3016 * New features for SVR4
3018 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3019 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3020 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3022 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3023 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3024 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3026 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3027 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3029 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3031 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3032 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3033 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3034 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3035 same code linked statically.
3039 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3040 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3041 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3042 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3043 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3044 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3048 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3049 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3050 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3053 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3055 * New machines supported (host and target)
3057 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3058 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3059 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3061 * Almost SCO Unix support
3063 We had hoped to support:
3064 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3065 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3066 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3067 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3069 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3071 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3072 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3073 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3074 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3079 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3080 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3081 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3085 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3086 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3087 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3089 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3091 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3092 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3093 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3095 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3096 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3097 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3098 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3101 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3102 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3103 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3104 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3107 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3108 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3111 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3112 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3113 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3116 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3118 * Improved configuration
3120 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3121 Porting BFD is simpler.
3125 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3126 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3127 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3128 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3132 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3134 * New host supported (not target)
3136 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3139 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3141 * Multiple source language support
3143 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3144 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3145 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3146 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3147 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3148 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3152 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3153 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3154 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3155 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3157 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3158 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3159 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3161 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3162 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3166 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3167 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3168 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3169 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3172 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3174 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3175 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3176 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3177 examining core files.
3181 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3184 * New machines supported (host and target)
3186 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3187 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3188 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3190 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3192 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3194 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3196 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3197 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3198 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3200 * New remote interfaces
3206 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3210 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3212 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3213 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3214 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3215 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3216 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3217 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3218 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3219 stub on the target system.
3221 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3223 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3224 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3225 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3227 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3228 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3231 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3233 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3234 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3236 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3237 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3238 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3240 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3241 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3242 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3243 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3245 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3246 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3247 it is already running. Default is ON.
3249 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3250 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3251 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3252 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3255 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3256 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3257 or the value of the environment variable
3260 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3261 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3264 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3265 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3266 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3268 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3269 history expansion will be performed on
3270 command line input. The default is OFF.
3272 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3273 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3274 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3276 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3277 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3278 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3281 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3282 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3283 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3286 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3287 ``set width'' instead.
3289 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3290 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3291 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3292 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3294 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3297 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3300 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3303 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3306 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3308 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3309 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3310 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3314 * Support for Shared Libraries
3316 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3317 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3318 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3319 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3320 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3321 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3322 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3323 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3325 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3326 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3327 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3329 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3334 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3335 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3336 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3337 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3338 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3339 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3341 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3343 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3345 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3346 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3347 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3350 * C++ multiple inheritance
3352 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3355 * C++ exception handling
3357 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3358 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3359 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3362 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3363 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3364 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3366 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3367 current stack frame.
3370 * Minor command changes
3372 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3373 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3374 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3376 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3377 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3378 frames without printing.
3380 * New directory command
3382 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3383 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3384 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3385 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3386 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3388 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3390 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3393 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3394 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3395 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3396 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / external / binutils.git / blob