1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.0
8 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
13 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
16 * Multi-program debugging.
18 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
19 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
20 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
21 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
22 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
23 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
24 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
25 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
27 * New tracing features
29 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
31 ** Trace state variables
33 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
34 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
35 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
36 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
37 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
38 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
39 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
40 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
41 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
42 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
46 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
47 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
48 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
49 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
50 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
51 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
52 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
53 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
54 the regular trace command.
56 ** Disconnected tracing
58 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
59 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
60 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
61 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
62 connection is lost unexpectedly.
67 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
68 the arguments to be comma-separated.
71 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
72 which only declare a variable are not shown.
74 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
76 record save [<FILENAME>]
77 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
78 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
80 record restore <FILENAME>
81 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
82 earlier time, for replay debugging.
84 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
87 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
88 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
94 maint info program-spaces
95 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
97 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
98 show remote interrupt-sequence
99 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
100 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
101 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
102 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
103 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
105 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
106 show remote interrupt-on-connect
107 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
108 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
111 set remotebreak [on | off]
113 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
115 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
116 Create or modify a trace state variable.
119 List trace state variables and their values.
121 delete tvariable $NAME ...
122 Delete one or more trace state variables.
125 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
126 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
128 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
129 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
131 * New expression syntax
133 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
134 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
138 set follow-exec-mode new|same
139 show follow-exec-mode
140 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
141 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
142 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
144 set default-collect EXPR, ...
146 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
147 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
148 such as registers or a critical global variable.
150 set disconnected-tracing
151 show disconnected-tracing
152 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
153 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
159 Define a trace state variable.
162 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
165 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
168 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
172 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
174 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
175 much more reliable. In particular:
176 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
177 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
178 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
179 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
180 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
181 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
182 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
183 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
184 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
185 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
186 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
187 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
188 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
189 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
190 non-threaded programs.
192 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
194 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
195 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
196 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
197 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
198 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
200 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
201 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
202 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
203 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
204 for tracepoint actions.
206 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
207 in hex as well as in symbolic form."
209 * Process record and replay
211 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
212 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
213 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
216 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
217 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
218 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
221 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
222 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
225 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
226 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
227 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
228 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
229 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
230 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
231 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
232 the installation instructions for more information.
234 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
235 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
236 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
237 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
239 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
240 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
242 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
243 now complete on file names.
245 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
246 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
247 For instance, consider:
249 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
250 # struct example variable;
253 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
254 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
256 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
257 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
259 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
260 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
263 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
264 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
265 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
267 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
268 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
269 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
270 and simulator targets may also provide them.
275 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
278 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
279 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
280 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
283 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
284 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
287 Obtains additional operating system information
291 Read or write additional signal information.
293 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
295 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
296 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
297 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
299 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
302 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
303 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
305 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
306 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
307 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
309 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
310 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
312 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
314 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
316 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
317 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
319 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
320 list of section offsets.
322 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
323 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
324 have also been fixed.
326 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
327 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
328 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
330 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
333 template<typename T> class C { };
336 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
338 ptype C<char const *>
340 ptype C<const char *>
343 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
345 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
346 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
348 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
349 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
350 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
352 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
353 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
355 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
358 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
359 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
361 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
362 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
367 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
368 available is determined at configure time.
370 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
372 * Ada tasking support
374 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
378 Print the list of Ada tasks.
380 Print detailed information about task number N.
382 Print the task number of the current task.
384 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
386 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
387 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
389 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
391 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
392 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
393 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
394 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
395 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
396 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
399 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
400 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
403 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
404 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
405 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
406 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
409 * Multi-architecture debugging.
411 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
412 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
413 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
414 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
415 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
417 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
418 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
419 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
420 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
421 --enable-targets configure option.
423 * Non-stop mode debugging.
425 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
426 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
427 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
428 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
429 section in the user manual for more information.
431 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
432 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
433 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
434 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
435 extensions on linux targets.
