1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.2:
6 * Changes in VAX configurations.
8 Multi-arch support is enabled for all VAX configurations.
10 * New native configurations
12 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
14 * Changes in Alpha configurations.
16 Multi-arch support is enabled for all Alpha configurations.
18 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
20 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
21 commands. The default is 1024.
23 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
25 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
27 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
29 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
30 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
31 from a file into memory (restore).
33 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
35 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
37 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
38 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
39 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
40 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
41 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
42 (notably embedded) targets.
44 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
46 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
47 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
48 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
49 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
51 * New command line option
53 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
55 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
57 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
58 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
59 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
60 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
61 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
62 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
63 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
64 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
65 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
66 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
68 * Changes in ARM configurations.
70 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
71 configuration is fully multi-arch.
73 * New native configurations
75 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
76 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
77 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
78 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
82 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
84 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
86 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
87 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
88 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
91 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
92 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
93 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
94 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
95 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
97 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
99 * REMOVED configurations and files
101 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
103 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
104 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
105 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
106 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
107 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
108 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
109 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
110 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
111 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
112 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
113 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
115 * Changes to command line processing
117 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
118 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
120 * Changes to key bindings
122 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
124 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
126 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
128 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
131 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
133 Numerous documentation fixes.
135 Numerous testsuite fixes.
137 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139 * New native configurations
141 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
142 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
143 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
144 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
146 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
150 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
152 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
154 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
156 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
157 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
158 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
159 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
160 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
162 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
163 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
164 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
165 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
166 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
167 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
168 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
169 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
171 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
172 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
174 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
175 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
176 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
179 * REMOVED configurations and files
181 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
182 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
184 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
188 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
190 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
191 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
196 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
198 * The MI enabled by default.
200 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
201 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
202 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
203 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
204 which is now deprecated.
206 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
208 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
209 main features are supported:
211 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
213 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
216 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
218 - a Pascal expression parser.
220 However, some important features are not yet supported.
222 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
224 - there are some problems with boolean types;
226 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
227 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
229 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
231 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
233 * Changes in completion.
235 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
236 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
237 users expect at the shell prompt.
239 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
240 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
241 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
242 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
243 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
244 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
245 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
247 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
249 * New platform-independent commands:
251 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
252 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
253 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
255 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
257 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
258 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
259 many threads as your system allows you to have.
261 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
263 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
264 multi-threaded programs though.
266 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
268 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
270 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
271 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
274 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
276 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
277 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
278 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
279 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
280 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
283 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
284 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
285 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
287 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
289 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
290 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
292 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
293 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
296 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
297 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
298 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
299 a given linear address.
301 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
302 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
303 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
305 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
307 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
309 * Changes in documentation.
311 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
312 Documentation License.
314 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
317 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
319 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
322 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
323 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
324 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
326 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
328 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
329 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
330 contents of this file.
334 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
336 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
338 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
340 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
341 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
342 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
343 greater level of detail.
345 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
347 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
348 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
349 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
352 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
354 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
355 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
356 machines ``out of the box''.
358 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
359 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
360 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
361 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
362 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
364 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
365 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
366 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
367 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
368 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
370 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
371 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
374 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
377 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
378 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
379 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
380 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
382 * New native configurations
384 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
385 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
389 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
390 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
391 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
392 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
394 * OBSOLETE configurations
396 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
397 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
399 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
402 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
403 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
404 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
405 be permanently REMOVED.
407 * Gould support removed
409 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
411 * New features for SVR4
413 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
414 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
415 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
417 * Many C++ enhancements
419 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
420 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
422 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
424 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
425 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
426 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
427 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
429 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
430 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
432 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
434 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
435 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
436 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
438 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
439 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
441 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
443 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
444 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
445 include ``set remote P-packet''.
447 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
449 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
450 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
451 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
453 * ``apropos'' command added.
455 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
456 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
457 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
461 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
462 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
463 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
464 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
465 enabled by configuring with:
467 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
469 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
471 * New native configurations
473 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
474 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
475 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
479 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
480 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
481 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
483 * OBSOLETE configurations
485 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
487 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
488 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
489 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
490 be permanently REMOVED.
