1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.11
6 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
7 memory backward from the given address. For example:
10 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
11 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
12 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
13 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
14 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
15 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
16 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
17 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
18 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
20 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
21 arrays of dynamic types.
23 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
26 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
27 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
28 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
30 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
32 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
33 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
34 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
35 signal received and code location.
39 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
40 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
41 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
42 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
44 * Rust language support.
45 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
46 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
52 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
53 skip -function function
54 skip -rfunction regular-expression
55 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
56 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
57 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
59 maint info line-table REGEXP
60 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
63 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
65 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
66 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
67 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
69 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
72 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
73 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
74 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
75 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
76 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
77 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
79 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
80 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
81 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
82 bytecode into native code.
84 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
85 recording. For example:
87 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
91 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
93 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
95 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
97 * Per-inferior thread numbers
99 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
100 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
101 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
105 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
106 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
107 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
108 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
110 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
111 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
112 are no longer unique between inferiors.
114 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
115 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
116 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
118 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
121 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
122 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
125 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
128 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
129 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
130 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
131 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
134 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
137 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
140 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
143 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
144 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
147 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
148 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
150 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
152 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
154 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
155 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
157 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
158 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
161 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
162 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
165 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
166 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
169 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
171 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
172 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
173 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
175 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
176 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
180 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
181 maint show target-non-stop
182 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
183 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
184 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
186 maint set bfd-sharing
187 maint show bfd-sharing
188 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
192 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
196 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
198 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
199 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
200 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
202 set remote thread-events
203 show remote thread-events
204 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
206 set ada print-signatures on|off
207 show ada print-signatures"
208 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
209 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
213 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
214 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
215 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
217 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
218 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
219 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
220 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
221 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
222 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
224 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
225 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
227 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
228 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
230 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
232 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
233 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
234 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
235 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
236 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
237 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
239 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
240 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
245 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
247 exec-events feature in qSupported
248 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
249 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
250 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
251 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
254 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
257 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
258 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
260 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
261 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
264 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
265 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
266 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
267 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
268 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
269 stop for that same thread.
272 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
273 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
274 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
277 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
278 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
280 syscall_entry stop reason
281 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
283 syscall_return stop reason
284 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
286 * Extended-remote exec events
288 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
289 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
290 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
292 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
293 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
294 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
296 * Thread names in remote protocol
298 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
301 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
303 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
304 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
305 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
306 fork and exec catchpoints.
308 * Remote syscall events
310 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
311 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
313 set remote catch-syscall-packet
314 show remote catch-syscall-packet
315 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
319 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
320 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
325 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
326 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
327 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
328 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
329 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
330 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
332 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
334 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
335 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
336 including advance SIMD instructions.
338 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
340 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
341 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
342 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
343 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
344 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
345 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
346 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
348 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
350 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
352 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
353 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
356 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
357 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
358 and may include things like its command line arguments.
360 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
361 is now available on all platforms.
363 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
364 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
365 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
366 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
367 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
368 backward compatibility.
370 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
371 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
372 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
373 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
375 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
376 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
377 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
378 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
381 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
383 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
385 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
386 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
387 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
388 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
389 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
390 See "New remote packets" below.
392 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
393 available register groups, including target specific groups.
395 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
396 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
397 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
398 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
403 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
407 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
408 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
409 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
410 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
411 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
412 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
413 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
414 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
415 "const" version of the value respectively.
419 maint print symbol-cache
420 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
422 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
423 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
425 maint flush-symbol-cache
426 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
430 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
433 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
437 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
440 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
441 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
445 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
448 Print information about branch tracing internals.
450 maint btrace packet-history
451 Print the raw branch tracing data.
453 maint btrace clear-packet-history
454 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
457 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
458 anew by the next "record" command.
463 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
465 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
468 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
469 show debug dwarf-read
470 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
472 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
473 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
474 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
475 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
477 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
478 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
479 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
480 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
483 show debug dwarf-line
484 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
488 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
489 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
490 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
491 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
493 set history remove-duplicates
494 show history remove-duplicates
495 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
497 maint set symbol-cache-size
498 maint show symbol-cache-size
499 Control the size of the symbol cache.
501 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
502 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
504 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
505 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
507 set debug linux-namespaces
508 show debug linux-namespaces
509 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
511 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
512 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
513 Intel Processor Trace format.
514 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
515 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
517 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
518 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
521 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
522 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
524 * Python/Guile scripting
526 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
527 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
531 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
532 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
534 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
535 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
538 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
539 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
543 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
547 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
548 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
549 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
553 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
554 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
557 Return information about files on the remote system.
560 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
561 create a process running on the remote system.
564 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
565 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
566 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
567 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
570 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
573 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
575 vforkdone stop reason
576 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
577 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
579 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
580 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
581 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
582 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
583 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
584 whether these features are enabled.
586 * Extended-remote fork events
588 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
589 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
590 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
591 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
593 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
594 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
595 the btrace record target.
596 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
598 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
599 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
601 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
604 * Removed command line options
606 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
608 * Removed targets and native configurations
610 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
611 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
613 * New configure options
616 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
617 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
619 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
620 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
621 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
622 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
624 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
628 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
630 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
632 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
636 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
637 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
638 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
639 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
640 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
641 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
642 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
643 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
644 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
645 selecting a new file to debug.
646 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
647 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
649 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
652 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
653 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
654 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
655 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
657 * New Python-based convenience functions:
659 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
660 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
661 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
662 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
664 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
665 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
666 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
667 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
668 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
669 interface with this new feature are:
671 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
672 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
676 demangle [-l language] [--] name
677 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
678 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
679 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
680 as "maint demangler-warning".
682 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
683 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
685 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
686 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
689 maint print user-registers
690 List all currently available "user" registers.
692 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
693 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
694 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
696 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
697 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
698 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
701 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
702 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
703 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
704 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
707 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
708 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
709 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
710 switched threads meanwhile.
712 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
714 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
715 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
716 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
717 is now the default mode.
721 set debug symbol-lookup
722 show debug symbol-lookup
723 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
727 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
728 inferiors that have exited.
732 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
736 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
738 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
739 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
740 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
741 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
742 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
744 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
745 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
746 its alias "share", instead.
748 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
750 * New command line options
753 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
755 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
756 as specified in ISO C99.
758 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
759 with or without disassembly.
763 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
764 available is determined at configure time.
765 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
766 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
768 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
772 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
776 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
778 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
779 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
781 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
782 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
786 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
787 show print symbol-loading
788 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
789 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
790 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
793 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
794 show guile print-stack
795 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
797 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
798 show auto-load guile-scripts
799 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
801 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
802 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
803 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
804 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
805 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
806 usage of this option.
808 set auto-connect-native-target
810 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
811 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
812 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
814 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
815 show record btrace replay-memory-access
816 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
818 maint set target-async (on|off)
819 maint show target-async
820 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
821 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
822 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
823 occurring only in synchronous mode.
