1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.2:
6 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
8 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
9 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
10 from a file into memory (restore).
12 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
14 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
16 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
17 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
18 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
19 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
20 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
21 (notably embedded) targets.
23 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
25 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
26 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
27 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
28 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
30 * New command line option
32 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
34 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
36 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
37 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
38 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
39 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
40 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
41 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
42 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
43 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
44 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
45 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
47 * Changes in ARM configurations.
49 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
50 configuration is fully multi-arch.
52 * New native configurations
54 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
55 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
56 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
57 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
61 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
63 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
65 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
66 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
67 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
70 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
71 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
72 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
73 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
74 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
76 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
78 * REMOVED configurations and files
80 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
82 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
83 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
84 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
85 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
86 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
87 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
88 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
89 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
90 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
91 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
92 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
94 * Changes to command line processing
96 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
97 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
99 * Changes to key bindings
101 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
103 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
105 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
107 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
110 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
112 Numerous documentation fixes.
114 Numerous testsuite fixes.
116 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
118 * New native configurations
120 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
121 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
122 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
123 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
125 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
129 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
131 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
133 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
135 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
136 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
137 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
138 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
139 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
141 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
142 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
143 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
144 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
145 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
146 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
147 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
148 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
150 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
151 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
153 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
154 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
155 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
158 * REMOVED configurations and files
160 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
161 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
163 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
167 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
169 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
170 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
175 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
177 * The MI enabled by default.
179 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
180 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
181 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
182 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
183 which is now deprecated.
185 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
187 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
188 main features are supported:
190 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
192 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
195 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
197 - a Pascal expression parser.
199 However, some important features are not yet supported.
201 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
203 - there are some problems with boolean types;
205 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
206 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
208 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
210 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
212 * Changes in completion.
214 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
215 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
216 users expect at the shell prompt.
218 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
219 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
220 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
221 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
222 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
223 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
224 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
226 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
228 * New platform-independent commands:
230 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
231 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
232 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
234 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
236 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
237 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
238 many threads as your system allows you to have.
240 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
242 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
243 multi-threaded programs though.
245 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
247 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
249 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
250 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
253 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
255 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
256 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
257 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
258 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
259 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
262 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
263 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
264 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
266 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
268 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
269 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
271 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
272 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
275 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
276 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
277 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
278 a given linear address.
280 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
281 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
282 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
284 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
286 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
288 * Changes in documentation.
290 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
291 Documentation License.
293 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
296 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
298 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
301 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
302 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
303 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
305 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
307 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
308 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
309 contents of this file.
313 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
315 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
317 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
319 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
320 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
321 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
322 greater level of detail.
324 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
326 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
327 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
328 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
331 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
333 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
334 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
335 machines ``out of the box''.
337 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
338 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
339 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
340 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
341 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
343 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
344 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
345 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
346 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
347 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
349 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
350 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
353 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
356 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
357 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
358 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
359 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
361 * New native configurations
363 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
364 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
368 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
369 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
370 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
371 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
373 * OBSOLETE configurations
375 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
376 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
378 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
381 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
382 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
383 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
384 be permanently REMOVED.
386 * Gould support removed
388 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
390 * New features for SVR4
392 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
393 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
394 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
396 * Many C++ enhancements
398 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
399 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
401 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
403 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
404 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
405 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
406 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
408 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
409 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
411 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
413 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
414 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
415 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
417 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
418 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
420 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
422 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
423 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
424 include ``set remote P-packet''.
426 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
428 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
429 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
430 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
432 * ``apropos'' command added.
434 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
435 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
436 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
440 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
441 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
442 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
443 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
444 enabled by configuring with:
446 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
448 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
450 * New native configurations
452 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
453 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
454 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
458 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
459 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
460 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
462 * OBSOLETE configurations
464 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
466 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
467 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
468 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
469 be permanently REMOVED.
473 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
474 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
475 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
476 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
477 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
478 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
479 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
484 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
486 * set extension-language
488 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
489 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
490 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
491 set extension-language .c c++
492 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
493 and their associated languages.