437 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
439 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
440 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
441 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
442 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
443 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
444 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
445 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
446 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
447 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
449 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
451 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
453 maint set python print-stack
454 maint show python print-stack
455 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
458 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
463 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
467 Show operating system information about processes.
470 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
473 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
476 Detach from inferior number NUM.
479 Kill inferior number NUM.
484 show spu stop-on-load
485 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
487 set spu auto-flush-cache
488 show spu auto-flush-cache
489 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
490 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
492 set sh calling-convention
493 show sh calling-convention
494 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
498 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
500 set disassemble-next-line
501 show disassemble-next-line
502 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
505 set remote noack-packet
506 show remote noack-packet
507 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
508 under "New remote packets."
510 set remote query-attached-packet
511 show remote query-attached-packet
512 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
514 set remote read-siginfo-object
515 show remote read-siginfo-object
516 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
519 set remote write-siginfo-object
520 show remote write-siginfo-object
521 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
524 set remote reverse-continue
525 show remote reverse-continue
526 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
528 set remote reverse-step
529 show remote reverse-step
530 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
532 set displaced-stepping
533 show displaced-stepping
534 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
535 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
536 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
540 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
542 maint set internal-error
543 maint show internal-error
544 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
546 maint set internal-warning
547 maint show internal-warning
548 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
553 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
555 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
556 show multiple-symbols
557 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
558 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
559 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
561 set breakpoint always-inserted
562 show breakpoint always-inserted
563 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
564 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
565 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
567 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
568 show arm fallback-mode
569 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
571 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
572 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
573 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
574 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
576 set disable-randomization
577 show disable-randomization
578 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
579 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
580 multiple debugging sessions.
584 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
589 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
590 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
591 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
592 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
594 set target-wide-charset
595 show target-wide-charset
596 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
597 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
599 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
601 set tcp connect-timeout
602 show tcp connect-timeout
603 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
604 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
605 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
607 set libthread-db-search-path
608 show libthread-db-search-path
609 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
612 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
613 show schedule-multiple
614 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
619 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
620 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
621 affecting correctness.
623 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
624 show interactive-mode
625 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
626 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
627 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
628 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
629 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
634 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
635 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
636 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
640 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
641 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
642 alias for the `fork' command.
645 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
646 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
647 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
650 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
651 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
652 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
656 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
657 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
658 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
661 * New native configurations
663 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
665 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
669 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
670 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
671 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
674 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
675 (mingw32ce) debugging.
681 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
683 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
685 * New native configurations
687 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
688 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
692 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
693 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
695 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
697 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
698 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
699 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
700 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
702 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
703 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
705 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
708 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
709 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
710 and in inlined functions.
712 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
713 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
714 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
716 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
718 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
719 registers on PowerPC targets.
721 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
722 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
724 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
725 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
727 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
728 extended-remote mode.
730 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
731 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
732 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
733 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
735 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
736 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
737 target architectures.
739 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
740 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
741 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
742 stored in two consecutive float registers.
744 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
747 * Improved support for debugging Ada
748 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
750 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
751 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
752 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
753 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
755 - Improved command completion in Ada
758 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
763 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
764 show print frame-arguments
765 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
766 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
771 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
778 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
787 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
790 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
794 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
796 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
798 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
799 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
800 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
802 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
803 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
804 -Bsymbolic linker option.
806 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
807 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
810 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
811 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
813 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
814 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
816 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
818 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
819 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
820 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
822 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
823 automatically displayed as character or string data.
825 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
826 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
829 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
830 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
831 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
833 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
836 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
837 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
838 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
840 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
842 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
844 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
845 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
846 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
848 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
849 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
851 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
852 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
853 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
854 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
855 Windows and SymbianOS).
857 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
858 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
860 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
861 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
867 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
868 when debugging using remote targets.
870 set mem inaccessible-by-default
871 show mem inaccessible-by-default
872 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
873 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
874 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
875 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
876 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
878 set breakpoint auto-hw
879 show breakpoint auto-hw
880 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
881 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
882 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
883 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
884 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
885 including "next" and "finish".