825 set mi-async (on|off)
827 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
828 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
830 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
831 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
833 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
834 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
835 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
836 "set target-async on" command.
838 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
840 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
841 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
842 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
843 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
844 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
846 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
847 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
848 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
850 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
851 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
852 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
853 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
854 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
855 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
856 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
858 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
859 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
861 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
862 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
863 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
865 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
866 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
869 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
871 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
872 remote. It now works with all targets.
874 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
875 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
876 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
877 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
878 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
879 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
880 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
881 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
882 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
885 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
886 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
887 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
889 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
891 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
892 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
893 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
897 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
898 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
899 branch trace incrementally.
903 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
904 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
906 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
907 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
908 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
909 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
910 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
913 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
915 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
916 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
917 its alias "share", instead.
919 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
920 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
925 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
926 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
927 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
928 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
929 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
930 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
931 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
932 commands and CLI execution commands.
934 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
936 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
937 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
938 recording has been added.
940 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
942 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
943 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
945 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
946 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
947 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
948 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
949 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
950 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
953 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
955 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
957 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
958 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
959 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
960 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
965 (gdb) info registers rax
968 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
969 "*value not available*".
971 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
976 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
977 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
978 ** Line tables representation has been added.
979 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
980 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
981 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
985 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
986 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
987 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
989 * Removed native configurations
991 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
992 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
994 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
995 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
996 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
997 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
998 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
999 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1000 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1004 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1005 maint check-psymtabs
1006 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1008 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1009 maint expand-symtabs
1010 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1013 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1015 maint set|show per-command
1016 maint set|show per-command space
1017 maint set|show per-command time
1018 maint set|show per-command symtab
1019 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1021 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1022 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1023 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1024 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1025 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1028 info exceptions REGEXP
1029 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1030 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1035 set debug symfile off|on
1037 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1038 symbol tables within those files
1040 set print raw frame-arguments
1041 show print raw frame-arguments
1042 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1043 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1045 set remote trace-status-packet
1046 show remote trace-status-packet
1047 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1051 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1055 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1057 set startup-with-shell
1058 show startup-with-shell
1059 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1064 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1065 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1067 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1068 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1069 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1070 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1073 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1074 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1075 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1077 * New command-line options
1079 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1081 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1082 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1084 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1087 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1089 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1090 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1092 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1093 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1095 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1096 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1097 due to an uncaught signal.
1101 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1102 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1103 command, which should contain "language-option".
1105 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1106 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1108 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1109 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1110 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1111 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1112 "undefined-command-error-code".
1114 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1117 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1119 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1120 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1123 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1124 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1126 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1127 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1128 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1130 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1131 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1132 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1133 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1134 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1135 "exec-run-start-option".
1137 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1138 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1140 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1141 the new "info exceptions" command.
1143 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1144 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1145 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1149 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1150 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1151 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1154 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1155 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1157 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1158 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1159 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1161 * New remote packets
1165 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1166 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1167 involvemement at each single-step.
1169 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1170 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1171 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1172 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1173 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1174 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1177 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1179 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1180 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1182 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1183 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1184 trace state variables.
1186 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1189 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1190 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1192 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1194 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1195 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1196 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1197 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1199 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1201 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1202 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1203 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1204 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1206 set|show record full insn-number-max
1207 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1208 set|show record full memory-query
1210 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1211 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1212 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1213 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1214 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1218 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1219 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1221 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1222 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1223 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1225 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1226 instruction granularity
1228 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1229 function granularity
1231 * New native configurations
1233 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1234 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1235 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1236 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1240 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1241 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1242 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1243 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1244 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1246 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1247 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1248 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1249 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1250 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1251 --data-directory command-line option.
1253 * New command line options:
1255 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1256 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1258 * Removed command line options
1260 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1263 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1266 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1270 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1272 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1274 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1276 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1278 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1279 of architecture in the Python API.
1281 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1282 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1284 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1286 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1287 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1289 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1291 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1294 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1295 default for GCC since November 2000.
1297 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1299 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1300 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1302 * New configure options
1304 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1305 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1306 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1307 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1308 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1309 options allow the user to override that default.
1310 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1311 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1312 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1314 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1317 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1318 conditions to be attached.
1321 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1323 python-interactive [command]
1325 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1326 and print the result of expressions.
1329 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1331 enable type-printer [name]...
1332 disable type-printer [name]...
1333 Enable or disable type printers.
1337 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1338 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1343 set print type methods (on|off)
1344 show print type methods
1345 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1346 The default is to show them.
1348 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1349 show print type typedefs
1350 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1351 The default is to show them.
1353 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1354 show filename-display
1355 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1356 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1358 set trace-buffer-size
1359 show trace-buffer-size
1360 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1362 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1363 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1364 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1368 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1371 set debug coff-pe-read
1372 show debug coff-pe-read
1373 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1378 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1381 set debug notification
1382 show debug notification
1383 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1387 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1388 "=cmd-param-changed".
1389 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1390 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1391 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1392 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1393 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1394 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1395 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1396 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1398 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1399 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1400 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1401 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1402 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1403 library load/unload events.
1404 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1405 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1406 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1407 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1408 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1409 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1410 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1411 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1413 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1414 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1415 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1416 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1418 * New remote packets
1421 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1422 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1425 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1426 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1430 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1431 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1434 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1435 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1437 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1439 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1440 for more x32 ABI info.
1442 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1444 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1446 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1447 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1448 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1449 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1450 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1451 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1452 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1453 "info os msg" lists message queues
1454 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1456 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1457 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1458 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1459 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1460 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1461 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1463 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1464 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1465 record/replay support.
1467 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1471 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
1474 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
1476 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
1477 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
1479 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
1481 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
1482 the source at which the symbol was defined.
1484 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
1485 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
1486 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
1489 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
1490 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
1492 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
1493 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
1494 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
1496 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
1497 object associated with a PC value.
1499 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
1500 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
1502 * Go language support.
1503 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
1506 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1507 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1509 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1510 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1512 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
1513 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
1514 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
1515 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
1516 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
1519 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
1520 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
1521 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
1522 build/libcpp/expr.c.
1524 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
1525 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
1527 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
1528 since December 2007.
1530 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
1531 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
1532 command does. For instance:
1534 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
1536 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
1537 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
1538 created, using the "condition" command.
1540 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
1541 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
1543 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
1545 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
1546 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
1547 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
1548 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
1549 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
1550 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
1551 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
1552 files with older .gdb_index sections.
1554 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
1555 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
1556 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
1557 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
1558 the .gdb_index section.
1560 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1562 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1567 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1569 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1573 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1574 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1575 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1577 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1578 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1580 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1583 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
1584 C++ and Java objects.
1586 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
1587 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
1588 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1589 configured with '--with-python'.
1591 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1592 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1593 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1594 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1595 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1596 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1597 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1599 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1600 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1601 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1602 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1604 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1605 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1606 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1607 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1609 ** "set print symbol"
1611 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1612 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1613 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1615 * Deprecated commands
1617 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1618 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1622 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1623 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
1625 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1626 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1627 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1628 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1633 set mips compression
1634 show mips compression
1635 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1636 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1639 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1641 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1642 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
1643 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
1644 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1646 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1650 Disable auto-loading globally.
