1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.10
6 * Per-inferior thread numbers
8 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
9 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
10 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
14 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
15 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
16 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
17 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
19 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
20 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
21 are no longer unique between inferiors.
23 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
24 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
27 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
30 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
31 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
34 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
37 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
40 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
43 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
45 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
47 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
48 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
50 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
51 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
54 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
55 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
58 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
59 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
62 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
64 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
65 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
66 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
68 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
69 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
73 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
74 maint show target-non-stop
75 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
76 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
77 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
80 maint show bfd-sharing
81 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
85 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
87 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
88 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
89 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
91 set remote thread-events
92 show remote thread-events
93 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
95 set ada print-signatures on|off
96 show ada print-signatures"
97 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
98 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
100 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
101 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
102 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
103 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
104 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
105 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
107 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
108 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
110 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
111 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
113 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
115 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
116 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
117 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
118 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
119 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
120 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
122 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
123 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
128 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
130 exec-events feature in qSupported
131 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
132 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
133 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
134 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
137 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
140 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
141 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
143 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
144 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
147 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
148 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
149 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
150 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
151 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
152 stop for that same thread.
156 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
157 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
158 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
160 QCatchSyscalls:1 [;SYSNO]...
162 Enable ("QCatchSyscalls:1") or disable ("QCatchSyscalls:0")
163 catching syscalls from the inferior process.
165 syscall_entry stop reason
166 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
168 syscall_return stop reason
169 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
171 QCatchSyscalls:1 in qSupported
172 The qSupported packet may now include QCatchSyscalls:1 in the reply
173 to indicate support for catching syscalls.
175 * Extended-remote exec events
177 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
178 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
179 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
181 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
182 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
183 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
185 * Thread names in remote protocol
187 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
190 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
192 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
193 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
194 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
195 fork and exec catchpoints.
197 * Remote syscall events
199 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
200 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
202 set remote catch-syscall-packet
203 show remote catch-syscall-packet
204 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
208 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
209 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
214 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
215 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
216 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
217 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
218 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
219 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
221 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
223 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
224 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
225 including advance SIMD instructions.
227 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
229 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
230 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
231 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
232 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
233 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
234 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
235 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
237 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
239 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
241 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
242 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
245 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
246 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
247 and may include things like its command line arguments.
249 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
250 is now available on all platforms.
252 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
253 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
254 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
255 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
256 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
257 backward compatibility.
259 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
260 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
261 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
262 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
264 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
265 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
266 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
267 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
270 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
272 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
274 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
275 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
276 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
277 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
278 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
279 See "New remote packets" below.
281 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
282 available register groups, including target specific groups.
284 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
285 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
286 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
287 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
292 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
296 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
297 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
298 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
299 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
300 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
301 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
302 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
303 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
304 "const" version of the value respectively.
308 maint print symbol-cache
309 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
311 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
312 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
314 maint flush-symbol-cache
315 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
319 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
322 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
326 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
329 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
330 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
334 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
337 Print information about branch tracing internals.
339 maint btrace packet-history
340 Print the raw branch tracing data.
342 maint btrace clear-packet-history
343 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
346 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
347 anew by the next "record" command.
352 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
354 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
357 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
358 show debug dwarf-read
359 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
361 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
362 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
363 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
364 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
366 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
367 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
368 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
369 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
372 show debug dwarf-line
373 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
377 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
378 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
379 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
380 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
382 set history remove-duplicates
383 show history remove-duplicates
384 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
386 maint set symbol-cache-size
387 maint show symbol-cache-size
388 Control the size of the symbol cache.
390 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
391 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
393 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
394 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
396 set debug linux-namespaces
397 show debug linux-namespaces
398 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
400 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
401 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
402 Intel Processor Trace format.
403 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
404 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
406 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
407 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
410 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
411 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
413 * Python/Guile scripting
415 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
416 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
420 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
421 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
423 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
424 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
427 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
428 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
432 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
436 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
437 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
438 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
442 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
443 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
446 Return information about files on the remote system.
449 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
450 create a process running on the remote system.
453 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
454 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
455 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
456 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
459 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
462 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
464 vforkdone stop reason
465 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
466 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
468 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
469 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
470 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
471 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
472 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
473 whether these features are enabled.
475 * Extended-remote fork events
477 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
478 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
479 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
480 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
482 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
483 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
484 the btrace record target.
485 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
487 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
488 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
490 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
493 * Removed command line options
495 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
497 * Removed targets and native configurations
499 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
500 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
502 * New configure options
505 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
506 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
508 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
509 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
510 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
511 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
513 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
517 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
519 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
521 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
525 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
526 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
527 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
528 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
529 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
530 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
531 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
532 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
533 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
534 selecting a new file to debug.
535 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
536 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
538 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
541 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
542 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
543 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
544 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
546 * New Python-based convenience functions:
548 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
549 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
550 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
551 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
553 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
554 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
555 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
556 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
557 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
558 interface with this new feature are:
560 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
561 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
565 demangle [-l language] [--] name
566 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
567 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
568 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
569 as "maint demangler-warning".
571 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
572 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
574 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
575 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
578 maint print user-registers
579 List all currently available "user" registers.
581 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
582 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
583 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
585 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
586 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
587 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
590 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
591 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
592 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
593 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
596 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
597 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
598 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
599 switched threads meanwhile.
601 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
603 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
604 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
605 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
606 is now the default mode.
610 set debug symbol-lookup
611 show debug symbol-lookup
612 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
616 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
617 inferiors that have exited.
621 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
625 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
627 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
628 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
629 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
630 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
631 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
633 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
634 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
635 its alias "share", instead.
637 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
639 * New command line options
642 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
644 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
645 as specified in ISO C99.
647 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
648 with or without disassembly.
652 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
653 available is determined at configure time.
654 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
655 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
657 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
661 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
665 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
667 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
668 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
670 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
671 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
675 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
676 show print symbol-loading
677 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
678 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
679 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
682 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
683 show guile print-stack
684 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
686 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
687 show auto-load guile-scripts
688 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
690 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
691 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
692 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
693 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
694 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
695 usage of this option.
697 set auto-connect-native-target
699 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
700 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
701 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
703 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
704 show record btrace replay-memory-access
705 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
707 maint set target-async (on|off)
708 maint show target-async
709 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
710 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
711 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
712 occurring only in synchronous mode.
714 set mi-async (on|off)
716 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
717 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
719 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
720 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
722 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
723 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
724 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
725 "set target-async on" command.
727 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
729 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
730 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
731 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
732 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
733 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
735 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
736 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
737 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
739 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
740 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
741 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
742 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
743 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
744 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
745 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
747 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
748 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
750 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
751 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
752 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
754 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
755 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
758 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
760 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
761 remote. It now works with all targets.
763 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
764 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
765 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
766 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
767 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
768 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
769 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
770 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
771 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
774 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
775 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
776 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
778 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
780 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
781 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
782 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
786 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
787 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
788 branch trace incrementally.