494 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
495 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
496 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
497 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
498 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
499 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
500 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
505 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
507 * set extension-language
509 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
510 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
511 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
512 set extension-language .c c++
513 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
514 and their associated languages.
516 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
518 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
519 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
520 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
524 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
525 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
527 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
528 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
530 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
531 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
532 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
533 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
534 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
535 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
536 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
537 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
539 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
540 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
541 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
542 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
546 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
547 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
548 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
549 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
550 for xdb and dbx commands.
554 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
555 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
556 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
558 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
559 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
560 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
562 * Debugging across forks
564 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
569 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
570 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
571 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
573 * GDB remote protocol additions
575 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
576 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
577 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
578 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
580 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
581 full 64-bit address. The command
583 set remoteaddresssize 32
585 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
586 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
589 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
590 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
592 maint packet heythere
594 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
595 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
598 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
599 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
600 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
602 * Tracing can collect general expressions
604 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
605 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
606 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
608 * mask-address variable for Mips
610 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
611 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
612 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
614 * Higher serial baud rates
616 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
617 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
618 to achieve all of these rates.)
622 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
623 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
626 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
628 * New native configurations
630 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
631 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
632 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
633 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
634 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
635 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
636 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
640 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
641 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
642 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
643 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
644 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
645 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
646 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
647 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
648 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
649 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
650 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
652 * New debugging protocols
654 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
655 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
656 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
657 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
658 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
659 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
663 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
664 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
669 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
670 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
672 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
674 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
675 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
676 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
678 * Live range splitting
680 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
681 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
682 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
686 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
687 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
691 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
692 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
693 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
698 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
703 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
704 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
705 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
706 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
707 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
708 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
712 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
713 the symbol at the specified address.
717 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
718 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
719 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
720 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
721 file tracepoint.c for more details.
725 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
726 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
727 of most MIPS variants.
731 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
732 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
733 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
737 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
738 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
739 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
740 the possible architectures.
742 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
744 * New native configurations
746 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
747 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
748 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
749 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
750 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
751 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
755 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
756 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
757 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
758 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
759 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
761 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
765 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
766 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
767 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
768 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
769 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
773 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
775 * Windows 95/NT native
777 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
778 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
779 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
780 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
781 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
783 * dont-repeat command
785 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
786 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
787 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
788 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
790 * Send break instead of ^C
792 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
793 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
794 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
796 * Remote protocol timeout
798 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
799 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
800 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
802 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
804 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
805 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
806 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
807 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
808 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
810 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
811 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
812 automatically on hpux10.
814 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
816 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
818 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
820 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
821 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
822 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
823 every character. The default value is 1050.
825 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
827 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
828 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
829 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
830 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
831 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
832 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
834 * Speedups for remote debugging
836 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
837 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
838 and more efficient S-record downloading.
840 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
842 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
843 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
845 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
849 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
850 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
852 * Remote targets use caching
854 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
855 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
856 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
857 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
858 off' turns the the data cache off.
860 * Remote targets may have threads
862 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
863 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
864 gdb/remote.c for details.
868 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
869 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
870 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
871 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
872 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
873 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
874 sequence is something like
876 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
878 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
882 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
883 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
884 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
885 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
886 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
887 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
888 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
889 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
893 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
894 but does simplify configuration and building.
898 GDB now supports hpux10.
900 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
902 * New native configurations
904 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
905 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
906 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
907 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
911 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
912 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
913 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
914 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
917 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
919 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
920 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
921 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
922 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
923 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
925 * Arguments to user-defined commands
927 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
928 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
931 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
933 To execute the command use:
936 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
937 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
938 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
940 * New `if' and `while' commands
942 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
943 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
944 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
945 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
946 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
947 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
948 if the expression is zero.
950 * Fortran source language mode
952 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
953 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
954 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
955 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
958 * Better HPUX support
960 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
961 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
962 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
963 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
964 that behavior do the following before running the program:
970 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
971 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
977 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
978 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
981 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
982 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
984 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
986 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
987 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
988 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
989 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
990 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
991 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
993 * New DOS host serial code
995 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
996 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
999 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1001 * New "complete" command
1003 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1004 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1006 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1008 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1009 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1011 * Breakpoint hit counts
1013 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1014 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1015 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1016 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1017 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1020 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1022 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1023 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1024 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1026 * Shared library breakpoints
1028 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1029 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1031 * Hardware watchpoints
1033 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1034 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1036 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1040 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1041 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1043 * Improved Irix 5 support
1045 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1047 * Improved HPPA support
1049 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1051 * New native configurations
1053 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1054 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1055 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1056 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1060 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1061 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1064 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1066 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1067 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1071 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1072 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1074 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1076 * Irix 5 is now supported
1080 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1081 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1082 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1083 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1084 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1087 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1089 * User visible changes:
1093 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1094 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1095 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1096 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1097 debugging info for the mips target).