1653 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1655 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1656 show auto-load gdb-scripts
1657 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1659 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1660 show auto-load python-scripts
1661 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1663 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1664 show auto-load local-gdbinit
1665 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1667 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1668 show auto-load libthread-db
1669 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1671 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1672 show auto-load scripts-directory
1673 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1674 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1675 of the directories listed by this option.
1676 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1678 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1679 show auto-load safe-path
1680 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1681 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1683 set debug auto-load on|off
1684 show debug auto-load
1685 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1687 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
1689 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1690 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1691 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1692 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
1694 set dprintf-function <expr>
1695 show dprintf-function
1696 set dprintf-channel <expr>
1697 show dprintf-channel
1698 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1699 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1701 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1702 show disconnected-dprintf
1703 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1704 after GDB disconnects.
1706 * New configure options
1708 --with-auto-load-dir
1709 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1710 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1711 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1712 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1713 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
1715 --with-auto-load-safe-path
1716 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
1717 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
1719 --without-auto-load-safe-path
1720 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1723 * New remote packets
1725 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1727 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1728 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1729 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1730 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1734 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1735 program without GDB involvement.
1737 * New command line options
1739 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1740 before loading inferior.
1741 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1742 execute it before loading inferior.
1744 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
1746 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1747 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1748 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1749 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1752 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1753 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1755 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1756 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1757 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1758 target hardware watchpoint.
1760 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1761 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1762 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1763 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1767 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
1768 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
1771 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
1772 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1773 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1774 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1775 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1778 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
1781 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1782 modules library. This module provides functionality for
1783 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
1784 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1785 corresponding value.
1787 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1788 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1789 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1792 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1793 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1794 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1795 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1797 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1799 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1802 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1803 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1804 available in the CLI.
1806 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1807 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1808 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1809 "some_type.items()".
1811 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1814 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1815 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1816 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1817 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1818 any anonymous fields.
1822 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1825 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1826 "=breakpoint-modified".
1828 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1830 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1831 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1832 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1835 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1836 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1837 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1838 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1839 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1841 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1842 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1844 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1845 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1846 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1847 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1848 use this option to specify where to find it.
1850 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1851 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1852 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1853 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1854 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1855 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1856 section in the user manual for more details.
1858 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1859 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1860 become available after that.
1862 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
1864 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1865 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1871 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1872 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1876 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1877 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1878 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1880 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1881 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1882 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1884 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1885 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1886 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1887 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1888 name starts with a hyphen.
1890 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1891 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1892 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1893 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1894 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1895 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1896 number of bytes that will be collected.
1899 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1900 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1901 setting the variable trace-notes.
1904 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1905 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1906 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1909 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1910 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1911 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1912 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1913 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1916 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1917 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1918 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1922 set debug dwarf2-read
1923 show debug dwarf2-read
1924 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1925 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1927 set debug symtab-create
1928 show debug symtab-create
1929 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1930 creation. The default is off.
1933 show extended-prompt
1934 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1935 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1936 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1937 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1938 prompt is displayed.
1940 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1941 show print entry-values
1942 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1943 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1944 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1946 set debug entry-values
1947 show debug entry-values
1948 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1949 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1951 set basenames-may-differ
1952 show basenames-may-differ
1953 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1954 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1955 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1956 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1957 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1958 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1959 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1960 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1966 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1967 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1968 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1969 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1971 set trace-stop-notes
1972 show trace-stop-notes
1973 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1974 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1975 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1976 started by someone else.
1978 * New remote packets
1982 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1986 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1990 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1994 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1998 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2001 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2002 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2006 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2010 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2012 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2014 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2016 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2018 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2019 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2020 matches the given regular expression.
2022 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2024 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2025 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2027 * New command line options
2029 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2030 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2032 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2033 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2035 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2036 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2037 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2039 * GDB now understands thread names.
2041 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2042 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2044 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2045 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2048 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2049 has been integrated into GDB.
2053 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2054 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2055 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2057 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2058 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2059 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2060 and allows for more dynamic content.
2062 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2063 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2064 have an is_valid method.
2066 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2067 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2068 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2070 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2072 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2073 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2074 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2075 that function like so:
2077 result = some_value (10,20)
2079 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2080 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2081 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2083 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2084 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2085 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2086 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2087 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2089 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2090 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2092 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2094 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2097 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2098 holds the thread's name.
2100 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2101 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2102 occurring in the process being debugged.
2103 The following events are currently supported:
2104 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2105 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2106 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2110 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2111 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2113 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2115 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2116 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2117 was added to GCC 4.5.
2119 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2120 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2121 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2122 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2123 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2124 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2126 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2127 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2128 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2129 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2130 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2132 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2133 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2134 execution to a label.
2136 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2137 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2138 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2139 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2141 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2142 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2143 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2146 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2148 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2149 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2150 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2151 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2152 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2153 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2156 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2158 While now you see this:
2161 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2163 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2166 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2167 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2168 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2169 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2171 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2172 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2173 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2174 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2175 section in the user manual for more details.
2177 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2179 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2180 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2182 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2184 * New native configurations
2186 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2190 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2192 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2193 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2194 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2195 in the GDB user manual.
2197 * Guile support was removed.
2199 * New features in the GNU simulator
2201 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2203 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2205 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2207 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2209 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2210 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2211 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2212 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2213 was always disabled for such configurations.
2217 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2219 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2220 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2230 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2231 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2232 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2234 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2236 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2237 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2238 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2239 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2241 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2242 mentioned flavors of operators.
2244 ** static const class members
2246 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2247 class definition has been fixed.
2249 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2251 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2252 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2253 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2254 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2255 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2256 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2258 * Static tracepoints
2260 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2261 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2262 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2263 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2264 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2265 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2266 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2267 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2268 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2269 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2270 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2271 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2272 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2273 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2274 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2275 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2276 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2277 the "New remote packets" section below.
2279 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2281 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2282 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2283 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2284 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2288 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2289 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2290 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2291 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2292 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2293 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2294 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2296 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2299 * New remote packets
2303 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2307 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2308 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2309 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2310 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2311 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2312 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2316 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2320 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2323 qXfer:statictrace:read
2325 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2326 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2327 to gdb's qSupported query.
2331 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2335 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2336 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2338 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2339 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2342 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2344 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2345 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2346 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2347 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2349 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2350 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2351 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2352 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2353 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2354 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2355 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2357 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2358 for static tracepoints support.
2360 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2362 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2363 it understands register description.
2365 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2367 * X86 general purpose registers
2369 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2370 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2371 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2372 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2373 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2375 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2376 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2377 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2378 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2379 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2380 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2382 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2383 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2384 in the specified file.
2386 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2387 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2388 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2389 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2390 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2391 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2392 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2393 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2394 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2395 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2399 eval template, expressions...