888 catch exception unhandled
889 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
892 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
896 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
897 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
898 an alias to "set sysroot".
901 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
902 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
905 * New native configurations
907 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
912 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
913 not query the target for its built-in description.
917 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
918 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
919 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
924 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
925 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
928 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
933 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
934 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
936 qXfer:libraries:read:
937 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
938 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
939 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
940 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
944 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
953 i[34567]86-*-netware*
954 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
955 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
957 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
960 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
961 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
970 * Other removed features
977 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
984 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
989 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
990 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
995 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
996 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
998 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1000 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1001 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1002 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1003 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1005 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1007 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1008 in debugging information.
1012 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1013 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1015 set mips stack-arg-size
1016 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1018 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1020 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1025 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1027 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1028 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1029 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1031 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1032 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1035 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1036 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1038 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1039 stub provides the required support.
1041 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1042 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1047 unset substitute-path
1048 show substitute-path
1049 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1050 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1051 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1052 between compilation and debugging.
1056 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1057 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1058 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1062 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1064 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1065 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1067 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1069 * New remote packets
1072 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1073 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1074 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1075 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1079 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1080 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1082 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1083 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1084 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1089 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1091 * Removed remote packets
1094 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1095 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1097 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1101 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1103 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1107 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1108 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1110 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1112 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1114 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1115 previously saved state.
1117 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1119 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1121 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1122 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1124 info forks List forks of the user program that
1125 are available to be debugged.
1127 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1128 forks of the user program that are
1129 available to be debugged.
1131 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1132 that are available to be debugged (and
1133 kill the forked process).
1135 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1136 that are available to be debugged (and
1137 allow the process to continue).
1141 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1143 * Improved Windows host support
1145 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1146 native console support, and remote communications using either
1147 network sockets or serial ports.
1149 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1151 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1152 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1153 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1154 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1155 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1156 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1160 The ARM rdi-share module.
1162 The Netware NLM debug server.
1164 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1166 * New native configurations
1168 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1169 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1173 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1175 * New command line options
1177 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1178 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1179 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1180 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1181 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1182 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1183 with the --command (-x) option.
1185 * Deprecated commands removed
1187 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1191 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1192 othernames set arm disassembler
1193 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1194 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1195 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1198 * New BSD user-level threads support
1200 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1201 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1204 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1205 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1206 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1208 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1209 are not yet supported.
1211 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1212 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1214 * REMOVED configurations and files
1216 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1217 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1218 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1220 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1222 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1223 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1226 * VAX floating point support
1228 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1230 * User-defined command support
1232 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1233 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1234 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1236 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1238 * New command line option
1240 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1243 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1245 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1246 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1247 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1248 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1249 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1251 * Internationalization
1253 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1254 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1255 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1259 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1260 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1261 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1263 * New native configurations
1265 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1269 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1270 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1272 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1274 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1275 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1276 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1279 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1280 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1281 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1291 powerpc bdm protocol
1293 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1294 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1296 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1298 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1299 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1300 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1301 permanently REMOVED.
1310 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1312 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1314 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1315 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1318 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1320 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1321 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1322 IRIX long double values).
1326 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1327 command. This problem has been fixed.
1329 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1331 * Fix for ``many threads''
1333 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1334 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1337 ptrace: No such process.
1338 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1340 This problem has been fixed.
1342 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1344 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1347 * New ``start'' command.
1349 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1351 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1353 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1354 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1355 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1357 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1358 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1359 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1360 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1361 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1362 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1363 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1364 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1365 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1367 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1369 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1370 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1371 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1372 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1373 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1375 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1376 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1377 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1379 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1381 * New native configurations
1383 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1384 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1385 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1386 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1387 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1388 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1389 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1391 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1393 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1394 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1395 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1396 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1397 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1398 work, was also included.