1099 * DEC Alpha native support
1101 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1102 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1103 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1104 Alpha-specific notes.
1106 * Preliminary thread implementation
1108 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1110 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1112 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1113 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1116 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1118 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1119 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1120 call methods, ...etc.
1122 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1124 * User visible changes:
1126 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1127 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1128 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1129 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1131 Filename completion now works.
1133 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1134 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1135 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1137 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1138 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1139 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1140 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1141 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1145 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1146 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1149 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1153 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1154 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1155 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1159 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1160 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1161 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1162 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1163 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1167 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1168 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1169 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1171 * New targets supported
1173 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1174 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1175 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1176 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1177 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1179 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1180 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1181 GO32 memory extender.
1183 * New remote protocols
1185 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1187 * New source languages supported
1189 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1190 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1191 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1194 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1196 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1198 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1199 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1200 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1201 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1202 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1203 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1205 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1207 * Faster and better demangling
1209 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1210 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1211 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1212 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1213 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1214 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1217 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1218 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1219 compiler does not actually implement.
1221 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1223 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1224 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1225 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1226 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1227 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1228 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1231 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1232 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1234 * Improved configure script
1236 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1237 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1238 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1239 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1241 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1242 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1243 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1244 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1245 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1246 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1248 * Documentation improvements
1250 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1251 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1252 before submitting changes.
1254 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1255 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1256 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1257 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1258 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1260 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1261 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1262 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1263 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1264 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1265 around this problem.
1269 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1270 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1271 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1274 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1275 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1277 * New native hosts supported
1279 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1280 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1282 * New targets supported
1284 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1286 * New file formats supported
1288 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1289 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1293 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1295 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1296 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1298 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1299 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1300 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1302 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1303 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1305 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1306 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1307 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1310 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1311 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1312 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1313 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1314 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1316 * Internal improvements
1318 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1319 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1321 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1322 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1323 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1324 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1325 shared code that handles any of them.
1327 * New command line options
1329 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1333 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1334 General Public License.
1336 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1338 * Host/native/target split
1340 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1341 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1342 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1343 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1344 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1346 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1347 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1348 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1349 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1350 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1351 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1352 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1354 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1355 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1356 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1358 * New hosts supported
1360 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1361 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1362 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1364 * New targets supported
1366 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1367 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1369 * New native hosts supported
1371 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1372 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1373 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1375 * New file formats supported
1377 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1378 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1379 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1383 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1384 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1385 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1387 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1389 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1390 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1391 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1392 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1396 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1397 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1398 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1400 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1404 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1405 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1408 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1409 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1411 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1412 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1413 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1414 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1415 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1416 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1418 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1419 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1420 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1421 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1425 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1426 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1427 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1428 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1429 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1431 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1432 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1433 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1434 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1438 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1439 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1440 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1441 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1442 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1443 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1444 each instruction being stepped through.
1446 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1447 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1449 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1450 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1451 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1452 processor with a serial port.
1456 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1457 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1458 supported, and what files each one uses.
1462 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1463 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1464 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1465 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1467 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1468 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1469 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1470 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1474 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1475 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1476 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1477 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1478 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1479 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1481 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1484 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1486 * Better support for C++ function names
1488 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1489 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1490 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1491 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1492 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1494 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1495 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1496 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1497 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1498 for the list of formats.
1500 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1502 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1503 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1504 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1505 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1506 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1507 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1510 * New 'maintenance' command
1512 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1513 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1514 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1516 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1517 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1518 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1519 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1520 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1521 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1523 The following commands are new:
1525 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1526 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1527 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1529 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1531 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1532 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1533 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1534 read after argv processing.