792 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
793 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
795 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
796 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
797 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
798 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
799 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
802 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
804 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
805 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
806 its alias "share", instead.
808 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
809 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
814 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
815 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
816 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
817 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
818 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
819 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
820 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
821 commands and CLI execution commands.
823 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
825 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
826 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
827 recording has been added.
829 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
831 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
832 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
834 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
835 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
836 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
837 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
838 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
839 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
842 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
844 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
846 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
847 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
848 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
849 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
854 (gdb) info registers rax
857 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
858 "*value not available*".
860 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
865 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
866 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
867 ** Line tables representation has been added.
868 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
869 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
870 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
874 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
875 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
876 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
878 * Removed native configurations
880 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
881 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
883 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
884 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
885 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
886 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
887 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
888 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
889 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
893 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
895 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
897 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
899 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
902 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
904 maint set|show per-command
905 maint set|show per-command space
906 maint set|show per-command time
907 maint set|show per-command symtab
908 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
910 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
911 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
912 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
913 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
914 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
917 info exceptions REGEXP
918 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
919 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
924 set debug symfile off|on
926 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
927 symbol tables within those files
929 set print raw frame-arguments
930 show print raw frame-arguments
931 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
932 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
934 set remote trace-status-packet
935 show remote trace-status-packet
936 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
940 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
944 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
946 set startup-with-shell
947 show startup-with-shell
948 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
953 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
954 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
956 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
957 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
958 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
959 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
962 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
963 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
964 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
966 * New command-line options
968 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
970 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
971 buffer in Common Trace Format.
973 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
976 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
978 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
979 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
981 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
982 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
984 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
985 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
986 due to an uncaught signal.
990 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
991 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
992 command, which should contain "language-option".
994 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
995 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
997 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
998 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
999 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1000 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1001 "undefined-command-error-code".
1003 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1006 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1008 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1009 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1012 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1013 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1015 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1016 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1017 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1019 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1020 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1021 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1022 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1023 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1024 "exec-run-start-option".
1026 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1027 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1029 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1030 the new "info exceptions" command.
1032 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1033 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1034 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1038 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1039 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1040 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1043 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1044 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1046 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1047 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1048 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1050 * New remote packets
1054 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1055 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1056 involvemement at each single-step.
1058 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1059 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1060 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1061 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1062 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1063 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1066 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1068 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1069 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1071 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1072 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1073 trace state variables.
1075 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1078 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1079 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1081 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1083 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1084 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1085 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1086 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1088 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1090 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1091 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1092 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1093 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1095 set|show record full insn-number-max
1096 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1097 set|show record full memory-query
1099 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1100 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1101 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1102 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1103 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1107 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1108 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1110 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1111 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1112 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1114 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1115 instruction granularity
1117 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1118 function granularity
1120 * New native configurations
1122 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1123 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1124 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1125 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1129 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1130 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1131 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1132 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1133 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1135 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1136 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1137 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1138 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1139 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1140 --data-directory command-line option.
1142 * New command line options:
1144 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1145 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1147 * Removed command line options
1149 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1152 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1155 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1159 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1161 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1163 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1165 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1167 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1168 of architecture in the Python API.
1170 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1171 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1173 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1175 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1176 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1178 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1180 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1183 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1184 default for GCC since November 2000.
1186 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1188 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1189 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1191 * New configure options
1193 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1194 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1195 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1196 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1197 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1198 options allow the user to override that default.
1199 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1200 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1201 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1203 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1206 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1207 conditions to be attached.
1210 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1212 python-interactive [command]
1214 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1215 and print the result of expressions.
1218 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1220 enable type-printer [name]...
1221 disable type-printer [name]...
1222 Enable or disable type printers.
1226 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1227 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1232 set print type methods (on|off)
1233 show print type methods
1234 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1235 The default is to show them.
1237 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1238 show print type typedefs
1239 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1240 The default is to show them.
1242 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1243 show filename-display
1244 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1245 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1247 set trace-buffer-size
1248 show trace-buffer-size
1249 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1251 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1252 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1253 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1257 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1260 set debug coff-pe-read
1261 show debug coff-pe-read
1262 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1267 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1270 set debug notification
1271 show debug notification
1272 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1276 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1277 "=cmd-param-changed".
1278 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1279 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1280 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1281 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1282 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1283 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1284 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1285 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1287 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1288 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1289 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1290 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1291 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1292 library load/unload events.
1293 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1294 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1295 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1296 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1297 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1298 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1299 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1300 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1302 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1303 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1304 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1305 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1307 * New remote packets
1310 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1311 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1314 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1315 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1319 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1320 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1323 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1324 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1326 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1328 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1329 for more x32 ABI info.
1331 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1333 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1335 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1336 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1337 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1338 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1339 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1340 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1341 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1342 "info os msg" lists message queues
1343 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1345 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1346 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1347 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1348 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1349 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1350 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1352 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1353 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1354 record/replay support.
1356 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1360 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
1363 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
1365 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
1366 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
1368 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
1370 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
1371 the source at which the symbol was defined.
1373 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
1374 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
1375 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
1378 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
1379 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
1381 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
1382 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
1383 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
1385 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
1386 object associated with a PC value.
1388 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
1389 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
1391 * Go language support.
1392 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
1395 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1396 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1398 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1399 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1401 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
1402 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
1403 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
1404 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
1405 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
1408 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
1409 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
1410 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
1411 build/libcpp/expr.c.
1413 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
1414 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
1416 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
1417 since December 2007.
1419 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
1420 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
1421 command does. For instance:
1423 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
1425 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
1426 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
1427 created, using the "condition" command.
1429 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
1430 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
1432 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
1434 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
1435 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
1436 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
1437 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
1438 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
1439 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
1440 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
1441 files with older .gdb_index sections.
1443 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
1444 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
1445 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
1446 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
1447 the .gdb_index section.
1449 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1451 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1456 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1458 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1462 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1463 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1464 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1466 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1467 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1469 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1472 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
1473 C++ and Java objects.
1475 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
1476 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
1477 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1478 configured with '--with-python'.
1480 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1481 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1482 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1483 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1484 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1485 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1486 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1488 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1489 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1490 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1491 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1493 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1494 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1495 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1496 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1498 ** "set print symbol"
1500 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1501 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1502 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1504 * Deprecated commands
1506 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1507 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1511 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1512 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
1514 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1515 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1516 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1517 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1522 set mips compression
1523 show mips compression
1524 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1525 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1528 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1530 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1531 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
1532 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
1533 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1535 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1539 Disable auto-loading globally.
1542 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1544 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1545 show auto-load gdb-scripts
1546 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1548 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1549 show auto-load python-scripts
1550 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1552 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1553 show auto-load local-gdbinit
1554 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1556 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1557 show auto-load libthread-db
1558 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1560 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1561 show auto-load scripts-directory
1562 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1563 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1564 of the directories listed by this option.
