1 What has changed since GDB-3.5?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
8 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
9 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
10 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array.
12 There is also a new directory `gdb/sparclite' that contains a program that can
13 be run on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor to demonstrate how the sparc-stub
16 * Faster and better demangling
18 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
19 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
20 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
21 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
22 This results in a moderate increase in memory usage, but a fantastic speedup in
25 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
26 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
27 compiler does not actually implement.
29 * Improved configure script
31 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if you don't
32 supply a host system type. WE CAN GIVE NO GUARANTEES ABOUT THE VALIDITY OF THE
33 GUESSES MADE BY THIS METHOD. The old scheme of supplying a host system triplet
34 is greatly preferable over using this. All the magic is done in the new
35 `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
37 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
38 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
39 `--with-minimal-bfd' is of interest to those people who want a minimal BFD
40 that only supports target file formats.
42 We have also cleaned up the issue with the rpc and ptrace header files for
43 VxWorks that was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7 release. You
44 should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
48 There's lots of new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and produce
49 clean changes to the code. We implore people to look at this before submitting
52 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than the arcane M4
53 macros. This requires the use of the new Texinfo program, which is available
54 from the same place that you got this copy of GDB.
56 *NOTE* The new Texinfo program produces TeX output that can cause old versions
57 of TeX to hang. We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but
58 it has been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141 or
59 better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in `texinfo/tex3patch' that
60 will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work around this problem.
62 * Mmalloc now licensed under the GNU Library General Public License
64 * New native hosts supported
66 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
68 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
69 (core file support added)
70 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
72 * New targets supported
74 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
76 * New file formats supported
78 BFD now has minimal support for reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM?), and
79 HPUX core files. We can't write them yet.
83 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
87 This version fixes the attach problem that many of you reported. We have
88 also stomped on a bunch more printf_filtered("%s") problems.
90 You can also now ^C a gdb that is attached to a process. This will cause the
91 attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
93 We also fixed a lot of problems associated with either not closing file
94 descriptors, or using too many. This was especially a problem for programs
95 that used many (~100) shared libraries.
102 * New hosts supported
105 PA/HPUX support (cleaned up), uses unwind info, needs gcc/gas...
106 HP300 native support (???)
107 Vax Ultrix native (was already there)
108 step only goes into a subr if there is line # info present
111 VxWorks/rpc problems resolved
112 symbols/psymbols/msymbols combined
113 Lotsa host/native/target stuff cleaned up
159 rhealey@ub.d.umn.edu.
162 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
164 * Host/native/target split
166 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
167 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
168 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
169 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
170 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
172 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
173 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
174 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
175 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
176 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
177 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
178 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
180 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
181 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
182 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
184 * New hosts supported
186 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
187 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
188 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
190 * New targets supported
192 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
193 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
195 * New native hosts supported
197 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
198 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
199 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
201 * New file formats supported
203 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
204 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
205 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
209 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
210 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
211 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
213 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
215 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
216 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
217 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
218 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
222 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
223 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
224 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
226 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
230 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
231 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
234 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
235 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
237 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
238 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
239 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
240 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
241 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
242 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
244 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
245 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
246 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
247 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
251 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
252 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
253 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
254 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
255 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
257 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
258 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
259 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
260 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
264 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
265 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
266 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
267 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
268 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
269 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
270 each instruction being stepped through.
272 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
273 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
275 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
276 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
277 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
278 processor with a serial port.
282 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
283 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
284 supported, and what files each one uses.
288 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
289 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
290 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
291 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
293 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
294 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
295 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
296 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
300 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
301 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
302 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
303 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
304 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
305 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
307 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
310 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
312 * Better support for C++ function names
314 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
315 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
316 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
317 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
318 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
320 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
321 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
322 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
323 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
324 for the list of formats.
326 * G++ symbol mangling problem
328 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
329 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
330 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
331 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
332 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
333 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
336 * New 'maintenance' command
338 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
339 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
340 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
342 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
343 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
344 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
345 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
346 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
347 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
349 The following commands are new:
351 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
352 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
353 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
355 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
357 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
358 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
359 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
360 read after argv processing.
362 * New hosts supported
364 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
366 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
368 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
369 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
370 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
371 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
372 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
375 * New targets supported
377 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
379 * More smarts about finding #include files
381 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
382 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
383 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
384 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
385 the one that contains your sources.