2400 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2401 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2403 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2404 show target-file-system-kind
2405 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2408 save breakpoints <filename>
2409 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2410 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2411 definitions, use the `source' command.
2413 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2416 info static-tracepoint-markers
2417 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2419 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2420 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2421 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2425 Enable and disable observer mode.
2427 set may-write-registers on|off
2428 set may-write-memory on|off
2429 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2430 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2431 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2432 set may-interrupt on|off
2433 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2434 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2435 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2436 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2437 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2438 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2439 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2441 set record memory-query on|off
2442 show record memory-query
2443 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2444 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2449 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2453 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2454 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2455 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2456 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2457 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2459 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
2460 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2461 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2462 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
2464 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
2465 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2467 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
2469 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
2471 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
2473 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
2474 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
2475 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
2477 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
2478 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
2479 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
2480 regular breakpoints.
2484 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2486 * D language support.
2487 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
2490 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
2491 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
2492 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
2493 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
2494 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
2496 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
2497 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
2498 conditions of the form:
2500 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
2502 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
2503 interface mentioned above.
2505 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
2509 ** Namespace Support
2511 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
2512 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
2513 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
2514 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
2515 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
2519 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
2520 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
2525 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
2526 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
2530 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
2535 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
2538 * Multi-program debugging.
2540 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
2541 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
2542 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
2543 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
2544 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
2545 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
2546 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
2547 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
2549 * New tracing features
2551 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
2553 ** Trace state variables
2555 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
2556 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
2557 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
2558 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2559 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2560 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2561 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2562 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2563 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2564 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
2568 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2569 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2570 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2571 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2572 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2573 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2574 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2575 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2576 the regular trace command.
2578 ** Disconnected tracing
2580 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2581 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2582 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2583 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2584 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2588 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2589 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2590 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2591 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2592 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2593 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2596 ** Circular trace buffer
2598 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2599 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2600 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2601 not be available for all target agents.
2606 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2607 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2610 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2611 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2614 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2615 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2618 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2619 "set script-extension" (see below).
2621 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2623 record save [<FILENAME>]
2624 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2625 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2627 record restore <FILENAME>
2628 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2629 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2631 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2634 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2635 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2636 inferior has loaded.
2641 maint info program-spaces
2642 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2644 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2645 show remote interrupt-sequence
2646 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2647 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2648 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2649 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2650 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2652 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2653 show remote interrupt-on-connect
2654 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2655 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2658 set remotebreak [on | off]
2660 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2662 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2663 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2666 List trace state variables and their values.
2668 delete tvariable $NAME ...
2669 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2672 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2673 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2675 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2676 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2678 * New expression syntax
2680 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2681 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2685 set follow-exec-mode new|same
2686 show follow-exec-mode
2687 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2688 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2689 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2691 set default-collect EXPR, ...
2692 show default-collect
2693 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2694 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2695 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2697 set disconnected-tracing
2698 show disconnected-tracing
2699 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2700 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2703 set circular-trace-buffer
2704 show circular-trace-buffer
2705 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2706 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2707 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2708 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2710 set script-extension off|soft|strict
2711 show script-extension
2712 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2713 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2714 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2715 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2717 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2719 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2720 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2721 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2722 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2723 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2724 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2725 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2728 * Python API Improvements
2730 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2731 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2732 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2734 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2735 `is_base_class' attribute.
2737 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2739 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2740 evaluate an expression.
2742 * New remote packets
2745 Define a trace state variable.
2748 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2751 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2754 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2757 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2761 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2763 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2764 much more reliable. In particular:
2765 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2766 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2767 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2768 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2769 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2770 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2771 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2772 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2773 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2774 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2775 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2776 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2777 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2778 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2779 non-threaded programs.
2781 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2782 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2783 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2786 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
2788 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2789 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2790 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2791 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2792 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2794 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2795 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2796 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2797 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2798 for tracepoint actions.
2800 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2801 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2802 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
2804 * Process record and replay
2806 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2807 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2808 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2811 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2812 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2813 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2816 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2817 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
2820 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2821 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2822 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2823 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2824 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2825 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2826 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2827 the installation instructions for more information.
2829 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2830 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2831 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2832 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2834 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2835 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2837 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2838 now complete on file names.
2840 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2841 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2842 For instance, consider:
2844 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2845 # struct example variable;
2848 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2849 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2851 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2852 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2854 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2855 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2858 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
2859 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2860 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2862 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2863 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2864 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2865 and simulator targets may also provide them.
2867 * New remote packets
2870 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2873 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2874 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2875 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2878 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2879 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2882 Obtains additional operating system information
2886 Read or write additional signal information.
2888 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2890 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2891 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2892 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2894 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
2895 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
2897 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
2898 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2899 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
2901 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2902 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2904 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2906 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2908 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2909 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2911 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
2912 list of section offsets.
2914 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2915 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2916 have also been fixed.
2918 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
2919 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2920 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
2922 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2925 template<typename T> class C { };
2928 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2930 ptype C<char const *>
2931 ptype C<char const*>
2932 ptype C<const char *>
2933 ptype C<const char*>
2935 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2937 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2938 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2940 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2941 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2942 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2944 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2945 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2947 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2950 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2951 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2953 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2954 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2959 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2960 available is determined at configure time.
2962 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2964 * Ada tasking support
2966 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2970 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2972 Print detailed information about task number N.
2974 Print the task number of the current task.
2976 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2978 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2979 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2981 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2983 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2984 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2985 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2986 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2987 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2988 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2991 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2992 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2995 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2996 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2997 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2998 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3001 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3003 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3004 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3005 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3006 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3007 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3009 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3010 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3011 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3012 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3013 --enable-targets configure option.
3015 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3017 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3018 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3019 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3020 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3021 section in the user manual for more information.
3023 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3024 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3025 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3026 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3027 extensions on linux targets.
3029 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3031 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3032 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3033 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3034 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3035 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3036 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3037 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3038 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3039 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3041 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3043 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3045 maint set python print-stack
3046 maint show python print-stack
3047 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3050 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3055 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3059 Show operating system information about processes.
3062 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3065 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3068 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3071 Kill inferior number NUM.
3075 set spu stop-on-load
3076 show spu stop-on-load
3077 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3079 set spu auto-flush-cache
3080 show spu auto-flush-cache
3081 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3082 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3084 set sh calling-convention
3085 show sh calling-convention
3086 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3089 show debug timestamp
3090 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3092 set disassemble-next-line
3093 show disassemble-next-line
3094 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3097 set remote noack-packet
3098 show remote noack-packet
3099 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3100 under "New remote packets."