1400 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1401 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1411 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1412 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1414 * REMOVED configurations and files
1416 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1417 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1418 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1419 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1420 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1421 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1422 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1423 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1424 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1425 sonymips mips-sony-*
1426 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1428 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1430 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1432 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1433 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1434 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1435 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1438 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1440 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1441 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1442 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1443 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1444 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1445 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1448 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1450 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1452 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1453 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1454 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1456 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1458 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1459 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1461 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1463 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1464 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1465 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1467 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1469 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1470 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1472 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1474 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1475 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1476 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1478 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1480 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1481 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1482 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1484 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1486 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1488 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1489 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1491 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1493 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1494 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1495 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1496 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1498 * Revised SPARC target
1500 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1501 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1502 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1503 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1504 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1508 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1509 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1510 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1513 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1515 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1516 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1519 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1521 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1522 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1523 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1524 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1525 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1526 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1527 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1528 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1529 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1531 * New native configurations
1533 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1534 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1535 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1536 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1537 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1539 * New debugging protocols
1541 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1543 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1545 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1546 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1547 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1549 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1551 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1552 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1553 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1554 permanently REMOVED.
1556 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1557 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1558 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1559 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1560 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1561 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1562 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1563 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1564 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1565 sonymips mips-sony-*
1566 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1568 * REMOVED configurations and files
1570 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1571 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1572 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1573 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1574 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1575 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1576 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1577 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1578 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1579 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1580 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1581 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1582 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1583 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1584 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1585 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1586 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1588 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1592 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1593 integrated into GDB.
1595 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1597 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1598 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1599 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1602 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1603 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1604 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1608 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1609 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1610 remote protocol documentation for details.
1612 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1614 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1615 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1616 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1619 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1621 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1622 per-thread variables.
1624 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1626 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1627 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1629 * Separate debug info.
1631 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1632 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1633 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1634 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1635 and optional debug files.
1637 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1639 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1640 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1643 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1644 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1648 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1649 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1650 considered "useable".
1652 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1654 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1655 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1658 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1660 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1661 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1663 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1665 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1666 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1669 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1671 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1672 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1676 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1677 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1678 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1679 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1680 data, for more informative profiling results.
1682 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1684 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1685 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1686 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1688 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1691 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1692 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1693 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1694 in a subsequent -var-update.
1696 * New native configurations.
1698 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1700 * Multi-arched targets.
1702 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1703 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1705 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1707 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1708 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1709 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1710 permanently REMOVED.
1712 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1713 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1714 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1715 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1716 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1717 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1718 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1719 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1720 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1721 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1722 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1723 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1725 * REMOVED configurations and files
1728 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1729 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1730 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1731 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1732 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1733 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1735 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1736 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1737 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1738 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1739 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1740 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1742 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1744 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1745 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1746 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1747 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1748 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1750 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1752 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1754 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1755 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1756 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1757 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1758 shared libs like mad''.
1760 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1762 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1763 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1764 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1765 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1767 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1769 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1770 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1773 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1774 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1776 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1777 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1779 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1780 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1781 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1782 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1784 * Multi-arched targets.
1786 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1787 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1789 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1790 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1791 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1795 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1798 * New native configurations
1800 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1801 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1802 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1803 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1805 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1807 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1808 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1809 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1810 permanently REMOVED.
1812 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1813 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1814 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1815 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1816 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1817 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1818 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1819 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1820 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1821 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1823 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1824 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1826 * OBSOLETE languages
1828 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1830 * REMOVED configurations and files
1832 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1833 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1834 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1835 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1836 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1838 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1840 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1842 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1843 commands. The default is 1024.
1845 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1847 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1849 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1851 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1852 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1853 from a file into memory (restore).
1855 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1857 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1858 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1859 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1861 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1869 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1870 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1871 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1873 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1874 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1875 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1877 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1878 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1879 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1881 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1882 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1883 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1885 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1887 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1889 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1890 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1891 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1892 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1893 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1894 (notably embedded) targets.
1896 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1898 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1899 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1900 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1901 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1903 * New command line option
1905 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1907 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1909 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1910 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1911 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1912 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1913 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1914 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1915 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1916 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1917 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1918 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1920 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1922 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1923 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1925 * New native configurations
1927 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1928 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1929 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1930 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1934 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1936 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1938 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1939 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1940 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1941 permanently REMOVED.