1565 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1567 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1568 show auto-load safe-path
1569 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1570 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1572 set debug auto-load on|off
1573 show debug auto-load
1574 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1576 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
1578 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1579 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1580 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1581 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
1583 set dprintf-function <expr>
1584 show dprintf-function
1585 set dprintf-channel <expr>
1586 show dprintf-channel
1587 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1588 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1590 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1591 show disconnected-dprintf
1592 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1593 after GDB disconnects.
1595 * New configure options
1597 --with-auto-load-dir
1598 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1599 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1600 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1601 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1602 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
1604 --with-auto-load-safe-path
1605 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
1606 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
1608 --without-auto-load-safe-path
1609 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1612 * New remote packets
1614 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1616 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1617 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1618 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1619 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1623 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1624 program without GDB involvement.
1626 * New command line options
1628 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1629 before loading inferior.
1630 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1631 execute it before loading inferior.
1633 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
1635 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1636 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1637 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1638 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1641 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1642 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1644 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1645 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1646 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1647 target hardware watchpoint.
1649 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1650 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1651 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1652 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1656 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
1657 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
1660 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
1661 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1662 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1663 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1664 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1667 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
1670 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1671 modules library. This module provides functionality for
1672 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
1673 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1674 corresponding value.
1676 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1677 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1678 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1681 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1682 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1683 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1684 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1686 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1688 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1691 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1692 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1693 available in the CLI.
1695 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1696 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1697 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1698 "some_type.items()".
1700 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1703 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1704 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1705 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1706 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1707 any anonymous fields.
1711 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1714 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1715 "=breakpoint-modified".
1717 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1719 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1720 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1721 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1724 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1725 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1726 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1727 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1728 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1730 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1731 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1733 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1734 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1735 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1736 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1737 use this option to specify where to find it.
1739 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1740 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1741 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1742 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1743 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1744 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1745 section in the user manual for more details.
1747 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1748 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1749 become available after that.
1751 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
1753 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1754 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1760 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1761 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1765 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1766 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1767 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1769 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1770 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1771 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1773 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1774 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1775 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1776 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1777 name starts with a hyphen.
1779 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1780 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1781 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1782 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1783 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1784 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1785 number of bytes that will be collected.
1788 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1789 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1790 setting the variable trace-notes.
1793 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1794 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1795 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1798 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1799 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1800 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1801 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1802 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1805 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1806 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1807 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1811 set debug dwarf2-read
1812 show debug dwarf2-read
1813 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1814 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1816 set debug symtab-create
1817 show debug symtab-create
1818 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1819 creation. The default is off.
1822 show extended-prompt
1823 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1824 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1825 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1826 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1827 prompt is displayed.
1829 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1830 show print entry-values
1831 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1832 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1833 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1835 set debug entry-values
1836 show debug entry-values
1837 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1838 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1840 set basenames-may-differ
1841 show basenames-may-differ
1842 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1843 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1844 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1845 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1846 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1847 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1848 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1849 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1855 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1856 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1857 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1858 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1860 set trace-stop-notes
1861 show trace-stop-notes
1862 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1863 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1864 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1865 started by someone else.
1867 * New remote packets
1871 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1875 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1879 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1883 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1887 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1890 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1891 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1895 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1899 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1901 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1903 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1905 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
1907 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1908 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1909 matches the given regular expression.
1911 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1913 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1914 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1916 * New command line options
1918 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1919 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1921 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1922 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1924 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1925 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1926 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1928 * GDB now understands thread names.
1930 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1931 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1933 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1934 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1937 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1938 has been integrated into GDB.
1942 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1943 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1944 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1946 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1947 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1948 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1949 and allows for more dynamic content.
1951 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1952 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1953 have an is_valid method.
1955 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1956 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1957 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1959 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1961 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1962 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1963 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1964 that function like so:
1966 result = some_value (10,20)
1968 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1969 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1970 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1972 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1973 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1974 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1975 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1976 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1978 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1979 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1981 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1983 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1986 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1987 holds the thread's name.
1989 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1990 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
1991 occurring in the process being debugged.
1992 The following events are currently supported:
1993 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1994 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1995 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1999 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2000 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2002 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2004 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2005 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2006 was added to GCC 4.5.
2008 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2009 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2010 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2011 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2012 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2013 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2015 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2016 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2017 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2018 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2019 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2021 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2022 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2023 execution to a label.
2025 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2026 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2027 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2028 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2030 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2031 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2032 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2035 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2037 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2038 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2039 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2040 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2041 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2042 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2045 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2047 While now you see this:
2050 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2052 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2055 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2056 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2057 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2058 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2060 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2061 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2062 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2063 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2064 section in the user manual for more details.
2066 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2068 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2069 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2071 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2073 * New native configurations
2075 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2079 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2081 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2082 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2083 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2084 in the GDB user manual.
2086 * Guile support was removed.
2088 * New features in the GNU simulator
2090 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2092 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2094 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2096 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2098 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2099 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2100 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2101 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2102 was always disabled for such configurations.
2106 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2108 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2109 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2119 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2120 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2121 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2123 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2125 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2126 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2127 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2128 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2130 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2131 mentioned flavors of operators.
2133 ** static const class members
2135 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2136 class definition has been fixed.
2138 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2140 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2141 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2142 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2143 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2144 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2145 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2147 * Static tracepoints
2149 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2150 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2151 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2152 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2153 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2154 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2155 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2156 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2157 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2158 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2159 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2160 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2161 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2162 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2163 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2164 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2165 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2166 the "New remote packets" section below.
2168 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2170 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2171 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2172 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2173 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2177 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2178 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2179 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2180 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2181 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2182 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2183 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2185 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2188 * New remote packets
2192 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2196 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2197 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2198 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2199 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2200 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2201 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2205 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2209 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2212 qXfer:statictrace:read
2214 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2215 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2216 to gdb's qSupported query.
2220 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2224 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2225 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2227 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2228 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2231 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2233 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2234 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2235 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2236 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2238 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2239 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2240 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2241 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2242 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2243 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2244 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2246 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2247 for static tracepoints support.
2249 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2251 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2252 it understands register description.
2254 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2256 * X86 general purpose registers
2258 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2259 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2260 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2261 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2262 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2264 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2265 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2266 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2267 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2268 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2269 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2271 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2272 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2273 in the specified file.
2275 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2276 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2277 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2278 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2279 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2280 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2281 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2282 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2283 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2284 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2288 eval template, expressions...
2289 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2290 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2292 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2293 show target-file-system-kind
2294 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2297 save breakpoints <filename>
2298 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2299 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2300 definitions, use the `source' command.
2302 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2305 info static-tracepoint-markers
2306 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2308 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2309 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2310 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2314 Enable and disable observer mode.