3102 set remote query-attached-packet
3103 show remote query-attached-packet
3104 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3106 set remote read-siginfo-object
3107 show remote read-siginfo-object
3108 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3111 set remote write-siginfo-object
3112 show remote write-siginfo-object
3113 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3116 set remote reverse-continue
3117 show remote reverse-continue
3118 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3120 set remote reverse-step
3121 show remote reverse-step
3122 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3124 set displaced-stepping
3125 show displaced-stepping
3126 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3127 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3128 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3131 show debug displaced
3132 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3134 maint set internal-error
3135 maint show internal-error
3136 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3138 maint set internal-warning
3139 maint show internal-warning
3140 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3145 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3147 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3148 show multiple-symbols
3149 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3150 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3151 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3153 set breakpoint always-inserted
3154 show breakpoint always-inserted
3155 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3156 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3157 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3159 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3160 show arm fallback-mode
3161 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3163 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3164 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3165 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3166 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3168 set disable-randomization
3169 show disable-randomization
3170 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3171 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3172 multiple debugging sessions.
3176 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3181 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3182 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3183 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3184 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3186 set target-wide-charset
3187 show target-wide-charset
3188 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3189 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3191 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3193 set tcp connect-timeout
3194 show tcp connect-timeout
3195 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3196 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3197 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3199 set libthread-db-search-path
3200 show libthread-db-search-path
3201 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3204 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3205 show schedule-multiple
3206 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3207 the current process.
3211 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3212 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3213 affecting correctness.
3215 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3216 show interactive-mode
3217 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3218 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3219 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3220 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3221 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3226 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3227 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3228 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3232 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3233 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3234 alias for the `fork' command.
3237 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3238 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3239 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3242 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3243 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3244 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3248 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3249 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3250 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3253 * New native configurations
3255 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3257 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3261 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3262 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3263 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3266 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3267 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3273 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3275 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3277 * New native configurations
3279 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3280 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3284 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3285 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3287 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3289 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3290 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3291 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3292 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3294 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3295 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3297 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3300 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3301 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3302 and in inlined functions.
3304 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3305 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3306 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3308 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3310 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3311 registers on PowerPC targets.
3313 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3314 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3316 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3317 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3319 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3320 extended-remote mode.
3322 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3323 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3324 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3325 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3327 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3328 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3329 target architectures.
3331 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3332 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3333 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3334 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3336 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3339 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3340 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3342 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3343 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3344 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3345 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3347 - Improved command completion in Ada
3350 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3355 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3356 show print frame-arguments
3357 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3358 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3363 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3370 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3372 * New remote packets
3379 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3382 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3386 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3388 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3390 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3391 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3392 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3394 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3395 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3396 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3398 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3399 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3402 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3403 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3405 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3406 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3408 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3410 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3411 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3412 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3414 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3415 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3417 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3418 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3421 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3422 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3423 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3425 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3428 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3429 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3430 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3432 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3434 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3436 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3437 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3438 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3440 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3441 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3443 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3444 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3445 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3446 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3447 Windows and SymbianOS).
3449 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3450 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3452 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3453 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3459 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3460 when debugging using remote targets.
3462 set mem inaccessible-by-default
3463 show mem inaccessible-by-default
3464 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3465 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3466 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3467 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3468 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3470 set breakpoint auto-hw
3471 show breakpoint auto-hw
3472 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3473 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3474 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
3475 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
3476 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
3477 including "next" and "finish".
3480 catch exception unhandled
3481 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
3484 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
3488 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
3489 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
3490 an alias to "set sysroot".
3493 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
3494 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
3497 * New native configurations
3499 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
3502 unset tdesc filename
3504 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
3505 not query the target for its built-in description.
3509 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
3510 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
3511 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
3513 * New remote packets
3516 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
3517 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
3519 qXfer:features:read:
3520 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
3525 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
3526 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
3528 qXfer:libraries:read:
3529 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
3530 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
3531 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
3532 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
3536 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3544 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
3545 i[34567]86-*-netware*
3546 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
3547 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
3549 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
3552 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
3553 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
3562 * Other removed features
3569 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3576 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3581 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3582 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3587 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3588 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3590 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3592 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3593 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3594 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3595 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3597 MIPS ".pdr" sections
3599 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3600 in debugging information.
3604 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3605 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3607 set mips stack-arg-size
3608 set mips saved-gpreg-size
3610 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3612 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
3617 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
3619 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3620 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3621 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3623 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3624 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3627 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3628 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3630 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3631 stub provides the required support.
3633 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3634 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3639 unset substitute-path
3640 show substitute-path
3641 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3642 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3643 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3644 between compilation and debugging.
3648 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3649 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3650 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3654 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3656 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3657 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3659 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3661 * New remote packets
3664 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3665 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3666 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3667 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3671 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3672 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3674 qXfer:memory-map:read:
3675 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3676 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3681 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3683 * Removed remote packets
3686 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3687 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3689 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
3693 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3695 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3699 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3700 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3702 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3704 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3706 restart <n> Return the program state to a
3707 previously saved state.
3709 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3711 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3713 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3714 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3716 info forks List forks of the user program that
3717 are available to be debugged.
3719 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3720 forks of the user program that are
3721 available to be debugged.
3723 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3724 that are available to be debugged (and
3725 kill the forked process).
3727 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3728 that are available to be debugged (and
3729 allow the process to continue).
3733 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3735 * Improved Windows host support
3737 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3738 native console support, and remote communications using either
3739 network sockets or serial ports.
3741 * Improved Modula-2 language support
3743 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3744 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3745 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3746 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3747 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3748 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3752 The ARM rdi-share module.
3754 The Netware NLM debug server.
3756 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
3758 * New native configurations
3760 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
3761 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3765 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3767 * New command line options
3769 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3770 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3771 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3772 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3773 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3774 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3775 with the --command (-x) option.
3777 * Deprecated commands removed
3779 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3783 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3784 othernames set arm disassembler
3785 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3786 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3787 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3790 * New BSD user-level threads support
3792 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3793 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3796 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3797 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3798 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3800 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3801 are not yet supported.
3803 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3804 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3806 * REMOVED configurations and files
3808 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
3809 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3810 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
3812 * New "set print array-indexes" command
3814 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3815 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3818 * VAX floating point support
3820 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3822 * User-defined command support
3824 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3825 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3826 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3828 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3830 * New command line option
3832 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3835 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3837 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3838 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3839 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3840 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3841 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
3843 * Internationalization
3845 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3846 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3847 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3851 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3852 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3853 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3855 * New native configurations
3857 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3861 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3862 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3864 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3866 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3867 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3868 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3871 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3872 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3873 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3883 powerpc bdm protocol
3885 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3886 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3888 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3890 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3891 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3892 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3893 permanently REMOVED.
3902 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3904 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3906 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3907 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3910 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3912 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3913 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3914 IRIX long double values).
3918 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3919 command. This problem has been fixed.
3921 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
3923 * Fix for ``many threads''
3925 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3926 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3929 ptrace: No such process.
3930 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3932 This problem has been fixed.
3934 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3936 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3939 * New ``start'' command.
