1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.2:
6 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multithreaded applications on some targets
8 Support for multithreaded applications using LinuxThreads has been added
9 for arm*-*-linux*, i[3456]86-*-linux*, mips*-*-linux*, powerpc*-*-linux*,
12 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
14 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
15 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
18 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
19 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
20 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
21 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
23 Here are the new commands for working with macros:
25 ** macro expand EXPRESSION
27 Expand any macro invocations in expression, and show the result.
29 ** show macro MACRO-NAME
31 Show the definition of the macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was
34 * Multi-arched targets.
36 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
37 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
39 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
40 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
41 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
46 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
49 * New native configurations
51 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
52 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
53 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
54 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
56 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
58 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
59 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
60 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
63 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
64 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
66 * REMOVED configurations and files
68 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
69 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
70 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
71 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
72 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
74 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
76 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
78 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
79 commands. The default is 1024.
81 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
83 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
85 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
87 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
88 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
89 from a file into memory (restore).
91 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
93 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
95 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
96 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
97 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
98 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
99 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
100 (notably embedded) targets.
102 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
104 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
105 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
106 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
107 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
109 * New command line option
111 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
113 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
115 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
116 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
117 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
118 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
119 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
120 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
121 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
122 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
123 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
124 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
126 * Changes in ARM configurations.
128 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
129 configuration is fully multi-arch.
131 * New native configurations
133 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
134 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
135 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
136 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
140 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
142 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
144 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
145 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
146 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
149 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
150 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
151 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
152 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
153 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
155 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
157 * REMOVED configurations and files
159 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
161 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
162 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
163 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
164 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
165 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
166 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
167 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
168 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
169 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
170 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
171 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
173 * Changes to command line processing
175 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
176 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
178 * Changes to key bindings
180 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
182 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
184 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
186 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
189 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
191 Numerous documentation fixes.
193 Numerous testsuite fixes.
195 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
197 * New native configurations
199 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
200 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
201 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
202 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
204 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
208 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
210 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
212 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
214 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
215 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
216 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
217 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
218 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
220 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
221 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
222 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
223 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
224 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
225 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
226 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
227 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
229 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
230 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
232 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
233 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
234 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
237 * REMOVED configurations and files
239 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
240 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
242 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
246 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
248 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
249 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
254 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
256 * The MI enabled by default.
258 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
259 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
260 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
261 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
262 which is now deprecated.
264 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
266 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
267 main features are supported:
269 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
271 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
274 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
276 - a Pascal expression parser.
278 However, some important features are not yet supported.
280 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
282 - there are some problems with boolean types;
284 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
285 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
287 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
289 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
291 * Changes in completion.
293 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
294 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
295 users expect at the shell prompt.
297 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
298 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
299 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
300 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
301 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
302 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
303 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
305 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
307 * New platform-independent commands:
309 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
310 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
311 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
313 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
315 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
316 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
317 many threads as your system allows you to have.
319 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
321 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
322 multi-threaded programs though.
324 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
326 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
328 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
329 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
332 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
334 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
335 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
336 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
337 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
338 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
341 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
342 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
343 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
345 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
347 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
348 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
350 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
351 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
354 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
355 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
356 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
357 a given linear address.
359 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
360 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
361 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
363 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
365 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
367 * Changes in documentation.
369 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
370 Documentation License.
372 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
375 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
377 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
380 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
381 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
382 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
384 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
386 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
387 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
388 contents of this file.
392 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
394 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
396 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
398 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
399 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
400 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
401 greater level of detail.
403 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
405 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
406 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
407 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
410 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
412 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
413 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
414 machines ``out of the box''.
416 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
417 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
418 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
419 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
420 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
422 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
423 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
424 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
425 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
426 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
428 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
429 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
432 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
435 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
436 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
437 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
438 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
440 * New native configurations
442 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
443 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
447 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
448 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
449 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
450 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
452 * OBSOLETE configurations
454 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
455 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
457 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
460 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
461 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
462 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
463 be permanently REMOVED.
465 * Gould support removed
467 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
469 * New features for SVR4
471 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
472 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
473 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
475 * Many C++ enhancements
477 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
478 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
480 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
482 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
483 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
484 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
485 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
487 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
488 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
490 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
492 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
493 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
494 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
496 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
497 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
499 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
501 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
502 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
503 include ``set remote P-packet''.