495 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
497 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
498 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
499 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
503 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
504 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
506 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
507 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
509 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
510 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
511 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
512 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
513 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
514 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
515 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
516 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
518 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
519 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
520 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
521 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
525 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
526 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
527 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
528 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
529 for xdb and dbx commands.
533 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
534 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
535 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
537 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
538 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
539 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
541 * Debugging across forks
543 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
548 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
549 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
550 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
552 * GDB remote protocol additions
554 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
555 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
556 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
557 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
559 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
560 full 64-bit address. The command
562 set remoteaddresssize 32
564 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
565 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
568 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
569 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
571 maint packet heythere
573 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
574 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
577 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
578 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
579 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
581 * Tracing can collect general expressions
583 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
584 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
585 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
587 * mask-address variable for Mips
589 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
590 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
591 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
593 * Higher serial baud rates
595 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
596 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
597 to achieve all of these rates.)
601 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
602 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
605 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
607 * New native configurations
609 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
610 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
611 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
612 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
613 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
614 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
615 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
619 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
620 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
621 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
622 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
623 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
624 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
625 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
626 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
627 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
628 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
629 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
631 * New debugging protocols
633 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
634 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
635 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
636 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
637 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
638 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
642 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
643 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
648 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
649 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
651 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
653 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
654 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
655 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
657 * Live range splitting
659 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
660 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
661 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
665 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
666 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
670 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
671 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
672 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
677 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
682 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
683 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
684 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
685 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
686 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
687 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
691 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
692 the symbol at the specified address.
696 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
697 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
698 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
699 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
700 file tracepoint.c for more details.
704 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
705 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
706 of most MIPS variants.
710 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
711 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
712 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
716 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
717 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
718 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
719 the possible architectures.
721 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
723 * New native configurations
725 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
726 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
727 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
728 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
729 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
730 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
734 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
735 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
736 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
737 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
738 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
740 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
744 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
745 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
746 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
747 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
748 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
752 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
754 * Windows 95/NT native
756 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
757 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
758 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
759 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
760 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
762 * dont-repeat command
764 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
765 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
766 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
767 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
769 * Send break instead of ^C
771 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
772 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
773 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
775 * Remote protocol timeout
777 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
778 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
779 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
781 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
783 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
784 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
785 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
786 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
787 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
789 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
790 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
791 automatically on hpux10.
793 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
795 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
797 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
799 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
800 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
801 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
802 every character. The default value is 1050.
804 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
806 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
807 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
808 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
809 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
810 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
811 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
813 * Speedups for remote debugging
815 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
816 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
817 and more efficient S-record downloading.
819 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
821 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
822 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
824 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
828 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
829 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
831 * Remote targets use caching
833 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
834 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
835 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
836 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
837 off' turns the the data cache off.
839 * Remote targets may have threads
841 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
842 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
843 gdb/remote.c for details.
847 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
848 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
849 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
850 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
851 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
852 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
853 sequence is something like
855 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
857 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
861 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
862 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
863 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
864 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
865 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
866 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
867 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
868 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
872 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
873 but does simplify configuration and building.
877 GDB now supports hpux10.
879 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
881 * New native configurations
883 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
884 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
885 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
886 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
890 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
891 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
892 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
893 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
896 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
898 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
899 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
900 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
901 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
902 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
904 * Arguments to user-defined commands
906 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
907 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
910 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
912 To execute the command use:
915 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
916 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
917 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
919 * New `if' and `while' commands
921 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
922 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
923 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
924 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
925 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
926 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
927 if the expression is zero.
929 * Fortran source language mode
931 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
932 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
933 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
934 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
937 * Better HPUX support
939 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
940 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
941 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
942 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
943 that behavior do the following before running the program:
949 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
950 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
956 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
957 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
960 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
961 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
963 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
965 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
966 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
967 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
968 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
969 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
970 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
972 * New DOS host serial code
974 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
975 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
978 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
980 * New "complete" command
982 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
983 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
985 * Trailing space optional in prompt
987 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
988 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
990 * Breakpoint hit counts
992 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
993 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
994 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
995 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
996 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
999 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1001 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1002 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1003 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1005 * Shared library breakpoints
1007 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1008 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1010 * Hardware watchpoints
1012 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1013 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1015 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1019 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1020 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1022 * Improved Irix 5 support
1024 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1026 * Improved HPPA support
1028 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1030 * New native configurations
1032 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1033 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1034 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1035 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1039 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1040 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1043 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1045 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1046 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1050 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1051 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1053 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1055 * Irix 5 is now supported
1059 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1060 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1061 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1062 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1063 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1066 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1068 * User visible changes:
1072 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1073 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1074 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1075 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1076 debugging info for the mips target).