2316 set may-write-registers on|off
2317 set may-write-memory on|off
2318 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2319 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2320 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2321 set may-interrupt on|off
2322 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2323 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2324 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2325 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2326 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2327 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2328 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2330 set record memory-query on|off
2331 show record memory-query
2332 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2333 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2338 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2342 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2343 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2344 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2345 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2346 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2348 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
2349 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2350 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2351 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
2353 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
2354 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2356 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
2358 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
2360 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
2362 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
2363 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
2364 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
2366 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
2367 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
2368 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
2369 regular breakpoints.
2373 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2375 * D language support.
2376 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
2379 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
2380 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
2381 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
2382 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
2383 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
2385 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
2386 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
2387 conditions of the form:
2389 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
2391 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
2392 interface mentioned above.
2394 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
2398 ** Namespace Support
2400 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
2401 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
2402 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
2403 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
2404 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
2408 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
2409 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
2414 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
2415 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
2419 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
2424 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
2427 * Multi-program debugging.
2429 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
2430 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
2431 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
2432 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
2433 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
2434 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
2435 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
2436 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
2438 * New tracing features
2440 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
2442 ** Trace state variables
2444 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
2445 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
2446 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
2447 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2448 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2449 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2450 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2451 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2452 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2453 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
2457 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2458 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2459 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2460 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2461 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2462 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2463 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2464 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2465 the regular trace command.
2467 ** Disconnected tracing
2469 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2470 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2471 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2472 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2473 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2477 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2478 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2479 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2480 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2481 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2482 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2485 ** Circular trace buffer
2487 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2488 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2489 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2490 not be available for all target agents.
2495 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2496 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2499 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2500 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2503 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2504 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2507 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2508 "set script-extension" (see below).
2510 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2512 record save [<FILENAME>]
2513 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2514 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2516 record restore <FILENAME>
2517 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2518 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2520 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2523 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2524 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2525 inferior has loaded.
2530 maint info program-spaces
2531 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2533 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2534 show remote interrupt-sequence
2535 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2536 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2537 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2538 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2539 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2541 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2542 show remote interrupt-on-connect
2543 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2544 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2547 set remotebreak [on | off]
2549 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2551 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2552 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2555 List trace state variables and their values.
2557 delete tvariable $NAME ...
2558 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2561 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2562 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2564 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2565 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2567 * New expression syntax
2569 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2570 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2574 set follow-exec-mode new|same
2575 show follow-exec-mode
2576 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2577 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2578 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2580 set default-collect EXPR, ...
2581 show default-collect
2582 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2583 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2584 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2586 set disconnected-tracing
2587 show disconnected-tracing
2588 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2589 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2592 set circular-trace-buffer
2593 show circular-trace-buffer
2594 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2595 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2596 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2597 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2599 set script-extension off|soft|strict
2600 show script-extension
2601 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2602 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2603 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2604 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2606 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2608 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2609 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2610 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2611 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2612 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2613 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2614 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2617 * Python API Improvements
2619 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2620 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2621 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2623 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2624 `is_base_class' attribute.
2626 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2628 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2629 evaluate an expression.
2631 * New remote packets
2634 Define a trace state variable.
2637 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2640 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2643 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2646 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2650 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2652 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2653 much more reliable. In particular:
2654 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2655 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2656 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2657 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2658 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2659 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2660 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2661 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2662 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2663 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2664 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2665 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2666 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2667 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2668 non-threaded programs.
2670 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2671 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2672 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2675 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
2677 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2678 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2679 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2680 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2681 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2683 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2684 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2685 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2686 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2687 for tracepoint actions.
2689 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2690 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2691 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
2693 * Process record and replay
2695 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2696 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2697 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2700 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2701 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2702 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2705 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2706 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
2709 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2710 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2711 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2712 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2713 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2714 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2715 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2716 the installation instructions for more information.
2718 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2719 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2720 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2721 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2723 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2724 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2726 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2727 now complete on file names.
2729 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2730 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2731 For instance, consider:
2733 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2734 # struct example variable;
2737 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2738 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2740 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2741 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2743 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2744 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2747 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
2748 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2749 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2751 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2752 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2753 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2754 and simulator targets may also provide them.
2756 * New remote packets
2759 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2762 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2763 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2764 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2767 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2768 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2771 Obtains additional operating system information
2775 Read or write additional signal information.
2777 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2779 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2780 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2781 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2783 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
2784 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
2786 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
2787 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2788 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
2790 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2791 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2793 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2795 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2797 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2798 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2800 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
2801 list of section offsets.
2803 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2804 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2805 have also been fixed.
2807 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
2808 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2809 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
2811 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2814 template<typename T> class C { };
2817 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2819 ptype C<char const *>
2820 ptype C<char const*>
2821 ptype C<const char *>
2822 ptype C<const char*>
2824 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2826 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2827 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2829 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2830 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2831 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2833 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2834 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2836 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2839 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2840 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2842 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2843 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2848 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2849 available is determined at configure time.
2851 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2853 * Ada tasking support
2855 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2859 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2861 Print detailed information about task number N.
2863 Print the task number of the current task.
2865 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2867 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2868 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2870 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2872 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2873 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2874 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2875 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2876 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2877 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2880 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2881 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2884 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2885 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2886 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2887 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2890 * Multi-architecture debugging.
2892 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2893 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2894 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2895 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2896 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2898 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2899 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2900 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2901 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2902 --enable-targets configure option.
2904 * Non-stop mode debugging.
2906 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2907 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2908 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2909 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2910 section in the user manual for more information.
2912 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2913 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2914 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2915 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2916 extensions on linux targets.
2918 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2920 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2921 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2922 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2923 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2924 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2925 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2926 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2927 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2928 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2930 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2932 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2934 maint set python print-stack
2935 maint show python print-stack
2936 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2939 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2944 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2948 Show operating system information about processes.
2951 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2954 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2957 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2960 Kill inferior number NUM.
2964 set spu stop-on-load
2965 show spu stop-on-load
2966 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2968 set spu auto-flush-cache
2969 show spu auto-flush-cache
2970 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2971 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2973 set sh calling-convention
2974 show sh calling-convention
2975 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2978 show debug timestamp
2979 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2981 set disassemble-next-line
2982 show disassemble-next-line
2983 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2986 set remote noack-packet
2987 show remote noack-packet
2988 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2989 under "New remote packets."
2991 set remote query-attached-packet
2992 show remote query-attached-packet
2993 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2995 set remote read-siginfo-object
2996 show remote read-siginfo-object
2997 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3000 set remote write-siginfo-object
3001 show remote write-siginfo-object
3002 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3005 set remote reverse-continue
3006 show remote reverse-continue
3007 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3009 set remote reverse-step
3010 show remote reverse-step
3011 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3013 set displaced-stepping
3014 show displaced-stepping
3015 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3016 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3017 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3020 show debug displaced
3021 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3023 maint set internal-error
3024 maint show internal-error
3025 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3027 maint set internal-warning
3028 maint show internal-warning
3029 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3034 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3036 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3037 show multiple-symbols
3038 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3039 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3040 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3042 set breakpoint always-inserted
3043 show breakpoint always-inserted
3044 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3045 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3046 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3048 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3049 show arm fallback-mode
3050 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3052 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3053 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3054 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3055 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3057 set disable-randomization
3058 show disable-randomization
3059 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3060 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3061 multiple debugging sessions.