3941 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3943 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3945 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3946 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3947 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3949 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3950 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3951 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3952 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3953 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3954 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3955 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3956 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3957 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3959 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
3961 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3962 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3963 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3964 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3965 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3967 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3968 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3969 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3971 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3973 * New native configurations
3975 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
3976 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
3977 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3978 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
3979 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
3980 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
3981 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
3983 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3985 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3986 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3987 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3988 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3989 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3990 work, was also included.
3992 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3993 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4003 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4004 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4006 * REMOVED configurations and files
4008 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4009 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4010 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4011 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4012 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4013 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4014 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4015 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4016 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4017 sonymips mips-sony-*
4018 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4020 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4022 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4024 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4025 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4026 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4027 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4030 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4032 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4033 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4034 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4035 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4036 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4037 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4040 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4042 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4044 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4045 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4046 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4048 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4050 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4051 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4053 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4055 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4056 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4057 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4059 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4061 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4062 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4064 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4066 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4067 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4068 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4070 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4072 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4073 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4074 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4076 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4078 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4080 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4081 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4083 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4085 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4086 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4087 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4088 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4090 * Revised SPARC target
4092 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4093 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4094 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4095 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4096 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4100 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4101 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4102 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4105 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4107 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4108 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4111 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4113 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4114 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4115 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4116 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4117 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4118 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4119 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4120 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4121 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4123 * New native configurations
4125 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4126 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4127 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4128 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4129 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4131 * New debugging protocols
4133 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4135 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4137 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4138 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4139 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4141 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4143 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4144 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4145 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4146 permanently REMOVED.
4148 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4149 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4150 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4151 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4152 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4153 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4154 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4155 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4156 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4157 sonymips mips-sony-*
4158 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4160 * REMOVED configurations and files
4162 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4163 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4164 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4165 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4166 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4167 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4168 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4169 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4170 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4171 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4172 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4173 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4174 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4175 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4176 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4177 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4178 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4180 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4184 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4185 integrated into GDB.
4187 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4189 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4190 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4191 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4194 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4195 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4196 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4200 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4201 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4202 remote protocol documentation for details.
4204 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4206 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4207 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4208 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4211 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4213 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4214 per-thread variables.
4216 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4218 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4219 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4221 * Separate debug info.
4223 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4224 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4225 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4226 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4227 and optional debug files.
4229 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4231 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4232 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4235 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4236 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4240 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4241 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4242 considered "useable".
4244 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4246 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4247 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4250 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4252 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4253 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4255 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4257 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4258 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4261 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4263 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4264 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4268 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4269 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4270 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4271 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4272 data, for more informative profiling results.
4274 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4276 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4277 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4278 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4280 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4283 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4284 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4285 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4286 in a subsequent -var-update.
4288 * New native configurations.
4290 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4292 * Multi-arched targets.
4294 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4295 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4297 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4299 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4300 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4301 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4302 permanently REMOVED.
4304 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4305 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4306 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4307 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4308 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4309 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4310 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4311 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4312 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4313 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4314 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4315 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4317 * REMOVED configurations and files
4320 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4321 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4322 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4323 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4324 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4325 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4327 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4328 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4329 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4330 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4331 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4332 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4334 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4336 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4337 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4338 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4339 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4340 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4342 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4344 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4346 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4347 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4348 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4349 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4350 shared libs like mad''.
4352 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4354 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4355 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4356 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4357 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4359 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4361 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4362 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4365 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4366 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4368 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4369 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4371 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4372 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4373 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4374 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4376 * Multi-arched targets.
4378 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4379 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4381 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4382 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4383 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4387 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4390 * New native configurations
4392 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4393 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4394 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4395 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4397 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4399 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4400 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4401 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4402 permanently REMOVED.
4404 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4405 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4406 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4407 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4408 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4409 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4410 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4411 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4412 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4413 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4415 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4416 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4418 * OBSOLETE languages
4420 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4422 * REMOVED configurations and files
4424 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4425 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4426 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4427 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4428 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4430 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4432 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4434 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4435 commands. The default is 1024.
4437 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4439 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4441 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4443 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4444 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4445 from a file into memory (restore).
4447 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4449 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4450 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4451 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4453 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4461 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4462 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4463 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4465 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4466 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4467 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4469 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
4470 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
4471 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
4473 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
4474 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
4475 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
4477 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
4479 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
4481 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
4482 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
4483 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
4484 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
4485 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
4486 (notably embedded) targets.
4488 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
4490 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
4491 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
4492 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
4493 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
4495 * New command line option
4497 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
4499 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4501 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
4502 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
4503 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
4504 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
4505 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4506 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4507 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4508 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4509 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4510 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4512 * Changes in ARM configurations.
4514 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
4515 configuration is fully multi-arch.
4517 * New native configurations
4519 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
4520 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
4521 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
4522 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
4526 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
4528 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4530 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4531 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4532 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4533 permanently REMOVED.
4535 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4536 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4537 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4538 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4539 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4541 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4543 * REMOVED configurations and files
4545 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4547 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4548 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4549 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4550 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4551 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4552 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4553 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4554 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4555 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4556 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4557 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
4559 * Changes to command line processing
4561 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4562 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4564 * Changes to key bindings
4566 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4568 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4570 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4572 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4575 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4577 Numerous documentation fixes.
4579 Numerous testsuite fixes.
4581 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
4583 * New native configurations
4585 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4586 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
4587 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
4588 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4589 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
4590 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
4594 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
4596 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
4598 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4600 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
4601 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4602 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4603 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4604 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4606 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4607 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4608 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4609 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4610 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4611 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4612 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4613 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
4615 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4616 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4618 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4619 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4620 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4621 permanently REMOVED.
4623 * REMOVED configurations and files
4625 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4626 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4628 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4632 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
4634 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
4635 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4640 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4642 * The MI enabled by default.
4644 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4645 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4646 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4647 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4648 which is now deprecated.
4650 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4652 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4653 main features are supported:
4655 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4657 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4660 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4662 - a Pascal expression parser.
4664 However, some important features are not yet supported.
4666 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4668 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4670 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4671 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4673 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4675 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4677 * Changes in completion.
4679 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4680 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4681 users expect at the shell prompt.
4683 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4684 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4685 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4686 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4687 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4688 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4689 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4691 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4693 * New platform-independent commands:
4695 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4696 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4697 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4699 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4701 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4702 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4703 many threads as your system allows you to have.
4705 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4707 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4708 multi-threaded programs though.
4710 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
4712 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4714 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4715 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4718 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4720 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4721 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4722 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4723 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4724 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4727 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4728 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4729 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4731 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4733 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4734 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4736 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4737 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4740 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4741 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4742 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4743 a given linear address.
4745 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4746 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4747 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4749 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4751 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4753 * Changes in documentation.
4755 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4756 Documentation License.
4758 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4761 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4763 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4766 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4767 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4768 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4770 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4772 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4773 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4774 contents of this file.
4778 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
4780 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
4782 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4784 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4785 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4786 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4787 greater level of detail.
4789 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4791 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4792 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4793 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4796 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4798 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4799 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4800 machines ``out of the box''.