505 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
507 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
508 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
509 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
511 * ``apropos'' command added.
513 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
514 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
515 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
519 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
520 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
521 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
522 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
523 enabled by configuring with:
525 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
527 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
529 * New native configurations
531 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
532 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
533 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
537 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
538 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
539 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
541 * OBSOLETE configurations
543 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
545 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
546 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
547 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
548 be permanently REMOVED.
552 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
553 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
554 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
555 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
556 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
557 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
558 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
563 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
565 * set extension-language
567 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
568 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
569 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
570 set extension-language .c c++
571 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
572 and their associated languages.
574 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
576 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
577 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
578 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
582 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
583 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
585 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
586 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
588 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
589 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
590 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
591 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
592 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
593 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
594 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
595 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
597 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
598 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
599 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
600 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
604 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
605 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
606 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
607 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
608 for xdb and dbx commands.
612 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
613 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
614 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
616 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
617 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
618 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
620 * Debugging across forks
622 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
627 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
628 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
629 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
631 * GDB remote protocol additions
633 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
634 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
635 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
636 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
638 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
639 full 64-bit address. The command
641 set remoteaddresssize 32
643 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
644 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
647 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
648 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
650 maint packet heythere
652 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
653 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
656 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
657 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
658 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
660 * Tracing can collect general expressions
662 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
663 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
664 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
666 * mask-address variable for Mips
668 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
669 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
670 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
672 * Higher serial baud rates
674 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
675 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
676 to achieve all of these rates.)
680 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
681 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
684 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
686 * New native configurations
688 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
689 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
690 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
691 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
692 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
693 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
694 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
698 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
699 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
700 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
701 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
702 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
703 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
704 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
705 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
706 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
707 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
708 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
710 * New debugging protocols
712 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
713 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
714 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
715 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
716 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
717 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
721 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
722 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
727 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
728 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
730 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
732 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
733 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
734 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
736 * Live range splitting
738 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
739 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
740 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
744 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
745 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
749 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
750 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
751 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
756 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
761 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
762 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
763 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
764 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
765 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
766 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
770 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
771 the symbol at the specified address.
775 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
776 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
777 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
778 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
779 file tracepoint.c for more details.
783 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
784 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
785 of most MIPS variants.
789 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
790 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
791 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
795 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
796 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
797 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
798 the possible architectures.
800 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
802 * New native configurations
804 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
805 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
806 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
807 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
808 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
809 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
813 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
814 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
815 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
816 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
817 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
819 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
823 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
824 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
825 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
826 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
827 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
831 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
833 * Windows 95/NT native
835 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
836 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
837 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
838 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
839 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
841 * dont-repeat command
843 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
844 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
845 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
846 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
848 * Send break instead of ^C
850 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
851 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
852 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
854 * Remote protocol timeout
856 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
857 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
858 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
860 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
862 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
863 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
864 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
865 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
866 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
868 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
869 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
870 automatically on hpux10.
872 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
874 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
876 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
878 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
879 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
880 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
881 every character. The default value is 1050.
883 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
885 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
886 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
887 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
888 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
889 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
890 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
892 * Speedups for remote debugging
894 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
895 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
896 and more efficient S-record downloading.
898 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
900 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
901 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
903 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
907 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
908 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
910 * Remote targets use caching
912 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
913 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
914 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
915 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
916 off' turns the the data cache off.
918 * Remote targets may have threads
920 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
921 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
922 gdb/remote.c for details.
926 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
927 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
928 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
929 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
930 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
931 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
932 sequence is something like
934 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
936 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
940 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
941 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
942 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
943 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
944 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
945 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
946 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
947 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
951 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
952 but does simplify configuration and building.
956 GDB now supports hpux10.
958 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
960 * New native configurations
962 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
963 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
964 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
965 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
969 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
970 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
971 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
972 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
975 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
977 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
978 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
979 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
980 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
981 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
983 * Arguments to user-defined commands
985 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
986 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
989 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
991 To execute the command use:
994 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
995 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
996 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
998 * New `if' and `while' commands
1000 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1001 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1002 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1003 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1004 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1005 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1006 if the expression is zero.