3065 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3070 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3071 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3072 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3073 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3075 set target-wide-charset
3076 show target-wide-charset
3077 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3078 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3080 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3082 set tcp connect-timeout
3083 show tcp connect-timeout
3084 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3085 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3086 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3088 set libthread-db-search-path
3089 show libthread-db-search-path
3090 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3093 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3094 show schedule-multiple
3095 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3096 the current process.
3100 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3101 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3102 affecting correctness.
3104 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3105 show interactive-mode
3106 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3107 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3108 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3109 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3110 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3115 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3116 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3117 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3121 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3122 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3123 alias for the `fork' command.
3126 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3127 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3128 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3131 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3132 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3133 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3137 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3138 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3139 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3142 * New native configurations
3144 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3146 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3150 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3151 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3152 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3155 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3156 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3162 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3164 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3166 * New native configurations
3168 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3169 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3173 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3174 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3176 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3178 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3179 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3180 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3181 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3183 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3184 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3186 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3189 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3190 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3191 and in inlined functions.
3193 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3194 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3195 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3197 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3199 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3200 registers on PowerPC targets.
3202 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3203 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3205 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3206 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3208 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3209 extended-remote mode.
3211 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3212 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3213 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3214 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3216 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3217 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3218 target architectures.
3220 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3221 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3222 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3223 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3225 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3228 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3229 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3231 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3232 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3233 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3234 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3236 - Improved command completion in Ada
3239 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3244 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3245 show print frame-arguments
3246 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3247 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3252 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3259 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3261 * New remote packets
3268 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3271 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3275 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3277 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3279 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3280 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3281 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3283 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3284 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3285 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3287 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3288 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3291 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3292 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3294 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3295 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3297 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3299 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3300 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3301 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3303 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3304 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3306 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3307 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3310 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3311 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3312 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3314 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3317 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3318 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3319 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3321 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3323 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3325 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3326 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3327 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3329 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3330 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3332 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3333 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3334 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3335 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3336 Windows and SymbianOS).
3338 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3339 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3341 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3342 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3348 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3349 when debugging using remote targets.
3351 set mem inaccessible-by-default
3352 show mem inaccessible-by-default
3353 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3354 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3355 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3356 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3357 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3359 set breakpoint auto-hw
3360 show breakpoint auto-hw
3361 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3362 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3363 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
3364 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
3365 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
3366 including "next" and "finish".
3369 catch exception unhandled
3370 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
3373 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
3377 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
3378 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
3379 an alias to "set sysroot".
3382 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
3383 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
3386 * New native configurations
3388 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
3391 unset tdesc filename
3393 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
3394 not query the target for its built-in description.
3398 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
3399 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
3400 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
3402 * New remote packets
3405 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
3406 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
3408 qXfer:features:read:
3409 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
3414 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
3415 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
3417 qXfer:libraries:read:
3418 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
3419 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
3420 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
3421 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
3425 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3433 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
3434 i[34567]86-*-netware*
3435 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
3436 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
3438 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
3441 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
3442 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
3451 * Other removed features
3458 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3465 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3470 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3471 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3476 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3477 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3479 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3481 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3482 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3483 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3484 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3486 MIPS ".pdr" sections
3488 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3489 in debugging information.
3493 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3494 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3496 set mips stack-arg-size
3497 set mips saved-gpreg-size
3499 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3501 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
3506 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
3508 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3509 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3510 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3512 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3513 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3516 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3517 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3519 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3520 stub provides the required support.
3522 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3523 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3528 unset substitute-path
3529 show substitute-path
3530 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3531 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3532 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3533 between compilation and debugging.
3537 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3538 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3539 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3543 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3545 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3546 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3548 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3550 * New remote packets
3553 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3554 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3555 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3556 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3560 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3561 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3563 qXfer:memory-map:read:
3564 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3565 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3570 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3572 * Removed remote packets
3575 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3576 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3578 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
3582 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3584 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3588 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3589 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3591 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3593 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3595 restart <n> Return the program state to a
3596 previously saved state.
3598 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3600 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3602 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3603 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3605 info forks List forks of the user program that
3606 are available to be debugged.
3608 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3609 forks of the user program that are
3610 available to be debugged.
3612 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3613 that are available to be debugged (and
3614 kill the forked process).
3616 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3617 that are available to be debugged (and
3618 allow the process to continue).
3622 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3624 * Improved Windows host support
3626 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3627 native console support, and remote communications using either
3628 network sockets or serial ports.
3630 * Improved Modula-2 language support
3632 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3633 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3634 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3635 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3636 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3637 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3641 The ARM rdi-share module.
3643 The Netware NLM debug server.
3645 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
3647 * New native configurations
3649 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
3650 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3654 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3656 * New command line options
3658 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3659 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3660 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3661 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3662 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3663 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3664 with the --command (-x) option.
3666 * Deprecated commands removed
3668 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3672 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3673 othernames set arm disassembler
3674 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3675 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3676 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3679 * New BSD user-level threads support
3681 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3682 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3685 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3686 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3687 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3689 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3690 are not yet supported.
3692 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3693 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3695 * REMOVED configurations and files
3697 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
3698 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3699 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
3701 * New "set print array-indexes" command
3703 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3704 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3707 * VAX floating point support
3709 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3711 * User-defined command support
3713 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3714 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3715 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3717 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3719 * New command line option
3721 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3724 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3726 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3727 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3728 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3729 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3730 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
3732 * Internationalization
3734 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3735 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3736 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3740 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3741 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3742 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3744 * New native configurations
3746 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3750 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3751 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3753 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3755 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3756 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3757 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3760 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3761 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3762 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3772 powerpc bdm protocol
3774 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3775 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3777 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3779 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3780 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3781 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3782 permanently REMOVED.
3791 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3793 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3795 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3796 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3799 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3801 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3802 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3803 IRIX long double values).
3807 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3808 command. This problem has been fixed.
3810 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
3812 * Fix for ``many threads''
3814 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3815 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3818 ptrace: No such process.
3819 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3821 This problem has been fixed.
3823 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3825 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3828 * New ``start'' command.
3830 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3832 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3834 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3835 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3836 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3838 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3839 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3840 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3841 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3842 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3843 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3844 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3845 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3846 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3848 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
3850 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3851 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3852 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3853 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3854 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3856 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3857 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3858 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3860 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3862 * New native configurations
3864 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
3865 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
3866 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3867 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
3868 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
3869 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
3870 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
3872 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3874 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3875 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3876 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3877 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3878 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3879 work, was also included.