1943 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1944 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1945 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1946 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1947 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1949 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1951 * REMOVED configurations and files
1953 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1955 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1956 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1957 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1958 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1959 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1960 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1961 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1962 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1963 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1964 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1965 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1967 * Changes to command line processing
1969 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1970 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1972 * Changes to key bindings
1974 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1976 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1978 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1980 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1983 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1985 Numerous documentation fixes.
1987 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1989 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1991 * New native configurations
1993 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1994 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1995 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1996 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1997 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1998 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2002 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2004 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2006 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2008 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2009 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2010 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2011 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2012 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2014 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2015 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2016 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2017 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2018 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2019 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2020 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2021 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2023 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2024 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2026 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2027 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2028 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2029 permanently REMOVED.
2031 * REMOVED configurations and files
2033 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2034 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2036 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2040 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2042 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2043 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2048 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2050 * The MI enabled by default.
2052 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2053 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2054 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2055 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2056 which is now deprecated.
2058 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2060 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2061 main features are supported:
2063 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2065 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2068 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2070 - a Pascal expression parser.
2072 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2074 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2076 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2078 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2079 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2081 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2083 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2085 * Changes in completion.
2087 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2088 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2089 users expect at the shell prompt.
2091 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2092 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2093 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2094 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2095 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2096 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2097 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2099 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2101 * New platform-independent commands:
2103 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2104 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2105 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2107 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2109 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2110 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2111 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2113 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2115 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2116 multi-threaded programs though.
2118 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2120 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2122 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2123 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2126 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2128 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2129 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2130 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2131 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2132 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2135 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2136 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2137 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2139 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2141 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2142 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2144 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2145 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2148 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2149 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2150 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2151 a given linear address.
2153 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2154 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2155 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2157 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2159 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2161 * Changes in documentation.
2163 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2164 Documentation License.
2166 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2169 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2171 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2174 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2175 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2176 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2178 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2180 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2181 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2182 contents of this file.
2186 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2188 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2190 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2192 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2193 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2194 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2195 greater level of detail.
2197 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2199 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2200 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2201 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2204 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2206 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2207 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2208 machines ``out of the box''.
2210 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2211 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2212 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2213 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2214 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2216 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2217 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2218 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2219 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2220 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2222 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2223 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2226 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2229 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2230 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2231 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2232 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2234 * New native configurations
2236 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2237 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2241 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2242 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2243 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2244 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2246 * OBSOLETE configurations
2248 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2249 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2251 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2254 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2255 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2256 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2257 be permanently REMOVED.
2259 * Gould support removed
2261 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2263 * New features for SVR4
2265 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2266 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2267 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2269 * Many C++ enhancements
2271 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2272 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2274 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2276 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2277 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2278 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2279 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2281 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2282 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2284 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2286 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2287 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2288 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2290 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2291 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2293 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2295 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2296 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2297 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2299 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2301 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2302 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2303 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2305 * ``apropos'' command added.
2307 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2308 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2309 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2313 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2314 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2315 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2316 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2317 enabled by configuring with:
2319 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2321 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2323 * New native configurations
2325 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2326 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2327 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2331 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2332 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2333 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2335 * OBSOLETE configurations
2337 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2339 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2340 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2341 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2342 be permanently REMOVED.
2346 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2347 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2348 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2349 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2350 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2351 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2352 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2357 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2359 * set extension-language
2361 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2362 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2363 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2364 set extension-language .c c++
2365 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2366 and their associated languages.
2368 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2370 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2371 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2372 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2376 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2377 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2379 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2380 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2382 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2383 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2384 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2385 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2386 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2387 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2388 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2389 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2391 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2392 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2393 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2394 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2398 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2399 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2400 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2401 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2402 for xdb and dbx commands.