1008 * Fortran source language mode
1010 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1011 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1012 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1013 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1016 * Better HPUX support
1018 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1019 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1020 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1021 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1022 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1028 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1029 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1035 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1036 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1039 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1040 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1042 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1044 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1045 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1046 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1047 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1048 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1049 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1051 * New DOS host serial code
1053 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1054 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1057 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1059 * New "complete" command
1061 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1062 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1064 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1066 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1067 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1069 * Breakpoint hit counts
1071 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1072 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1073 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1074 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1075 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1078 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1080 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1081 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1082 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1084 * Shared library breakpoints
1086 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1087 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1089 * Hardware watchpoints
1091 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1092 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1094 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1098 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1099 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1101 * Improved Irix 5 support
1103 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1105 * Improved HPPA support
1107 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1109 * New native configurations
1111 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1112 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1113 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1114 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1118 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1119 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1122 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1124 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1125 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1129 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1130 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1132 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1134 * Irix 5 is now supported
1138 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1139 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1140 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1141 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1142 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1145 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1147 * User visible changes:
1151 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1152 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1153 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1154 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1155 debugging info for the mips target).
1157 * DEC Alpha native support
1159 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1160 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1161 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1162 Alpha-specific notes.
1164 * Preliminary thread implementation
1166 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1168 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1170 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1171 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1174 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1176 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1177 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1178 call methods, ...etc.
1180 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1182 * User visible changes:
1184 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1185 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1186 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1187 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1189 Filename completion now works.
1191 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1192 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1193 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1195 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1196 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1197 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1198 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1199 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1203 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1204 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1207 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1211 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1212 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1213 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1217 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1218 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1219 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1220 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1221 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1225 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1226 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1227 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1229 * New targets supported
1231 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1232 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1233 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1234 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1235 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1237 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1238 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1239 GO32 memory extender.
1241 * New remote protocols
1243 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1245 * New source languages supported
1247 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1248 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1249 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1252 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1254 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1256 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1257 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1258 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1259 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1260 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1261 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1263 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1265 * Faster and better demangling
1267 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1268 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1269 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1270 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1271 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1272 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1275 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1276 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1277 compiler does not actually implement.
1279 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1281 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1282 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1283 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1284 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1285 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1286 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1289 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1290 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1292 * Improved configure script
1294 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1295 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1296 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1297 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1299 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1300 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1301 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1302 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1303 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1304 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1306 * Documentation improvements
1308 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1309 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1310 before submitting changes.
1312 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1313 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1314 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1315 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1316 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1318 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1319 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1320 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1321 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1322 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1323 around this problem.
1327 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1328 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1329 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1332 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1333 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1335 * New native hosts supported
1337 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1338 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1340 * New targets supported
1342 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1344 * New file formats supported
1346 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1347 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1351 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1353 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1354 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1356 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1357 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1358 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1360 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1361 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1363 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1364 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1365 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1368 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1369 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1370 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1371 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1372 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1374 * Internal improvements
1376 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1377 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1379 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1380 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1381 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1382 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1383 shared code that handles any of them.
1385 * New command line options
1387 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1391 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1392 General Public License.
1394 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1396 * Host/native/target split
1398 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1399 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1400 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1401 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1402 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1404 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1405 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1406 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1407 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1408 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1409 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1410 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1412 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1413 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1414 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1416 * New hosts supported
1418 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1419 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1420 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1422 * New targets supported
1424 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1425 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1427 * New native hosts supported
1429 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1430 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1431 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1433 * New file formats supported
1435 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1436 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1437 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1441 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1442 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1443 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1445 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1447 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1448 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1449 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1450 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1454 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1455 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1456 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1458 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1462 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1463 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1466 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1467 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1469 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1470 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1471 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1472 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1473 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1474 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1476 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1477 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1478 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1479 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1483 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1484 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1485 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1486 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1487 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1489 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1490 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1491 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1492 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1496 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1497 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1498 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1499 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1500 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1501 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1502 each instruction being stepped through.
1504 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1505 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1507 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1508 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1509 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1510 processor with a serial port.
1514 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1515 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1516 supported, and what files each one uses.
1520 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1521 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1522 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1523 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1525 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1526 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1527 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1528 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1532 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1533 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1534 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1535 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1536 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1537 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1539 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1542 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1544 * Better support for C++ function names
1546 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1547 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1548 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1549 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1550 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1552 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1553 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1554 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1555 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1556 for the list of formats.
1558 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1560 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1561 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1562 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1563 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1564 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1565 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1568 * New 'maintenance' command
1570 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1571 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1572 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1574 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1575 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1576 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1577 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1578 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1579 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1581 The following commands are new:
1583 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1584 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1585 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1587 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1589 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1590 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1591 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1592 read after argv processing.