3881 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3882 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3892 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3893 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3895 * REMOVED configurations and files
3897 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3898 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3899 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3900 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3901 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3902 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3903 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3904 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3905 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3906 sonymips mips-sony-*
3907 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3909 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3911 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3913 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3914 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3915 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3916 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3919 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3921 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3922 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3923 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3924 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3925 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3926 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3929 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3931 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
3933 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3934 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3935 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3937 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3939 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3940 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3942 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3944 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3945 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3946 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3948 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3950 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3951 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3953 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3955 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3956 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3957 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3959 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3961 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3962 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3963 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3965 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
3967 * Removed --with-mmalloc
3969 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3970 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3972 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
3974 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3975 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3976 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3977 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3979 * Revised SPARC target
3981 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3982 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
3983 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3984 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3985 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
3989 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3990 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3991 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3994 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3996 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3997 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4000 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4002 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4003 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4004 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4005 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4006 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4007 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4008 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4009 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4010 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4012 * New native configurations
4014 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4015 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4016 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4017 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4018 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4020 * New debugging protocols
4022 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4024 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4026 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4027 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4028 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4030 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4032 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4033 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4034 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4035 permanently REMOVED.
4037 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4038 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4039 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4040 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4041 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4042 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4043 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4044 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4045 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4046 sonymips mips-sony-*
4047 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4049 * REMOVED configurations and files
4051 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4052 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4053 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4054 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4055 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4056 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4057 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4058 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4059 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4060 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4061 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4062 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4063 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4064 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4065 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4066 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4067 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4069 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4073 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4074 integrated into GDB.
4076 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4078 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4079 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4080 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4083 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4084 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4085 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4089 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4090 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4091 remote protocol documentation for details.
4093 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4095 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4096 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4097 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4100 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4102 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4103 per-thread variables.
4105 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4107 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4108 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4110 * Separate debug info.
4112 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4113 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4114 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4115 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4116 and optional debug files.
4118 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4120 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4121 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4124 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4125 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4129 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4130 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4131 considered "useable".
4133 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4135 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4136 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4139 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4141 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4142 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4144 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4146 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4147 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4150 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4152 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4153 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4157 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4158 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4159 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4160 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4161 data, for more informative profiling results.
4163 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4165 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4166 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4167 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4169 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4172 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4173 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4174 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4175 in a subsequent -var-update.
4177 * New native configurations.
4179 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4181 * Multi-arched targets.
4183 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4184 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4186 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4188 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4189 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4190 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4191 permanently REMOVED.
4193 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4194 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4195 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4196 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4197 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4198 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4199 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4200 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4201 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4202 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4203 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4204 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4206 * REMOVED configurations and files
4209 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4210 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4211 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4212 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4213 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4214 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4216 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4217 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4218 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4219 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4220 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4221 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4223 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4225 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4226 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4227 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4228 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4229 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4231 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4233 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4235 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4236 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4237 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4238 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4239 shared libs like mad''.
4241 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4243 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4244 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4245 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4246 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4248 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4250 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4251 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4254 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4255 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4257 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4258 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4260 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4261 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4262 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4263 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4265 * Multi-arched targets.
4267 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4268 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4270 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4271 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4272 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4276 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4279 * New native configurations
4281 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4282 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4283 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4284 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4286 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4288 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4289 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4290 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4291 permanently REMOVED.
4293 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4294 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4295 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4296 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4297 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4298 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4299 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4300 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4301 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4302 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4304 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4305 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4307 * OBSOLETE languages
4309 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4311 * REMOVED configurations and files
4313 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4314 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4315 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4316 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4317 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4319 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4321 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4323 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4324 commands. The default is 1024.
4326 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4328 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4330 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4332 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4333 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4334 from a file into memory (restore).
4336 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4338 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4339 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4340 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4342 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4350 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4351 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4352 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4354 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4355 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4356 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4358 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
4359 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
4360 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
4362 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
4363 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
4364 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
4366 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
4368 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
4370 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
4371 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
4372 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
4373 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
4374 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
4375 (notably embedded) targets.
4377 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
4379 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
4380 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
4381 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
4382 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
4384 * New command line option
4386 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
4388 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4390 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
4391 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
4392 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
4393 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
4394 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4395 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4396 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4397 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4398 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4399 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4401 * Changes in ARM configurations.
4403 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
4404 configuration is fully multi-arch.
4406 * New native configurations
4408 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
4409 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
4410 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
4411 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
4415 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
4417 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4419 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4420 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4421 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4422 permanently REMOVED.
4424 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4425 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4426 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4427 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4428 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4430 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4432 * REMOVED configurations and files
4434 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4436 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4437 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4438 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4439 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4440 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4441 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4442 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4443 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4444 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4445 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4446 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
4448 * Changes to command line processing
4450 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4451 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4453 * Changes to key bindings
4455 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4457 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4459 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4461 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4464 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4466 Numerous documentation fixes.
4468 Numerous testsuite fixes.
4470 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
4472 * New native configurations
4474 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4475 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
4476 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
4477 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4478 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
4479 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
4483 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
4485 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
4487 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4489 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
4490 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4491 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4492 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4493 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4495 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4496 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4497 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4498 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4499 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4500 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4501 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4502 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
4504 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4505 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4507 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4508 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4509 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4510 permanently REMOVED.
4512 * REMOVED configurations and files
4514 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4515 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4517 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4521 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
4523 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
4524 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4529 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4531 * The MI enabled by default.
4533 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4534 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4535 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4536 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4537 which is now deprecated.
4539 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4541 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4542 main features are supported:
4544 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4546 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4549 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4551 - a Pascal expression parser.
4553 However, some important features are not yet supported.
4555 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4557 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4559 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4560 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4562 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4564 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4566 * Changes in completion.
4568 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4569 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4570 users expect at the shell prompt.
4572 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4573 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4574 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4575 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4576 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4577 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4578 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4580 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4582 * New platform-independent commands:
4584 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4585 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4586 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4588 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4590 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4591 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4592 many threads as your system allows you to have.
4594 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4596 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4597 multi-threaded programs though.
4599 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
4601 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4603 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4604 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4607 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4609 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4610 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4611 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4612 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4613 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4616 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4617 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4618 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4620 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4622 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4623 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4625 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4626 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4629 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4630 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4631 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4632 a given linear address.
4634 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4635 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4636 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4638 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4640 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4642 * Changes in documentation.
4644 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4645 Documentation License.
4647 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4650 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4652 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4655 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4656 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4657 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4659 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4661 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4662 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4663 contents of this file.
4667 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
4669 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
4671 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4673 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4674 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4675 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4676 greater level of detail.
4678 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4680 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4681 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4682 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4685 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4687 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4688 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4689 machines ``out of the box''.
4691 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4692 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4693 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4694 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4695 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4697 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4698 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4699 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4700 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4701 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4703 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4704 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4707 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4710 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4711 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4712 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4713 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4715 * New native configurations
4717 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
4718 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4722 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
4723 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4724 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
4725 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4727 * OBSOLETE configurations
4729 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4730 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4732 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4735 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4736 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4737 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4738 be permanently REMOVED.