4802 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4803 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4804 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4805 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4806 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4808 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4809 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4810 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4811 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4812 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4814 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4815 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4818 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4821 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4822 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4823 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4824 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4826 * New native configurations
4828 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
4829 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4833 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
4834 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4835 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
4836 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4838 * OBSOLETE configurations
4840 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4841 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4843 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4846 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4847 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4848 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4849 be permanently REMOVED.
4851 * Gould support removed
4853 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4855 * New features for SVR4
4857 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4858 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4859 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4861 * Many C++ enhancements
4863 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4864 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4866 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4868 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4869 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4870 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4871 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4873 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4874 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4876 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
4878 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4879 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4880 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4882 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4883 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4885 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4887 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4888 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4889 include ``set remote P-packet''.
4891 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4893 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4894 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4895 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4897 * ``apropos'' command added.
4899 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4900 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4901 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4905 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4906 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
4907 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4908 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4909 enabled by configuring with:
4911 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4913 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4915 * New native configurations
4917 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4918 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
4919 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
4923 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4924 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4925 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4927 * OBSOLETE configurations
4929 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4931 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4932 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4933 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4934 be permanently REMOVED.
4938 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4939 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4940 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4941 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4942 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4943 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4944 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4949 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4951 * set extension-language
4953 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4954 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4955 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4956 set extension-language .c c++
4957 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4958 and their associated languages.
4960 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4962 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4963 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4964 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4968 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4969 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4971 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4972 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4974 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4975 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4976 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4977 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4978 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4979 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4980 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4981 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4983 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4984 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4985 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4986 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4990 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4991 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4992 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4993 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4994 for xdb and dbx commands.
4998 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4999 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5000 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5002 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5003 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5004 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5006 * Debugging across forks
5008 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5013 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5014 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5015 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5017 * GDB remote protocol additions
5019 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5020 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5021 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5022 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5024 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5025 full 64-bit address. The command
5027 set remoteaddresssize 32
5029 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5030 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5033 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5034 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5036 maint packet heythere
5038 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5039 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5042 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5043 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5044 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5046 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5048 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5049 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5050 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5052 * mask-address variable for Mips
5054 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5055 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5056 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5058 * Higher serial baud rates
5060 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5061 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5062 to achieve all of these rates.)
5066 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5067 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5070 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5072 * New native configurations
5074 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5075 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5076 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5077 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5078 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5079 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5080 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5084 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5085 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5086 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5087 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5088 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5089 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5090 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5091 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5092 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5093 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5094 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5096 * New debugging protocols
5098 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5099 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5100 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5101 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5102 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5103 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5107 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5108 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5113 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5114 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5116 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5118 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5119 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5120 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5122 * Live range splitting
5124 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5125 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5126 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5130 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5131 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5135 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5136 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5137 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5142 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5147 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5148 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5149 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5150 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5151 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5152 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5156 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5157 the symbol at the specified address.
5161 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5162 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5163 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5164 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5165 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5169 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5170 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5171 of most MIPS variants.
5175 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5176 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5177 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5181 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5182 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5183 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5184 the possible architectures.
5186 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5188 * New native configurations
5190 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5191 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5192 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5193 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5194 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5195 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5199 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5200 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5201 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5202 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5203 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5205 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5209 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5210 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5211 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5212 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5213 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5217 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5219 * Windows 95/NT native
5221 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5222 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5223 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5224 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5225 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5227 * dont-repeat command
5229 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5230 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5231 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5232 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5234 * Send break instead of ^C
5236 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5237 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5238 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5240 * Remote protocol timeout
5242 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5243 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5244 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5246 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5248 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5249 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5250 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5251 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5252 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5254 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5255 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5256 automatically on hpux10.
5258 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5260 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5262 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5264 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5265 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5266 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5267 every character. The default value is 1050.
5269 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5271 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5272 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5273 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5274 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5275 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5276 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5278 * Speedups for remote debugging
5280 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5281 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5282 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5284 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5286 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5287 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5289 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5291 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5293 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5294 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5296 * Remote targets use caching
5298 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5299 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5300 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5301 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5302 off' turns the the data cache off.
5304 * Remote targets may have threads
5306 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5307 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5308 gdb/remote.c for details.
5312 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5313 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5314 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5315 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5316 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5317 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5318 sequence is something like
5320 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5322 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5326 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5327 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5328 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5329 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5330 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5331 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5332 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5333 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5337 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5338 but does simplify configuration and building.
5342 GDB now supports hpux10.
5344 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5346 * New native configurations
5348 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5349 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5350 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5351 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5355 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5356 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5357 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5358 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5361 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5363 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5364 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5365 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5366 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5367 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5369 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5371 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5372 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5375 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5377 To execute the command use:
5380 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5381 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5382 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5384 * New `if' and `while' commands
5386 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5387 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5388 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5389 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5390 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5391 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5392 if the expression is zero.
5394 * Fortran source language mode
5396 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5397 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5398 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5399 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5402 * Better HPUX support
5404 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5405 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5406 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5407 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5408 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5414 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5415 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5421 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5422 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5425 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5426 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5428 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5430 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5431 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5432 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5433 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5434 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5435 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5437 * New DOS host serial code
5439 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5440 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5443 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5445 * New "complete" command
5447 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5448 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5450 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5452 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5453 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5455 * Breakpoint hit counts
5457 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5458 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5459 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5460 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5461 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5464 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5466 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5467 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5468 arrays actually contain only short strings.
5470 * Shared library breakpoints
5472 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
5473 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
5475 * Hardware watchpoints
5477 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
5478 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
5480 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
5484 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
5485 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
5487 * Improved Irix 5 support
5489 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
5491 * Improved HPPA support
5493 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
5495 * New native configurations
5497 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
5498 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5499 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
5500 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
5504 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5505 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5508 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5510 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5511 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
5515 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
5516 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
5518 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
5520 * Irix 5 is now supported
5524 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
5525 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
5526 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
5527 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
5528 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
5531 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
5533 * User visible changes:
5537 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
5538 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
5539 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
5540 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
5541 debugging info for the mips target).
5543 * DEC Alpha native support
5545 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
5546 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
5547 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
5548 Alpha-specific notes.
5550 * Preliminary thread implementation
5552 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
5554 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
5556 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
5557 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
5560 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5562 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5563 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5564 call methods, ...etc.
5566 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5568 * User visible changes:
5570 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5571 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5572 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5573 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5575 Filename completion now works.
5577 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5578 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5579 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5581 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5582 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5583 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5584 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5585 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5589 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5590 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5593 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5597 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5598 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5599 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5603 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5604 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5605 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5606 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5607 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5611 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5612 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5613 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5615 * New targets supported
5617 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5618 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5619 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5620 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5621 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5623 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5624 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5625 GO32 memory extender.
5627 * New remote protocols
5629 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5631 * New source languages supported
5633 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5634 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5635 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5638 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5640 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5642 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5643 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5644 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5645 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5646 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5647 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5649 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5651 * Faster and better demangling
5653 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5654 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5655 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5656 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5657 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5658 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5661 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5662 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5663 compiler does not actually implement.