2406 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2407 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2408 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2410 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2411 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2412 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2414 * Debugging across forks
2416 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2421 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2422 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2423 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2425 * GDB remote protocol additions
2427 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2428 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2429 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2430 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2432 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2433 full 64-bit address. The command
2435 set remoteaddresssize 32
2437 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2438 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2441 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2442 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2444 maint packet heythere
2446 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2447 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2450 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2451 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2452 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2454 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2456 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2457 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2458 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2460 * mask-address variable for Mips
2462 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2463 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2464 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2466 * Higher serial baud rates
2468 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2469 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2470 to achieve all of these rates.)
2474 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2475 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2478 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2480 * New native configurations
2482 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2483 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2484 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2485 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2486 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2487 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2488 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2492 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2493 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2494 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2495 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2496 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2497 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2498 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2499 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2500 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2501 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2502 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2504 * New debugging protocols
2506 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2507 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2508 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2509 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2510 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2511 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2515 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2516 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2521 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2522 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2524 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2526 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2527 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2528 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2530 * Live range splitting
2532 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2533 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2534 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2538 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2539 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2543 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2544 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2545 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2550 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2555 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2556 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2557 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2558 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2559 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2560 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2564 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2565 the symbol at the specified address.
2569 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2570 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2571 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2572 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2573 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2577 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2578 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2579 of most MIPS variants.
2583 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2584 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2585 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2589 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2590 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2591 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2592 the possible architectures.
2594 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2596 * New native configurations
2598 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2599 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2600 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2601 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2602 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2603 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2607 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2608 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2609 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2610 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2611 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2613 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2617 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2618 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2619 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2620 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2621 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2625 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2627 * Windows 95/NT native
2629 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2630 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2631 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2632 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2633 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2635 * dont-repeat command
2637 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2638 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2639 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2640 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2642 * Send break instead of ^C
2644 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2645 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2646 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2648 * Remote protocol timeout
2650 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2651 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2652 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2654 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2656 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2657 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2658 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2659 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2660 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2662 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2663 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2664 automatically on hpux10.
2666 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2668 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2670 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2672 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2673 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2674 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2675 every character. The default value is 1050.
2677 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2679 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2680 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2681 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2682 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2683 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2684 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2686 * Speedups for remote debugging
2688 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2689 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2690 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2692 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2694 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2695 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2697 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2699 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2701 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2702 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2704 * Remote targets use caching
2706 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2707 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2708 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2709 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2710 off' turns the the data cache off.
2712 * Remote targets may have threads
2714 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2715 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2716 gdb/remote.c for details.
2720 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2721 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2722 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2723 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2724 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2725 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2726 sequence is something like
2728 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2730 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2734 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2735 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2736 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2737 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2738 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2739 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2740 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2741 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2745 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2746 but does simplify configuration and building.
2750 GDB now supports hpux10.
2752 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2754 * New native configurations
2756 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2757 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2758 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2759 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2763 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2764 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2765 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2766 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2769 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2771 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2772 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2773 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2774 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2775 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2777 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2779 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2780 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2783 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2785 To execute the command use:
2788 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2789 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2790 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2792 * New `if' and `while' commands
2794 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2795 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2796 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2797 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2798 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2799 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2800 if the expression is zero.
2802 * Fortran source language mode
2804 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2805 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2806 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2807 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2810 * Better HPUX support
2812 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2813 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2814 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2815 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2816 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2822 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2823 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2829 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2830 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2833 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2834 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2836 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2838 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2839 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2840 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2841 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2842 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2843 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2845 * New DOS host serial code
2847 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2848 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2851 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2853 * New "complete" command
2855 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2856 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2858 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2860 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2861 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2863 * Breakpoint hit counts
2865 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2866 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2867 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2868 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2869 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2872 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2874 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2875 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2876 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2878 * Shared library breakpoints
2880 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2881 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2883 * Hardware watchpoints
2885 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2886 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2888 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2892 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2893 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2895 * Improved Irix 5 support
2897 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2899 * Improved HPPA support
2901 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2903 * New native configurations
2905 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2906 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2907 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2908 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2912 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2913 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2916 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2918 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2919 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2923 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2924 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2926 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2928 * Irix 5 is now supported
2932 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2933 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2934 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2935 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2936 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2939 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2941 * User visible changes:
2945 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2946 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2947 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2948 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2949 debugging info for the mips target).