1536 * New hosts supported
1538 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1540 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1542 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1543 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1544 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1545 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1546 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1549 * New targets supported
1551 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1553 * More smarts about finding #include files
1555 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1556 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1557 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1558 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1559 the one that contains your sources.
1561 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1562 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1563 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1565 * Interesting infernals change
1567 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1568 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1569 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1570 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1572 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1574 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1575 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1576 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1578 See the ChangeLog for details.
1580 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1582 * New machines supported (host and target)
1584 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1586 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1588 * New malloc package
1590 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1591 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1592 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1593 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1594 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1595 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1599 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1600 'help info proc' for details.
1602 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1604 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1605 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1608 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1610 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1611 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1612 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1613 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1614 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1615 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1617 * Cross byte order fixes
1619 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1620 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1622 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1624 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1625 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1626 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1627 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1628 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1629 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1630 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1631 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1632 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1633 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1635 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1636 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1637 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1638 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1640 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1641 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1642 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1645 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1647 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1648 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1649 shared across multiple host platforms.
1651 * longjmp() handling
1653 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1654 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1655 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1656 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1660 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1661 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1666 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1667 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1668 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1670 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1672 * New machines supported (host and target)
1674 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1676 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1677 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1679 * New machines supported (target)
1681 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1685 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1686 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1687 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1689 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1690 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1691 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1692 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1693 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1696 * New features for SVR4
1698 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1699 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1700 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1702 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1703 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1704 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1706 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1707 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1709 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1711 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1712 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1713 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1714 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1715 same code linked statically.
1719 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1720 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1721 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1722 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1723 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1724 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1728 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1729 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1730 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1733 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1735 * New machines supported (host and target)
1737 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1738 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1739 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1741 * Almost SCO Unix support
1743 We had hoped to support:
1744 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1745 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1746 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1747 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1749 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1751 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1752 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1753 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1754 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1759 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1760 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1761 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1765 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1766 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1767 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1769 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1771 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1772 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1773 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1775 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1776 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1777 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1778 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1781 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1782 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1783 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1784 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1787 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1788 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1791 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1792 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1793 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1796 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1798 * Improved configuration
1800 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1801 Porting BFD is simpler.
1805 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1806 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1807 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1808 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1812 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1814 * New host supported (not target)
1816 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1819 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1821 * Multiple source language support
1823 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1824 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1825 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1826 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1827 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1828 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1832 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1833 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1834 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1835 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1837 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1838 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1839 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1841 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1842 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1846 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1847 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1848 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1849 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1852 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1854 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1855 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1856 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1857 examining core files.
1861 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1864 * New machines supported (host and target)
1866 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1867 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1868 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1870 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1872 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1874 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1876 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1877 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1878 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1880 * New remote interfaces
1886 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1890 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1892 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1893 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1894 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1895 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1896 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1897 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1898 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1899 stub on the target system.
1901 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1903 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1904 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1905 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1907 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1908 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1911 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1913 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1914 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1916 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1917 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1918 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1920 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1921 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1922 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1923 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1925 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1926 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1927 it is already running. Default is ON.
1929 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1930 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1931 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1932 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1935 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1936 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1937 or the value of the environment variable
1940 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1941 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1944 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1945 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1946 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1948 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1949 history expansion will be performed on
1950 command line input. The default is OFF.
1952 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1953 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1954 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1956 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1957 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1958 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1961 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1962 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1963 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1966 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1967 ``set width'' instead.
1969 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1970 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1971 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1972 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1974 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1977 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1980 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1983 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1986 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1988 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1989 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1990 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1994 * Support for Shared Libraries
1996 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1997 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1998 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1999 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2000 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2001 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2002 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2003 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2005 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2006 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2007 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2009 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2014 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2015 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2016 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2017 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2018 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2019 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2021 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2023 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2025 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2026 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2027 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2030 * C++ multiple inheritance
2032 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2035 * C++ exception handling
2037 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2038 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2039 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2042 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2043 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2044 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2046 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2047 current stack frame.
2050 * Minor command changes
2052 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2053 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2054 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2056 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2057 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2058 frames without printing.
2060 * New directory command
2062 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2063 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2064 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2065 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2066 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2068 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2070 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2073 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2074 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2075 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2076 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / external / binutils.git / blob