1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.5
6 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
7 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
8 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
9 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
10 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
11 --data-directory command-line option.
13 * New command line options:
15 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
16 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
18 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
21 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
25 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
27 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
29 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
31 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
33 * New Python-based convenience functions:
35 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
36 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
38 ** $_regex(str, regex)
40 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
43 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
45 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
46 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
48 * New configure options
50 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
51 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
52 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
53 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
54 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
55 options allow the user to override that default.
57 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
60 List the BFDs known to GDB.
62 python-interactive [command]
64 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
65 and print the result of expressions.
68 "py" is a new alias for "python".
70 enable type-printer [name]...
71 disable type-printer [name]...
72 Enable or disable type printers.
76 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
77 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
82 set print type methods (on|off)
83 show print type methods
84 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
85 The default is to show them.
87 set print type typedefs (on|off)
88 show print type typedefs
89 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
90 The default is to show them.
94 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
96 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
97 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
98 ** The creation and deletion of trace state variables are now notified
99 using new async records "=tsv-created" and "=tsv-deleted".
100 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
101 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
102 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
104 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
105 containing the absolute file name when GDB can determine it and source
107 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
108 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
109 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
110 library load/unload events.
111 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
112 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
113 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
115 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
116 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
117 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
118 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
120 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
122 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
123 for more x32 ABI info.
125 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
127 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
129 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
130 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
131 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
132 "info os files" lists file descriptors
133 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
134 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
135 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
136 "info os msg" lists message queues
137 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
139 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
140 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
141 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
142 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
143 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
144 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
146 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
147 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
148 record/replay support.
150 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
154 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
157 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
159 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
160 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
162 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
164 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
165 the source at which the symbol was defined.
167 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
168 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
169 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
172 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
173 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
175 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
176 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
177 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
179 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
180 object associated with a PC value.
182 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
183 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
185 * Go language support.
186 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
189 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
190 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
192 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
193 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
195 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
196 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
197 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
198 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
199 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
202 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
203 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
204 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
207 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
208 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
210 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
213 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
214 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
215 command does. For instance:
217 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
219 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
220 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
221 created, using the "condition" command.
223 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
224 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
226 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
228 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
229 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
230 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
231 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
232 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
233 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
234 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
235 files with older .gdb_index sections.
237 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
238 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
239 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
240 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
241 the .gdb_index section.
243 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
245 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
250 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
252 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
256 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
257 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
258 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
260 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
261 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
263 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
266 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
267 C++ and Java objects.
269 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
270 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
271 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
272 configured with '--with-python'.
274 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
275 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
276 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
277 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
278 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
279 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
280 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
282 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
283 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
284 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
285 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
287 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
288 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
289 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
290 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
292 ** "set print symbol"
294 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
295 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
296 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
298 * Deprecated commands
300 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
301 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
305 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
306 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
308 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
309 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
310 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
311 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
317 show mips compression
318 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
319 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
322 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
324 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
325 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
326 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
327 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
329 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
333 Disable auto-loading globally.
336 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
338 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
339 show auto-load gdb-scripts
340 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
342 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
343 show auto-load python-scripts
344 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
346 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
347 show auto-load local-gdbinit
348 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
350 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
351 show auto-load libthread-db
352 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
354 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
355 show auto-load scripts-directory
356 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
357 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
358 of the directories listed by this option.
359 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
361 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
362 show auto-load safe-path
363 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
364 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
366 set debug auto-load on|off
368 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
370 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
372 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
373 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
374 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
375 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
377 set dprintf-function <expr>
378 show dprintf-function
379 set dprintf-channel <expr>
381 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
382 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
384 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
385 show disconnected-dprintf
386 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
387 after GDB disconnects.
389 * New configure options
392 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
393 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
394 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
395 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
396 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
398 --with-auto-load-safe-path
399 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
400 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
402 --without-auto-load-safe-path
403 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
408 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
410 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
411 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
412 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
413 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
417 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
418 program without GDB involvement.
420 * New command line options
422 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
423 before loading inferior.
424 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
425 execute it before loading inferior.
427 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
429 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
430 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
431 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
432 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
435 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
436 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
438 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
439 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
440 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
441 target hardware watchpoint.