4740 * Gould support removed
4742 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4744 * New features for SVR4
4746 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4747 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4748 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4750 * Many C++ enhancements
4752 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4753 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4755 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4757 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4758 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4759 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4760 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4762 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4763 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4765 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
4767 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4768 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4769 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4771 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4772 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4774 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4776 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4777 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4778 include ``set remote P-packet''.
4780 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4782 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4783 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4784 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4786 * ``apropos'' command added.
4788 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4789 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4790 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4794 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4795 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
4796 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4797 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4798 enabled by configuring with:
4800 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4802 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4804 * New native configurations
4806 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4807 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
4808 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
4812 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4813 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4814 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4816 * OBSOLETE configurations
4818 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4820 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4821 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4822 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4823 be permanently REMOVED.
4827 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4828 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4829 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4830 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4831 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4832 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4833 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4838 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4840 * set extension-language
4842 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4843 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4844 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4845 set extension-language .c c++
4846 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4847 and their associated languages.
4849 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4851 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4852 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4853 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4857 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4858 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4860 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4861 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4863 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4864 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4865 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4866 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4867 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4868 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4869 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4870 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4872 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4873 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4874 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4875 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4879 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4880 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4881 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4882 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4883 for xdb and dbx commands.
4887 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4888 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4889 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4891 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4892 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4893 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4895 * Debugging across forks
4897 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4902 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4903 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4904 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4906 * GDB remote protocol additions
4908 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4909 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4910 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4911 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4913 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4914 full 64-bit address. The command
4916 set remoteaddresssize 32
4918 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4919 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4922 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4923 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4925 maint packet heythere
4927 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4928 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4931 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4932 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4933 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4935 * Tracing can collect general expressions
4937 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4938 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4939 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4941 * mask-address variable for Mips
4943 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4944 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4945 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4947 * Higher serial baud rates
4949 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4950 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4951 to achieve all of these rates.)
4955 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4956 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4959 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4961 * New native configurations
4963 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4964 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4965 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4966 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4967 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4968 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4969 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4973 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4974 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4975 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4976 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4977 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4978 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4979 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4980 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4981 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4982 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4983 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4985 * New debugging protocols
4987 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4988 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4989 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4990 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4991 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4992 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4996 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4997 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5002 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5003 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5005 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5007 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5008 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5009 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5011 * Live range splitting
5013 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5014 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5015 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5019 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5020 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5024 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5025 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5026 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5031 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5036 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5037 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5038 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5039 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5040 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5041 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5045 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5046 the symbol at the specified address.
5050 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5051 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5052 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5053 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5054 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5058 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5059 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5060 of most MIPS variants.
5064 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5065 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5066 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5070 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5071 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5072 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5073 the possible architectures.
5075 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5077 * New native configurations
5079 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5080 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5081 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5082 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5083 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5084 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5088 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5089 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5090 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5091 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5092 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5094 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5098 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5099 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5100 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5101 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5102 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5106 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5108 * Windows 95/NT native
5110 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5111 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5112 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5113 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5114 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5116 * dont-repeat command
5118 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5119 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5120 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5121 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5123 * Send break instead of ^C
5125 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5126 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5127 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5129 * Remote protocol timeout
5131 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5132 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5133 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5135 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5137 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5138 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5139 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5140 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5141 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5143 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5144 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5145 automatically on hpux10.
5147 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5149 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5151 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5153 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5154 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5155 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5156 every character. The default value is 1050.
5158 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5160 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5161 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5162 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5163 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5164 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5165 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5167 * Speedups for remote debugging
5169 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5170 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5171 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5173 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5175 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5176 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5178 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5180 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5182 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5183 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5185 * Remote targets use caching
5187 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5188 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5189 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5190 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5191 off' turns the the data cache off.
5193 * Remote targets may have threads
5195 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5196 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5197 gdb/remote.c for details.
5201 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5202 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5203 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5204 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5205 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5206 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5207 sequence is something like
5209 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5211 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5215 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5216 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5217 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5218 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5219 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5220 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5221 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5222 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5226 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5227 but does simplify configuration and building.
5231 GDB now supports hpux10.
5233 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5235 * New native configurations
5237 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5238 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5239 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5240 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5244 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5245 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5246 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5247 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5250 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5252 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5253 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5254 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5255 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5256 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5258 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5260 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5261 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5264 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5266 To execute the command use:
5269 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5270 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5271 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5273 * New `if' and `while' commands
5275 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5276 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5277 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5278 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5279 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5280 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5281 if the expression is zero.
5283 * Fortran source language mode
5285 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5286 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5287 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5288 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5291 * Better HPUX support
5293 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5294 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5295 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5296 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5297 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5303 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5304 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5310 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5311 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5314 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5315 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5317 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5319 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5320 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5321 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5322 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5323 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5324 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5326 * New DOS host serial code
5328 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5329 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5332 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5334 * New "complete" command
5336 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5337 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5339 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5341 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5342 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5344 * Breakpoint hit counts
5346 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5347 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5348 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5349 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5350 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5353 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5355 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5356 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5357 arrays actually contain only short strings.
5359 * Shared library breakpoints
5361 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
5362 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
5364 * Hardware watchpoints
5366 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
5367 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
5369 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
5373 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
5374 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
5376 * Improved Irix 5 support
5378 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
5380 * Improved HPPA support
5382 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
5384 * New native configurations
5386 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
5387 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5388 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
5389 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
5393 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5394 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5397 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5399 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5400 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
5404 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
5405 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
5407 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
5409 * Irix 5 is now supported
5413 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
5414 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
5415 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
5416 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
5417 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
5420 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
5422 * User visible changes:
5426 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
5427 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
5428 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
5429 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
5430 debugging info for the mips target).
5432 * DEC Alpha native support
5434 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
5435 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
5436 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
5437 Alpha-specific notes.
5439 * Preliminary thread implementation
5441 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
5443 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
5445 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
5446 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
5449 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5451 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5452 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5453 call methods, ...etc.
5455 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5457 * User visible changes:
5459 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5460 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5461 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5462 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5464 Filename completion now works.
5466 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5467 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5468 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5470 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5471 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5472 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5473 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5474 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5478 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5479 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5482 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5486 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5487 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5488 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5492 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5493 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5494 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5495 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5496 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5500 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5501 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5502 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5504 * New targets supported
5506 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5507 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5508 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5509 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5510 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5512 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5513 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5514 GO32 memory extender.
5516 * New remote protocols
5518 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5520 * New source languages supported
5522 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5523 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5524 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5527 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5529 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5531 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5532 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5533 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5534 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5535 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5536 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5538 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5540 * Faster and better demangling
5542 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5543 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5544 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5545 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5546 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5547 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5550 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5551 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5552 compiler does not actually implement.