1078 * DEC Alpha native support
1080 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1081 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1082 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1083 Alpha-specific notes.
1085 * Preliminary thread implementation
1087 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1089 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1091 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1092 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1095 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1097 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1098 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1099 call methods, ...etc.
1101 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1103 * User visible changes:
1105 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1106 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1107 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1108 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1110 Filename completion now works.
1112 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1113 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1114 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1116 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1117 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1118 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1119 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1120 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1124 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1125 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1128 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1132 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1133 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1134 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1138 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1139 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1140 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1141 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1142 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1146 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1147 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1148 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1150 * New targets supported
1152 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1153 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1154 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1155 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1156 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1158 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1159 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1160 GO32 memory extender.
1162 * New remote protocols
1164 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1166 * New source languages supported
1168 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1169 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1170 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1173 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1175 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1177 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1178 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1179 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1180 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1181 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1182 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1184 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1186 * Faster and better demangling
1188 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1189 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1190 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1191 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1192 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1193 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1196 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1197 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1198 compiler does not actually implement.
1200 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1202 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1203 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1204 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1205 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1206 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1207 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1210 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1211 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1213 * Improved configure script
1215 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1216 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1217 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1218 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1220 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1221 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1222 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1223 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1224 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1225 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1227 * Documentation improvements
1229 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1230 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1231 before submitting changes.
1233 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1234 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1235 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1236 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1237 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1239 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1240 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1241 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1242 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1243 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1244 around this problem.
1248 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1249 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1250 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1253 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1254 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1256 * New native hosts supported
1258 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1259 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1261 * New targets supported
1263 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1265 * New file formats supported
1267 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1268 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1272 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1274 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1275 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1277 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1278 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1279 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1281 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1282 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1284 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1285 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1286 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1289 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1290 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1291 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1292 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1293 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1295 * Internal improvements
1297 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1298 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1300 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1301 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1302 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1303 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1304 shared code that handles any of them.
1306 * New command line options
1308 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1312 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1313 General Public License.
1315 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1317 * Host/native/target split
1319 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1320 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1321 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1322 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1323 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1325 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1326 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1327 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1328 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1329 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1330 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1331 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1333 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1334 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1335 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1337 * New hosts supported
1339 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1340 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1341 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1343 * New targets supported
1345 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1346 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1348 * New native hosts supported
1350 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1351 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1352 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1354 * New file formats supported
1356 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1357 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1358 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1362 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1363 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1364 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1366 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1368 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1369 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1370 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1371 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1375 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1376 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1377 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1379 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1383 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1384 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1387 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1388 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1390 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1391 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1392 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1393 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1394 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1395 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1397 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1398 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1399 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1400 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1404 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1405 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1406 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1407 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1408 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1410 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1411 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1412 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1413 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1417 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1418 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1419 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1420 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1421 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1422 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1423 each instruction being stepped through.
1425 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1426 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1428 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1429 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1430 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1431 processor with a serial port.
1435 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1436 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1437 supported, and what files each one uses.
1441 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1442 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1443 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1444 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1446 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1447 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1448 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1449 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1453 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1454 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1455 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1456 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1457 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1458 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1460 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1463 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1465 * Better support for C++ function names
1467 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1468 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1469 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1470 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1471 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1473 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1474 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1475 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1476 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1477 for the list of formats.
1479 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1481 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1482 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1483 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1484 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1485 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1486 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1489 * New 'maintenance' command
1491 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1492 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1493 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1495 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1496 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1497 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1498 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1499 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1500 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1502 The following commands are new:
1504 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1505 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1506 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1508 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1510 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1511 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1512 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1513 read after argv processing.