387 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
388 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
389 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
391 * Interesting infernals change
393 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
394 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
395 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
396 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
398 * Bug fixes (of course!)
400 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
401 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
402 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
404 See the ChangeLog for details.
406 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
408 * New machines supported (host and target)
410 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
412 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
416 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
417 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
418 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
419 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
420 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
421 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
425 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
426 'help info proc' for details.
428 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
430 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
431 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
434 * File name changes for MS-DOS
436 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
437 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
438 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
439 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
440 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
441 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
443 * Cross byte order fixes
445 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
446 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
448 * New -mapped and -readnow options
450 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
451 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
452 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
453 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
454 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
455 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
456 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
457 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
458 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
459 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
461 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
462 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
463 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
464 slower, but makes future operations faster.
466 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
467 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
468 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
471 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
473 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
474 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
475 shared across multiple host platforms.
479 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
480 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
481 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
482 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
486 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
487 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
492 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
493 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
494 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
496 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
498 * New machines supported (host and target)
500 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
502 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
503 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
505 * New machines supported (target)
507 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
511 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
512 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
513 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
515 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
516 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
517 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
518 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
519 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
522 * New features for SVR4
524 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
525 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
526 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
528 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
529 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
530 it prints the address mappings of the process.
532 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
533 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
535 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
537 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
538 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
539 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
540 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
541 same code linked statically.
545 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
546 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
547 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
548 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
549 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
550 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
554 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
555 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
556 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
559 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
561 * New machines supported (host and target)
563 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
564 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
565 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
567 * Almost SCO Unix support
569 We had hoped to support:
570 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
571 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
572 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
573 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
575 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
577 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
578 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
579 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
580 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
585 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
586 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
587 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
591 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
592 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
593 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
595 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
597 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
598 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
599 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
601 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
602 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
603 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
604 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
607 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
608 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
609 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
610 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
613 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
614 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
617 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
618 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
619 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
622 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
624 * Improved configuration
626 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
627 Porting BFD is simpler.
631 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
632 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
633 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
634 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
638 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
640 * New host supported (not target)
642 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
645 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
647 * Multiple source language support
649 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
650 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
651 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
652 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
653 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
654 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
658 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
659 currently under development at the State University of New York at
660 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
661 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
663 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
664 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
665 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
667 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
668 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
672 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
673 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
674 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
675 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
678 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
680 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
681 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
682 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
683 examining core files.
687 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
690 * New machines supported (host and target)
692 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
693 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
694 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
696 * New hosts supported (not targets)
698 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
700 * New targets supported (not hosts)
702 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
703 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
704 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
706 * New remote interfaces
712 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
716 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
718 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
719 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
720 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
721 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
722 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
723 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
724 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
725 stub on the target system.
727 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
729 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
730 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
731 object file types such as a.out and coff.
733 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
734 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
737 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
739 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
740 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
742 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
743 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
744 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
746 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
747 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
748 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
749 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
751 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
752 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
753 it is already running. Default is ON.
755 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
756 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
757 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
758 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
761 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
762 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
763 or the value of the environment variable
766 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
767 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
770 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
771 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
772 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
774 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
775 history expansion will be performed on
776 command line input. The default is OFF.
778 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
779 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
780 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
782 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
783 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
784 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
787 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
788 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
789 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
792 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
793 ``set width'' instead.
795 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
796 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
797 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
798 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
800 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
803 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
806 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
809 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
812 * Support for Epoch Environment.
814 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
815 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
816 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
820 * Support for Shared Libraries
822 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
823 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
824 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
825 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
826 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
827 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
828 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
829 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
831 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
832 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
833 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
835 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
840 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
841 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
842 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
843 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
844 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
845 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
847 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
849 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
851 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
852 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
853 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
856 * C++ multiple inheritance
858 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
861 * C++ exception handling
863 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
864 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
865 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
868 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
869 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
870 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
872 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
876 * Minor command changes
878 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
879 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
880 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
882 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
883 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
884 frames without printing.
886 * New directory command
888 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
889 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
890 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
891 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
892 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
894 * Configuring GDB for compilation
896 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
899 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
900 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
901 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
902 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / platform / upstream / binutils.git / blob