5554 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5556 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5557 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5558 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5559 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5560 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5561 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5564 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5565 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5567 * Improved configure script
5569 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5570 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5571 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5572 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5574 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5575 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5576 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5577 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5578 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5579 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5581 * Documentation improvements
5583 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5584 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5585 before submitting changes.
5587 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5588 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5589 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5590 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5591 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5593 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5594 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5595 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5596 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5597 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5598 around this problem.
5602 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5603 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5604 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5607 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5608 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5610 * New native hosts supported
5612 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5613 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5615 * New targets supported
5617 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5619 * New file formats supported
5621 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5622 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5626 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5628 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5629 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5631 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5632 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5633 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5635 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5636 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5638 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5639 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5640 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5643 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5644 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5645 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5646 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5647 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5649 * Internal improvements
5651 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5652 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5654 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5655 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5656 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5657 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5658 shared code that handles any of them.
5660 * New command line options
5662 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5666 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5667 General Public License.
5669 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5671 * Host/native/target split
5673 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5674 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5675 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5676 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5677 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5679 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5680 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5681 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5682 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5683 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5684 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5685 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5687 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5688 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5689 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5691 * New hosts supported
5693 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5694 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5695 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5697 * New targets supported
5699 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5700 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5702 * New native hosts supported
5704 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5705 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5706 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5708 * New file formats supported
5710 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5711 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5712 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5716 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5717 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5718 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5720 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5722 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5723 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5724 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5725 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5729 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5730 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5731 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5733 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5737 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5738 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5741 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5742 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5744 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5745 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5746 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5747 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5748 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5749 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5751 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5752 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5753 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5754 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5758 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5759 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5760 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5761 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5762 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5764 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5765 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5766 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5767 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5771 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5772 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5773 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5774 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5775 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5776 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5777 each instruction being stepped through.
5779 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5780 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5782 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5783 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5784 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5785 processor with a serial port.
5789 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5790 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5791 supported, and what files each one uses.
5795 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5796 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5797 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5798 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5800 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5801 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5802 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5803 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5807 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5808 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5809 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5810 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5811 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5812 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5814 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5817 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5819 * Better support for C++ function names
5821 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5822 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5823 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5824 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5825 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5827 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5828 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5829 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5830 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5831 for the list of formats.
5833 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5835 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5836 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5837 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5838 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5839 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5840 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5843 * New 'maintenance' command
5845 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5846 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5847 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5849 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5850 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5851 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5852 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5853 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5854 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5856 The following commands are new:
5858 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5859 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5860 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5862 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5864 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5865 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5866 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5867 read after argv processing.
5869 * New hosts supported
5871 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5873 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
5875 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5876 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5877 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5878 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5879 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5882 * New targets supported
5884 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5886 * More smarts about finding #include files
5888 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5889 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5890 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5891 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5892 the one that contains your sources.
5894 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5895 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5896 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5898 * Interesting infernals change
5900 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5901 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5902 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5903 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5905 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5907 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5908 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5909 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5911 See the ChangeLog for details.
5913 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5915 * New machines supported (host and target)
5917 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5919 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5921 * New malloc package
5923 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5924 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5925 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5926 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5927 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5928 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5932 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5933 'help info proc' for details.
5935 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5937 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5938 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5941 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5943 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5944 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5945 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5946 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5947 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5948 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5950 * Cross byte order fixes
5952 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5953 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5955 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5957 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5958 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5959 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5960 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5961 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5962 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5963 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5964 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5965 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5966 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5968 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5969 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5970 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5971 slower, but makes future operations faster.
5973 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5974 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5975 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5978 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5980 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5981 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5982 shared across multiple host platforms.
5984 * longjmp() handling
5986 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5987 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5988 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5989 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5993 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5994 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5999 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6000 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6001 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6003 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6005 * New machines supported (host and target)
6007 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6009 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6010 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6012 * New machines supported (target)
6014 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6018 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6019 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6020 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6022 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6023 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6024 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6025 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6026 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6029 * New features for SVR4
6031 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6032 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6033 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6035 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6036 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6037 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6039 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6040 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6042 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6044 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6045 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6046 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6047 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6048 same code linked statically.
6052 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6053 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6054 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6055 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6056 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6057 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6061 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6062 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6063 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6066 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6068 * New machines supported (host and target)
6070 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6071 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6072 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6074 * Almost SCO Unix support
6076 We had hoped to support:
6077 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6078 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6079 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6080 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6082 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6084 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6085 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6086 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6087 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6092 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6093 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6094 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6098 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6099 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6100 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6102 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6104 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6105 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6106 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6108 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6109 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6110 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6111 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6114 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6115 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6116 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6117 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6120 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6121 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6124 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6125 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6126 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6129 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6131 * Improved configuration
6133 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6134 Porting BFD is simpler.
6138 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6139 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6140 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6141 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6145 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6147 * New host supported (not target)
6149 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6152 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6154 * Multiple source language support
6156 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6157 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6158 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6159 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6160 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6161 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6165 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6166 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6167 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6168 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6170 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6171 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6172 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6174 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6175 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6179 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6180 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6181 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6182 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6185 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6187 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6188 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6189 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6190 examining core files.
6194 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6197 * New machines supported (host and target)
6199 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6200 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6201 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6203 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6205 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6207 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6209 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6210 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6211 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6213 * New remote interfaces
6219 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6223 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6225 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6226 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6227 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6228 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6229 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6230 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6231 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6232 stub on the target system.
6234 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6236 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6237 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6238 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6240 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6241 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6244 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6246 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6247 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6249 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6250 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6251 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6253 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6254 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6255 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6256 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6258 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6259 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6260 it is already running. Default is ON.
6262 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6263 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6264 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6265 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6268 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6269 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6270 or the value of the environment variable
6273 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6274 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6277 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6278 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6279 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6281 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6282 history expansion will be performed on
6283 command line input. The default is OFF.
6285 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6286 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6287 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6289 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6290 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6291 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6294 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6295 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6296 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6299 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6300 ``set width'' instead.
6302 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6303 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6304 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6305 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6307 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6310 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6313 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6316 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6319 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6321 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6322 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6323 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6327 * Support for Shared Libraries
6329 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6330 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6331 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6332 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6333 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6334 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6335 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6336 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6338 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6339 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6340 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6342 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6347 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6348 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6349 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6350 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6351 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6352 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6354 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6356 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6358 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6359 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6360 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6363 * C++ multiple inheritance
6365 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
6368 * C++ exception handling
6370 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
6371 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
6372 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
6375 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
6376 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
6377 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
6379 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
6380 current stack frame.
6383 * Minor command changes
6385 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
6386 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
6387 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
6389 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
6390 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
6391 frames without printing.
6393 * New directory command
6395 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6396 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6397 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6398 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6399 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6401 * Configuring GDB for compilation
6403 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
6406 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
6407 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
6408 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
6409 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / external / binutils.git / blob