2951 * DEC Alpha native support
2953 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2954 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2955 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2956 Alpha-specific notes.
2958 * Preliminary thread implementation
2960 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2962 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2964 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2965 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2968 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2970 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2971 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2972 call methods, ...etc.
2974 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2976 * User visible changes:
2978 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2979 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2980 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2981 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2983 Filename completion now works.
2985 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2986 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2987 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2989 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2990 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2991 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2992 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2993 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2997 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2998 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3001 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3005 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3006 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3007 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3011 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3012 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3013 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3014 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3015 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3019 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3020 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3021 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3023 * New targets supported
3025 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3026 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3027 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3028 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3029 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3031 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3032 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3033 GO32 memory extender.
3035 * New remote protocols
3037 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3039 * New source languages supported
3041 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3042 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3043 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3046 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3048 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3050 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3051 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3052 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3053 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3054 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3055 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3057 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3059 * Faster and better demangling
3061 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3062 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3063 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3064 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3065 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3066 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3069 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3070 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3071 compiler does not actually implement.
3073 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3075 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3076 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3077 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3078 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3079 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3080 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3083 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3084 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3086 * Improved configure script
3088 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3089 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3090 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3091 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3093 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3094 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3095 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3096 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3097 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3098 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3100 * Documentation improvements
3102 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3103 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3104 before submitting changes.
3106 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3107 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3108 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3109 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3110 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3112 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3113 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3114 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3115 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3116 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3117 around this problem.
3121 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3122 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3123 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3126 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3127 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3129 * New native hosts supported
3131 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3132 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3134 * New targets supported
3136 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3138 * New file formats supported
3140 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3141 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3145 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3147 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3148 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3150 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3151 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3152 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3154 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3155 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3157 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3158 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3159 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3162 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3163 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3164 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3165 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3166 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3168 * Internal improvements
3170 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3171 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3173 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3174 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3175 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3176 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3177 shared code that handles any of them.
3179 * New command line options
3181 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3185 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3186 General Public License.
3188 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3190 * Host/native/target split
3192 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3193 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3194 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3195 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3196 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3198 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3199 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3200 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3201 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3202 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3203 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3204 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3206 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3207 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3208 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3210 * New hosts supported
3212 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3213 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3214 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3216 * New targets supported
3218 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3219 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3221 * New native hosts supported
3223 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3224 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3225 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3227 * New file formats supported
3229 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3230 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3231 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3235 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3236 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3237 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3239 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3241 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3242 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3243 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3244 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3248 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3249 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3250 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3252 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3256 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3257 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3260 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3261 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3263 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3264 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3265 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3266 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3267 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3268 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3270 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3271 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3272 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3273 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3277 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3278 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3279 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3280 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3281 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3283 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3284 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3285 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3286 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3290 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3291 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3292 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3293 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3294 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3295 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3296 each instruction being stepped through.
3298 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3299 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3301 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3302 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3303 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3304 processor with a serial port.
3308 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3309 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3310 supported, and what files each one uses.
3314 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3315 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3316 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3317 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3319 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3320 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3321 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3322 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3326 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3327 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3328 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3329 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3330 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3331 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3333 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3336 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3338 * Better support for C++ function names
3340 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3341 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3342 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3343 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3344 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3346 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3347 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3348 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3349 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3350 for the list of formats.
3352 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3354 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3355 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3356 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3357 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3358 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3359 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3362 * New 'maintenance' command
3364 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3365 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3366 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3368 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3369 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3370 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3371 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3372 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3373 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3375 The following commands are new:
3377 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3378 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3379 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3381 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3383 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3384 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3385 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3386 read after argv processing.
3388 * New hosts supported
3390 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3392 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3394 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3395 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3396 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3397 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3398 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3401 * New targets supported
3403 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3405 * More smarts about finding #include files
3407 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3408 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3409 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3410 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3411 the one that contains your sources.