1594 * New hosts supported
1596 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1598 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1600 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1601 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1602 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1603 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1604 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1607 * New targets supported
1609 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1611 * More smarts about finding #include files
1613 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1614 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1615 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1616 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1617 the one that contains your sources.
1619 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1620 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1621 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1623 * Interesting infernals change
1625 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1626 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1627 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1628 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1630 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1632 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1633 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1634 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1636 See the ChangeLog for details.
1638 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1640 * New machines supported (host and target)
1642 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1644 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1646 * New malloc package
1648 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1649 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1650 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1651 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1652 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1653 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1657 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1658 'help info proc' for details.
1660 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1662 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1663 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1666 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1668 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1669 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1670 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1671 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1672 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1673 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1675 * Cross byte order fixes
1677 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1678 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1680 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1682 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1683 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1684 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1685 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1686 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1687 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1688 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1689 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1690 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1691 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1693 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1694 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1695 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1696 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1698 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1699 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1700 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1703 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1705 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1706 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1707 shared across multiple host platforms.
1709 * longjmp() handling
1711 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1712 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1713 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1714 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1718 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1719 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1724 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1725 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1726 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1728 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1730 * New machines supported (host and target)
1732 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1734 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1735 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1737 * New machines supported (target)
1739 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1743 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1744 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1745 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1747 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1748 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1749 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1750 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1751 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1754 * New features for SVR4
1756 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1757 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1758 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1760 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1761 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1762 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1764 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1765 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1767 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1769 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1770 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1771 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1772 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1773 same code linked statically.
1777 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1778 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1779 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1780 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1781 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1782 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1786 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1787 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1788 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1791 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1793 * New machines supported (host and target)
1795 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1796 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1797 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1799 * Almost SCO Unix support
1801 We had hoped to support:
1802 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1803 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1804 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1805 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1807 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1809 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1810 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1811 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1812 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1817 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1818 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1819 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1823 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1824 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1825 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1827 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1829 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1830 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1831 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1833 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1834 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1835 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1836 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1839 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1840 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1841 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1842 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1845 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1846 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1849 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1850 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1851 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1854 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1856 * Improved configuration
1858 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1859 Porting BFD is simpler.
1863 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1864 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1865 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1866 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1870 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1872 * New host supported (not target)
1874 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1877 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1879 * Multiple source language support
1881 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1882 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1883 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1884 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1885 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1886 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1890 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1891 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1892 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1893 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1895 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1896 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1897 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1899 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1900 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1904 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1905 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1906 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1907 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1910 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1912 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1913 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1914 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1915 examining core files.
1919 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1922 * New machines supported (host and target)
1924 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1925 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1926 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1928 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1930 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1932 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1934 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1935 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1936 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1938 * New remote interfaces
1944 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1948 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1950 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1951 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1952 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1953 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1954 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1955 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1956 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1957 stub on the target system.
1959 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1961 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1962 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1963 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1965 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1966 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1969 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1971 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1972 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1974 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1975 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1976 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1978 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1979 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1980 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1981 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1983 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1984 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1985 it is already running. Default is ON.
1987 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1988 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1989 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1990 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1993 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1994 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1995 or the value of the environment variable
1998 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1999 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2002 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2003 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2004 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2006 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2007 history expansion will be performed on
2008 command line input. The default is OFF.
2010 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2011 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2012 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2014 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2015 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2016 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2019 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2020 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2021 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2024 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2025 ``set width'' instead.
2027 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2028 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2029 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2030 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2032 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2035 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2038 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2041 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2044 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2046 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2047 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2048 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2052 * Support for Shared Libraries
2054 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2055 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2056 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2057 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2058 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2059 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2060 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2061 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2063 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2064 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2065 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2067 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2072 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2073 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2074 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2075 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2076 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2077 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2079 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2081 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2083 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2084 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2085 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2088 * C++ multiple inheritance
2090 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2093 * C++ exception handling
2095 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2096 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2097 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2100 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2101 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2102 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2104 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2105 current stack frame.
2108 * Minor command changes
2110 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2111 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2112 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2114 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2115 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2116 frames without printing.
2118 * New directory command
2120 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2121 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2122 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2123 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2124 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2126 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2128 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2131 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2132 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2133 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2134 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / external / binutils.git / blob