443 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
444 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
445 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
446 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
450 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
451 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
454 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
455 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
456 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
457 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
458 now "message", which just prints the error message without
461 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
464 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
465 modules library. This module provides functionality for
466 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
467 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
470 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
471 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
472 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
475 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
476 static_block will return the global and static blocks
477 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
478 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
480 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
482 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
485 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
486 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
487 available in the CLI.
489 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
490 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
491 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
494 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
497 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
498 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
499 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
500 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
501 any anonymous fields.
505 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
508 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
509 "=breakpoint-modified".
511 ** New command -ada-task-info.
513 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
514 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
515 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
518 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
519 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
520 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
521 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
522 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
524 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
525 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
527 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
528 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
529 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
530 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
531 use this option to specify where to find it.
533 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
534 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
535 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
536 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
537 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
538 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
539 section in the user manual for more details.
541 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
542 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
543 become available after that.
545 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
547 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
548 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
554 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
555 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
559 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
560 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
561 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
563 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
564 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
565 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
567 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
568 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
569 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
570 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
571 name starts with a hyphen.
573 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
574 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
575 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
576 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
577 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
578 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
579 number of bytes that will be collected.
582 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
583 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
584 setting the variable trace-notes.
587 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
588 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
589 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
592 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
593 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
594 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
595 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
596 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
599 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
600 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
601 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
605 set debug dwarf2-read
606 show debug dwarf2-read
607 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
608 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
610 set debug symtab-create
611 show debug symtab-create
612 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
613 creation. The default is off.
617 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
618 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
619 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
620 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
623 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
624 show print entry-values
625 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
626 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
627 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
629 set debug entry-values
630 show debug entry-values
631 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
632 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
634 set basenames-may-differ
635 show basenames-may-differ
636 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
637 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
638 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
639 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
640 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
641 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
642 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
643 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
649 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
650 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
651 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
652 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
655 show trace-stop-notes
656 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
657 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
658 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
659 started by someone else.
665 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
669 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
673 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
677 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
681 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
684 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
685 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
689 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
693 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
695 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
697 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
699 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
701 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
702 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
703 matches the given regular expression.
705 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
707 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
708 dumping the instruction opcodes.
710 * New command line options
712 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
713 This is mostly for testing purposes.
715 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
716 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
718 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
719 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
720 source path list instead of augmenting it.
722 * GDB now understands thread names.
724 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
725 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
727 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
728 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
731 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
732 has been integrated into GDB.
736 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
737 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
738 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
740 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
741 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
742 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
743 and allows for more dynamic content.
745 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
746 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
747 have an is_valid method.
749 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
750 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
751 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
753 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
755 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
756 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
757 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
758 that function like so:
760 result = some_value (10,20)
762 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
763 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
764 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
766 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
767 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
768 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
769 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
770 New function: register_pretty_printer.
772 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
773 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
775 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
777 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
780 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
781 holds the thread's name.
783 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
784 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
785 occurring in the process being debugged.
786 The following events are currently supported:
787 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
788 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
789 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
793 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
794 instantiation. For example, if you have:
796 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
798 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
799 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
800 was added to GCC 4.5.
802 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
803 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
804 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
805 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
806 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
807 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
809 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
810 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
811 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
812 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
813 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
815 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
816 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
817 execution to a label.
819 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
820 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
821 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
822 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
824 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
825 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
826 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
829 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
831 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
832 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
833 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
834 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
835 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
836 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
839 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
841 While now you see this:
844 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
846 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
849 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
850 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
851 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
852 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
854 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
855 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
856 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
857 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
858 section in the user manual for more details.
860 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
862 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
863 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
865 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
867 * New native configurations
869 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
873 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
875 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
876 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
877 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
878 in the GDB user manual.
880 * Guile support was removed.
882 * New features in the GNU simulator
884 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
886 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
888 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
890 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
892 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
893 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
894 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
895 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
896 was always disabled for such configurations.
900 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
902 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
903 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
913 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
914 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
915 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
917 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
919 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
920 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
921 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
922 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
924 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
925 mentioned flavors of operators.
927 ** static const class members
929 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
930 class definition has been fixed.
932 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
934 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
935 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
936 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
937 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
938 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
939 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
943 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
944 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
945 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
946 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
947 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
948 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
949 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
950 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
951 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
952 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
953 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
954 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
955 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
956 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
957 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
958 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
959 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
960 the "New remote packets" section below.