1515 * New hosts supported
1517 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1519 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1521 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1522 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1523 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1524 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1525 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1528 * New targets supported
1530 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1532 * More smarts about finding #include files
1534 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1535 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1536 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1537 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1538 the one that contains your sources.
1540 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1541 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1542 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1544 * Interesting infernals change
1546 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1547 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1548 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1549 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1551 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1553 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1554 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1555 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1557 See the ChangeLog for details.
1559 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1561 * New machines supported (host and target)
1563 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1565 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1567 * New malloc package
1569 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1570 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1571 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1572 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1573 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1574 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1578 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1579 'help info proc' for details.
1581 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1583 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1584 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1587 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1589 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1590 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1591 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1592 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1593 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1594 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1596 * Cross byte order fixes
1598 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1599 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1601 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1603 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1604 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1605 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1606 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1607 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1608 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1609 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1610 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1611 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1612 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1614 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1615 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1616 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1617 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1619 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1620 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1621 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1624 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1626 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1627 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1628 shared across multiple host platforms.
1630 * longjmp() handling
1632 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1633 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1634 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1635 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1639 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1640 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1645 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1646 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1647 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1649 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1651 * New machines supported (host and target)
1653 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1655 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1656 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1658 * New machines supported (target)
1660 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1664 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1665 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1666 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1668 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1669 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1670 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1671 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1672 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1675 * New features for SVR4
1677 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1678 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1679 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1681 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1682 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1683 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1685 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1686 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1688 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1690 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1691 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1692 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1693 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1694 same code linked statically.
1698 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1699 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1700 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1701 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1702 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1703 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1707 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1708 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1709 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1712 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1714 * New machines supported (host and target)
1716 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1717 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1718 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1720 * Almost SCO Unix support
1722 We had hoped to support:
1723 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1724 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1725 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1726 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1728 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1730 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1731 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1732 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1733 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1738 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1739 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1740 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1744 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1745 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1746 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1748 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1750 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1751 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1752 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1754 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1755 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1756 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1757 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1760 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1761 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1762 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1763 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1766 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1767 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1770 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1771 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1772 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1775 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1777 * Improved configuration
1779 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1780 Porting BFD is simpler.
1784 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1785 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1786 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1787 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1791 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1793 * New host supported (not target)
1795 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1798 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1800 * Multiple source language support
1802 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1803 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1804 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1805 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1806 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1807 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1811 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1812 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1813 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1814 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1816 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1817 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1818 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1820 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1821 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1825 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1826 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1827 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1828 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1831 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1833 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1834 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1835 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1836 examining core files.
1840 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1843 * New machines supported (host and target)
1845 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1846 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1847 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1849 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1851 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1853 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1855 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1856 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1857 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1859 * New remote interfaces
1865 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1869 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1871 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1872 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1873 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1874 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1875 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1876 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1877 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1878 stub on the target system.
1880 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1882 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1883 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1884 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1886 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1887 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1890 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1892 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1893 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1895 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1896 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1897 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1899 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1900 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1901 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1902 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1904 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1905 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1906 it is already running. Default is ON.
1908 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1909 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1910 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1911 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1914 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1915 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1916 or the value of the environment variable
1919 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1920 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1923 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1924 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1925 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1927 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1928 history expansion will be performed on
1929 command line input. The default is OFF.
1931 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1932 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1933 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1935 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1936 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1937 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1940 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1941 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1942 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1945 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1946 ``set width'' instead.
1948 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1949 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1950 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1951 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1953 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1956 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1959 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1962 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1965 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1967 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1968 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1969 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1973 * Support for Shared Libraries
1975 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1976 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1977 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1978 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1979 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1980 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1981 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1982 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1984 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1985 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1986 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1988 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1993 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1994 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1995 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1996 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1997 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1998 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2000 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2002 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2004 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2005 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2006 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2009 * C++ multiple inheritance
2011 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2014 * C++ exception handling
2016 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2017 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2018 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2021 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2022 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2023 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2025 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2026 current stack frame.
2029 * Minor command changes
2031 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2032 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2033 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2035 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2036 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2037 frames without printing.
2039 * New directory command
2041 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2042 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2043 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2044 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2045 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2047 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2049 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2052 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2053 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2054 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2055 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / external / binutils.git / blob