3413 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3414 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3415 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3417 * Interesting infernals change
3419 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3420 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3421 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3422 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3424 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3426 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3427 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3428 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3430 See the ChangeLog for details.
3432 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3434 * New machines supported (host and target)
3436 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3438 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3440 * New malloc package
3442 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3443 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3444 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3445 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3446 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3447 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3451 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3452 'help info proc' for details.
3454 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3456 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3457 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3460 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3462 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3463 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3464 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3465 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3466 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3467 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3469 * Cross byte order fixes
3471 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3472 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3474 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3476 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3477 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3478 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3479 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3480 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3481 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3482 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3483 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3484 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3485 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3487 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3488 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3489 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3490 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3492 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3493 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3494 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3497 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3499 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3500 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3501 shared across multiple host platforms.
3503 * longjmp() handling
3505 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3506 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3507 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3508 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3512 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3513 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3518 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3519 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3520 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3522 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3524 * New machines supported (host and target)
3526 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3528 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3529 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3531 * New machines supported (target)
3533 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3537 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3538 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3539 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3541 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3542 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3543 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3544 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3545 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3548 * New features for SVR4
3550 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3551 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3552 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3554 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3555 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3556 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3558 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3559 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3561 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3563 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3564 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3565 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3566 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3567 same code linked statically.
3571 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3572 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3573 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3574 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3575 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3576 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3580 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3581 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3582 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3585 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3587 * New machines supported (host and target)
3589 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3590 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3591 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3593 * Almost SCO Unix support
3595 We had hoped to support:
3596 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3597 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3598 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3599 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3601 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3603 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3604 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3605 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3606 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3611 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3612 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3613 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3617 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3618 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3619 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3621 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3623 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3624 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3625 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3627 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3628 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3629 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3630 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3633 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3634 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3635 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3636 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3639 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3640 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3643 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3644 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3645 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3648 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3650 * Improved configuration
3652 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3653 Porting BFD is simpler.
3657 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3658 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3659 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3660 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3664 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3666 * New host supported (not target)
3668 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3671 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3673 * Multiple source language support
3675 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3676 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3677 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3678 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3679 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3680 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3684 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3685 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3686 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3687 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3689 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3690 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3691 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3693 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3694 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3698 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3699 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3700 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3701 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3704 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3706 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3707 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3708 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3709 examining core files.
3713 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3716 * New machines supported (host and target)
3718 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3719 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3720 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3722 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3724 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3726 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3728 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3729 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3730 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3732 * New remote interfaces
3738 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3742 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3744 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3745 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3746 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3747 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3748 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3749 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3750 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3751 stub on the target system.
3753 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3755 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3756 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3757 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3759 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3760 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3763 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3765 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3766 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3768 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3769 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3770 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3772 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3773 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3774 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3775 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3777 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3778 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3779 it is already running. Default is ON.
3781 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3782 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3783 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3784 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3787 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3788 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3789 or the value of the environment variable
3792 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3793 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3796 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3797 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3798 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3800 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3801 history expansion will be performed on
3802 command line input. The default is OFF.
3804 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3805 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3806 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3808 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3809 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3810 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3813 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3814 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3815 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3818 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3819 ``set width'' instead.
3821 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3822 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3823 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3824 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3826 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3829 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3832 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3835 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3838 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3840 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3841 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3842 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3846 * Support for Shared Libraries
3848 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3849 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3850 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3851 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3852 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3853 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3854 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3855 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3857 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3858 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3859 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3861 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3866 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3867 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3868 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3869 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3870 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3871 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3873 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3875 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3877 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3878 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3879 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3882 * C++ multiple inheritance
3884 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3887 * C++ exception handling
3889 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3890 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3891 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3894 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3895 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3896 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3898 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3899 current stack frame.
3902 * Minor command changes
3904 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3905 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3906 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3908 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3909 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3910 frames without printing.
3912 * New directory command
3914 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3915 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3916 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3917 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3918 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3920 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3922 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3925 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3926 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3927 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3928 where the program that you are debugging will run.