962 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
964 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
965 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
966 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
967 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
971 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
972 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
973 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
974 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
975 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
976 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
977 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
979 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
986 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
990 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
991 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
992 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
993 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
994 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
995 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
999 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1003 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1006 qXfer:statictrace:read
1008 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1009 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1010 to gdb's qSupported query.
1014 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1018 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1019 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1021 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1022 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1025 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1027 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1028 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1029 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1030 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1032 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1033 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1034 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1035 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1036 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1037 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1038 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1040 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1041 for static tracepoints support.
1043 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1045 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1046 it understands register description.
1048 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1050 * X86 general purpose registers
1052 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1053 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1054 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1055 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1056 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1058 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
1059 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1060 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1061 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1062 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1063 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
1065 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1066 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1067 in the specified file.
1069 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1070 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1071 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1072 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1073 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1074 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1075 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1076 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1077 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1078 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1082 eval template, expressions...
1083 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1084 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1086 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1087 show target-file-system-kind
1088 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1091 save breakpoints <filename>
1092 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1093 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1094 definitions, use the `source' command.
1096 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1099 info static-tracepoint-markers
1100 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1102 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1103 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1104 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1108 Enable and disable observer mode.
1110 set may-write-registers on|off
1111 set may-write-memory on|off
1112 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1113 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1114 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1115 set may-interrupt on|off
1116 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1117 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1118 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1119 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1120 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1121 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1122 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1124 set record memory-query on|off
1125 show record memory-query
1126 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1127 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1132 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1136 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1137 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1138 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1139 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1140 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1142 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
1143 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1144 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1145 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
1147 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
1148 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1150 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
1152 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
1154 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1156 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1157 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1158 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1160 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1161 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1162 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1163 regular breakpoints.
1167 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1169 * D language support.
1170 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1173 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1174 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1175 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1176 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1177 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1179 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1180 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1181 conditions of the form:
1183 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1185 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1186 interface mentioned above.
1188 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
1192 ** Namespace Support
1194 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1195 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1196 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1197 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1198 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1202 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1203 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1208 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1209 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1213 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
1218 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
1221 * Multi-program debugging.
1223 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1224 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1225 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1226 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1227 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1228 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1229 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1230 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1232 * New tracing features
1234 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1236 ** Trace state variables
1238 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1239 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1240 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1241 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1242 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1243 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1244 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1245 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1246 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1247 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
1251 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1252 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1253 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1254 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1255 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1256 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1257 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1258 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1259 the regular trace command.
1261 ** Disconnected tracing
1263 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1264 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1265 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1266 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1267 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1271 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1272 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1273 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1274 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1275 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1276 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1279 ** Circular trace buffer
1281 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1282 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1283 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1284 not be available for all target agents.
1289 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1290 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1293 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1294 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1297 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1298 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1301 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1302 "set script-extension" (see below).
1304 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1306 record save [<FILENAME>]
1307 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1308 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1310 record restore <FILENAME>
1311 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1312 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1314 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1317 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1318 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1319 inferior has loaded.
1324 maint info program-spaces
1325 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1327 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1328 show remote interrupt-sequence
1329 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1330 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1331 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1332 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1333 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1335 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1336 show remote interrupt-on-connect
1337 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1338 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1341 set remotebreak [on | off]
1343 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1345 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1346 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1349 List trace state variables and their values.
1351 delete tvariable $NAME ...
1352 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1355 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1356 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1358 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1359 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1361 * New expression syntax
1363 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1364 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1368 set follow-exec-mode new|same
1369 show follow-exec-mode
1370 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1371 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1372 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1374 set default-collect EXPR, ...
1375 show default-collect
1376 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1377 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1378 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1380 set disconnected-tracing
1381 show disconnected-tracing
1382 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1383 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1386 set circular-trace-buffer
1387 show circular-trace-buffer
1388 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1389 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1390 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1391 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1393 set script-extension off|soft|strict
1394 show script-extension
1395 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1396 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1397 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1398 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1400 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1402 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1403 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1404 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1405 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1406 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1407 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1408 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1411 * Python API Improvements
1413 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1414 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1415 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1417 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1418 `is_base_class' attribute.
1420 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1422 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1423 evaluate an expression.