5665 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5667 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5668 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5669 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5670 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5671 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5672 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5675 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5676 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5678 * Improved configure script
5680 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5681 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5682 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5683 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5685 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5686 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5687 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5688 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5689 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5690 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5692 * Documentation improvements
5694 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5695 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5696 before submitting changes.
5698 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5699 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5700 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5701 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5702 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5704 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5705 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5706 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5707 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5708 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5709 around this problem.
5713 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5714 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5715 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5718 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5719 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5721 * New native hosts supported
5723 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5724 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5726 * New targets supported
5728 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5730 * New file formats supported
5732 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5733 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5737 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5739 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5740 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5742 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5743 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5744 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5746 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5747 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5749 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5750 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5751 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5754 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5755 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5756 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5757 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5758 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5760 * Internal improvements
5762 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5763 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5765 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5766 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5767 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5768 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5769 shared code that handles any of them.
5771 * New command line options
5773 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5777 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5778 General Public License.
5780 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5782 * Host/native/target split
5784 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5785 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5786 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5787 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5788 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5790 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5791 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5792 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5793 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5794 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5795 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5796 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5798 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5799 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5800 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5802 * New hosts supported
5804 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5805 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5806 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5808 * New targets supported
5810 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5811 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5813 * New native hosts supported
5815 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5816 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5817 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5819 * New file formats supported
5821 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5822 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5823 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5827 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5828 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5829 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5831 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5833 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5834 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5835 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5836 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5840 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5841 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5842 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5844 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5848 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5849 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5852 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5853 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5855 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5856 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5857 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5858 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5859 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5860 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5862 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5863 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5864 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5865 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5869 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5870 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5871 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5872 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5873 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5875 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5876 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5877 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5878 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5882 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5883 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5884 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5885 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5886 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5887 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5888 each instruction being stepped through.
5890 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5891 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5893 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5894 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5895 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5896 processor with a serial port.
5900 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5901 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5902 supported, and what files each one uses.
5906 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5907 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5908 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5909 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5911 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5912 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5913 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5914 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5918 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5919 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5920 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5921 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5922 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5923 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5925 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5928 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5930 * Better support for C++ function names
5932 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5933 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5934 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5935 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5936 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5938 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5939 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5940 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5941 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5942 for the list of formats.
5944 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5946 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5947 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5948 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5949 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5950 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5951 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5954 * New 'maintenance' command
5956 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5957 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5958 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5960 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5961 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5962 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5963 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5964 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5965 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5967 The following commands are new:
5969 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5970 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5971 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5973 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5975 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5976 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5977 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5978 read after argv processing.
5980 * New hosts supported
5982 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5984 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
5986 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5987 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5988 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5989 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5990 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5993 * New targets supported
5995 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5997 * More smarts about finding #include files
5999 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6000 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6001 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6002 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6003 the one that contains your sources.
6005 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6006 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6007 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6009 * Interesting infernals change
6011 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6012 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6013 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6014 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6016 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6018 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6019 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6020 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6022 See the ChangeLog for details.
6024 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6026 * New machines supported (host and target)
6028 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6030 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6032 * New malloc package
6034 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6035 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6036 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6037 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6038 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6039 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6043 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6044 'help info proc' for details.
6046 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6048 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6049 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6052 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6054 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6055 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6056 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6057 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6058 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6059 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6061 * Cross byte order fixes
6063 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6064 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6066 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6068 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6069 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6070 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6071 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6072 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6073 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6074 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6075 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6076 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6077 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6079 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6080 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6081 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6082 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6084 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6085 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6086 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6089 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6091 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6092 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6093 shared across multiple host platforms.
6095 * longjmp() handling
6097 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6098 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6099 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6100 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6104 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6105 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6110 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6111 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6112 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6114 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6116 * New machines supported (host and target)
6118 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6120 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6121 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6123 * New machines supported (target)
6125 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6129 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6130 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6131 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6133 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6134 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6135 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6136 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6137 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6140 * New features for SVR4
6142 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6143 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6144 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6146 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6147 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6148 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6150 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6151 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6153 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6155 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6156 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6157 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6158 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6159 same code linked statically.
6163 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6164 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6165 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6166 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6167 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6168 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6172 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6173 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6174 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6177 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6179 * New machines supported (host and target)
6181 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6182 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6183 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6185 * Almost SCO Unix support
6187 We had hoped to support:
6188 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6189 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6190 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6191 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6193 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6195 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6196 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6197 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6198 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6203 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6204 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6205 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6209 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6210 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6211 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6213 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6215 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6216 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6217 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6219 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6220 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6221 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6222 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6225 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6226 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6227 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6228 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6231 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6232 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6235 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6236 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6237 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6240 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6242 * Improved configuration
6244 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6245 Porting BFD is simpler.
6249 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6250 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6251 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6252 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6256 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6258 * New host supported (not target)
6260 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6263 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6265 * Multiple source language support
6267 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6268 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6269 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6270 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6271 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6272 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6276 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6277 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6278 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6279 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6281 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6282 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6283 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6285 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6286 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6290 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6291 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6292 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6293 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6296 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6298 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6299 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6300 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6301 examining core files.
6305 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6308 * New machines supported (host and target)
6310 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6311 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6312 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6314 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6316 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6318 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6320 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6321 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6322 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6324 * New remote interfaces
6330 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6334 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6336 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6337 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6338 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6339 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6340 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6341 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6342 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6343 stub on the target system.
6345 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6347 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6348 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6349 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6351 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6352 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6355 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6357 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6358 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6360 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6361 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6362 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6364 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6365 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6366 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6367 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6369 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6370 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6371 it is already running. Default is ON.
6373 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6374 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6375 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6376 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6379 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6380 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6381 or the value of the environment variable
6384 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6385 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6388 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6389 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6390 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6392 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6393 history expansion will be performed on
6394 command line input. The default is OFF.
6396 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6397 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6398 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6400 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6401 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6402 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6405 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6406 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6407 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6410 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6411 ``set width'' instead.
6413 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6414 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6415 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6416 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6418 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6421 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6424 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6427 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6430 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6432 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6433 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6434 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6438 * Support for Shared Libraries
6440 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6441 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6442 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6443 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6444 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6445 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6446 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6447 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6449 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6450 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6451 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6453 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6458 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6459 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6460 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6461 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6462 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6463 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6465 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6467 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6469 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6470 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6471 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6474 * C++ multiple inheritance
6476 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
6479 * C++ exception handling
6481 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
6482 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
6483 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
6486 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
6487 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
6488 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
6490 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
6491 current stack frame.
6494 * Minor command changes
6496 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
6497 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
6498 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
6500 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
6501 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
6502 frames without printing.
6504 * New directory command
6506 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6507 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6508 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6509 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6510 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6512 * Configuring GDB for compilation
6514 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
6517 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
6518 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
6519 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
6520 where the program that you are debugging will run.