1425 * New remote packets
1428 Define a trace state variable.
1431 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1434 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1437 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1440 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1444 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1446 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1447 much more reliable. In particular:
1448 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1449 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1450 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1451 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1452 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1453 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1454 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1455 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1456 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1457 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1458 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1459 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1460 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1461 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1462 non-threaded programs.
1464 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1465 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1466 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1469 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
1471 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1472 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1473 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1474 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1475 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1477 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1478 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1479 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1480 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1481 for tracepoint actions.
1483 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1484 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1485 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
1487 * Process record and replay
1489 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1490 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1491 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1494 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1495 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1496 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1499 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1500 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
1503 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1504 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1505 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1506 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1507 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1508 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1509 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1510 the installation instructions for more information.
1512 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1513 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1514 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1515 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1517 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1518 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1520 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1521 now complete on file names.
1523 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1524 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1525 For instance, consider:
1527 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1528 # struct example variable;
1531 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1532 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1534 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1535 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1537 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1538 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1541 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
1542 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1543 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1545 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1546 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1547 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1548 and simulator targets may also provide them.
1550 * New remote packets
1553 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1556 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1557 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1558 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1561 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1562 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1565 Obtains additional operating system information
1569 Read or write additional signal information.
1571 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1573 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1574 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1575 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1577 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
1578 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
1580 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
1581 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1582 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
1584 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1585 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1587 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1589 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1591 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1592 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1594 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
1595 list of section offsets.
1597 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1598 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1599 have also been fixed.
1601 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
1602 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1603 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
1605 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1608 template<typename T> class C { };
1611 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1613 ptype C<char const *>
1614 ptype C<char const*>
1615 ptype C<const char *>
1616 ptype C<const char*>
1618 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1620 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1621 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1623 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1624 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1625 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1627 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1628 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1630 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1633 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1634 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1636 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1637 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1642 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1643 available is determined at configure time.
1645 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1647 * Ada tasking support
1649 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1653 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1655 Print detailed information about task number N.
1657 Print the task number of the current task.
1659 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1661 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1662 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1664 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1666 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1667 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1668 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1669 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1670 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1671 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1674 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1675 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1678 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1679 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1680 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1681 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1684 * Multi-architecture debugging.
1686 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1687 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1688 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1689 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1690 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1692 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1693 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1694 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1695 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1696 --enable-targets configure option.
1698 * Non-stop mode debugging.
1700 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1701 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1702 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1703 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1704 section in the user manual for more information.
1706 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1707 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1708 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1709 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1710 extensions on linux targets.
1712 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1714 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1715 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1716 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1717 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1718 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1719 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1720 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1721 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1722 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1724 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1726 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1728 maint set python print-stack
1729 maint show python print-stack
1730 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1733 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1738 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1742 Show operating system information about processes.
1745 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1748 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1751 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1754 Kill inferior number NUM.
1758 set spu stop-on-load
1759 show spu stop-on-load
1760 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1762 set spu auto-flush-cache
1763 show spu auto-flush-cache
1764 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1765 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1767 set sh calling-convention
1768 show sh calling-convention
1769 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1772 show debug timestamp
1773 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1775 set disassemble-next-line
1776 show disassemble-next-line
1777 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1780 set remote noack-packet
1781 show remote noack-packet
1782 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1783 under "New remote packets."
1785 set remote query-attached-packet
1786 show remote query-attached-packet
1787 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1789 set remote read-siginfo-object
1790 show remote read-siginfo-object
1791 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1794 set remote write-siginfo-object
1795 show remote write-siginfo-object
1796 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1799 set remote reverse-continue
1800 show remote reverse-continue
1801 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1803 set remote reverse-step
1804 show remote reverse-step
1805 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1807 set displaced-stepping
1808 show displaced-stepping
1809 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1810 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1811 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1814 show debug displaced
1815 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1817 maint set internal-error
1818 maint show internal-error
1819 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1821 maint set internal-warning
1822 maint show internal-warning
1823 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1828 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1830 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1831 show multiple-symbols
1832 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1833 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1834 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1836 set breakpoint always-inserted
1837 show breakpoint always-inserted
1838 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1839 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1840 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1842 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1843 show arm fallback-mode
1844 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1846 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1847 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1848 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1849 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1851 set disable-randomization
1852 show disable-randomization
1853 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1854 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1855 multiple debugging sessions.
1859 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1864 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1865 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1866 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1867 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1869 set target-wide-charset
1870 show target-wide-charset
1871 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1872 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1874 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1876 set tcp connect-timeout
1877 show tcp connect-timeout
1878 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1879 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1880 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1882 set libthread-db-search-path
1883 show libthread-db-search-path
1884 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1887 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1888 show schedule-multiple
1889 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1890 the current process.
1894 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1895 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1896 affecting correctness.
1898 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1899 show interactive-mode
1900 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1901 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1902 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1903 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1904 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1909 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1910 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1911 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1915 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1916 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1917 alias for the `fork' command.
1920 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1921 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1922 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1925 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1926 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1927 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1931 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1932 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1933 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1936 * New native configurations
1938 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1940 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1944 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1945 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1946 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1949 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1950 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1956 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1958 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1960 * New native configurations
1962 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1963 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1967 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1968 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1970 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1972 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1973 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1974 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1975 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1977 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1978 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1980 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1983 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1984 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1985 and in inlined functions.
1987 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1988 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1989 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1991 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1993 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1994 registers on PowerPC targets.
1996 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1997 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1999 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2000 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2002 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2003 extended-remote mode.
2005 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
2006 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2007 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2008 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
2010 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2011 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2012 target architectures.
2014 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2015 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2016 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2017 stored in two consecutive float registers.
2019 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2022 * Improved support for debugging Ada
2023 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2025 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2026 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2027 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2028 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2030 - Improved command completion in Ada
2033 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2038 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2039 show print frame-arguments
2040 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2041 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2046 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2053 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2055 * New remote packets
2062 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
2065 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2069 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2071 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
2073 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2074 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2075 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2077 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2078 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2079 -Bsymbolic linker option.
2081 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2082 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2085 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2086 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2088 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
2089 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
2091 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2093 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2094 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2095 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2097 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2098 automatically displayed as character or string data.
2100 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2101 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2104 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2105 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
2106 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
2108 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2111 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2112 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2113 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2115 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2117 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2119 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2120 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2121 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2123 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2124 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2126 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2127 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2128 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2129 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2130 Windows and SymbianOS).
2132 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2133 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
2135 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2136 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
2142 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2143 when debugging using remote targets.
2145 set mem inaccessible-by-default
2146 show mem inaccessible-by-default
2147 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2148 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2149 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2150 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2151 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2153 set breakpoint auto-hw
2154 show breakpoint auto-hw
2155 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2156 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2157 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2158 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2159 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2160 including "next" and "finish".
2163 catch exception unhandled
2164 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2167 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2171 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2172 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2173 an alias to "set sysroot".
2176 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2177 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2180 * New native configurations
2182 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2185 unset tdesc filename
2187 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2188 not query the target for its built-in description.
2192 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
2193 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
2194 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
2196 * New remote packets
2199 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2200 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2202 qXfer:features:read:
2203 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2208 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2209 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2211 qXfer:libraries:read:
2212 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2213 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2214 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2215 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2219 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2227 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2228 i[34567]86-*-netware*
2229 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2230 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2232 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2235 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2236 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2245 * Other removed features
2252 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2259 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2264 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2265 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2270 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2271 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2273 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2275 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2276 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2277 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2278 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2280 MIPS ".pdr" sections
2282 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2283 in debugging information.
2287 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2288 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2290 set mips stack-arg-size
2291 set mips saved-gpreg-size
2293 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2295 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
2300 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
2302 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2303 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2304 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2306 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2307 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2310 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2311 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2313 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2314 stub provides the required support.
2316 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2317 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2322 unset substitute-path
2323 show substitute-path
2324 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2325 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2326 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2327 between compilation and debugging.
2331 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2332 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2333 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2337 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2339 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2340 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2342 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2344 * New remote packets
2347 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2348 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2349 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2350 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2354 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2355 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2357 qXfer:memory-map:read:
2358 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2359 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2364 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2366 * Removed remote packets
2369 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2370 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2372 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
2376 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2378 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2382 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2383 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2385 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2387 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2389 restart <n> Return the program state to a
2390 previously saved state.
2392 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2394 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2396 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2397 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2399 info forks List forks of the user program that
2400 are available to be debugged.
2402 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2403 forks of the user program that are
2404 available to be debugged.
2406 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2407 that are available to be debugged (and
2408 kill the forked process).
2410 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2411 that are available to be debugged (and
2412 allow the process to continue).
2416 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2418 * Improved Windows host support
2420 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2421 native console support, and remote communications using either
2422 network sockets or serial ports.
2424 * Improved Modula-2 language support
2426 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2427 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2428 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2429 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2430 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2431 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2435 The ARM rdi-share module.
2437 The Netware NLM debug server.
2439 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
2441 * New native configurations
2443 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
2444 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2448 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2450 * New command line options
2452 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2453 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2454 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2455 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2456 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2457 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2458 with the --command (-x) option.
2460 * Deprecated commands removed
2462 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2466 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2467 othernames set arm disassembler
2468 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2469 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2470 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2473 * New BSD user-level threads support
2475 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2476 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2479 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2480 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2481 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2483 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2484 are not yet supported.
2486 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2487 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2489 * REMOVED configurations and files
2491 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
2492 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2493 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
2495 * New "set print array-indexes" command
2497 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2498 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2501 * VAX floating point support
2503 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2505 * User-defined command support
2507 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2508 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2509 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2511 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2513 * New command line option
2515 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2518 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2520 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2521 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2522 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2523 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2524 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
2526 * Internationalization
2528 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2529 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2530 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2534 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2535 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2536 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2538 * New native configurations
2540 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2544 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2545 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2547 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2549 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2550 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2551 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2554 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2555 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2556 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2566 powerpc bdm protocol
2568 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2569 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2571 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2573 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2574 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2575 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2576 permanently REMOVED.
2585 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2587 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2589 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2590 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2593 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2595 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2596 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2597 IRIX long double values).
2601 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2602 command. This problem has been fixed.
2604 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
2606 * Fix for ``many threads''
2608 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2609 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2612 ptrace: No such process.
2613 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2615 This problem has been fixed.
2617 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2619 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2622 * New ``start'' command.
2624 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2626 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2628 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2629 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2630 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2632 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2633 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2634 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2635 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2636 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2637 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2638 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2639 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2640 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2642 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
2644 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2645 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2646 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2647 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2648 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2650 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2651 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2652 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2654 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2656 * New native configurations
2658 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2659 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2660 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2661 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2662 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2663 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2664 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2666 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2668 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2669 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2670 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2671 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2672 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2673 work, was also included.
2675 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2676 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2686 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2687 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2689 * REMOVED configurations and files
2691 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2692 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2693 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2694 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2695 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2696 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2697 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2698 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2699 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2700 sonymips mips-sony-*
2701 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2703 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2705 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2707 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2708 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2709 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2710 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2713 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2715 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2716 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2717 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2718 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2719 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2720 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2723 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2725 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
2727 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2728 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2729 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2731 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2733 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2734 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2736 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2738 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2739 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2740 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2742 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2744 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2745 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2747 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2749 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2750 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2751 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2753 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2755 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2756 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2757 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2759 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2761 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2763 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2764 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2766 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2768 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2769 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2770 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2771 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2773 * Revised SPARC target
2775 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2776 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2777 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2778 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2779 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2783 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2784 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2785 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2788 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2790 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2791 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2794 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2796 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2797 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2798 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2799 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2800 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2801 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2802 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2803 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2804 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2806 * New native configurations
2808 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2809 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2810 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2811 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2812 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2814 * New debugging protocols
2816 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2818 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2820 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2821 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2822 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2824 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2826 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2827 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2828 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2829 permanently REMOVED.
2831 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2832 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2833 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2834 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2835 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2836 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2837 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2838 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2839 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2840 sonymips mips-sony-*
2841 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2843 * REMOVED configurations and files
2845 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2846 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2847 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2848 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2849 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2850 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2851 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2852 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2853 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2854 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2855 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2856 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2857 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2858 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2859 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2860 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2861 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2863 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2867 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2868 integrated into GDB.
2870 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2872 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2873 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2874 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2877 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2878 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2879 DWARF 2 CFI support.
2883 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2884 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2885 remote protocol documentation for details.
2887 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
2889 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2890 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2891 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2894 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2896 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2897 per-thread variables.
2899 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2901 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2902 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2904 * Separate debug info.
2906 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2907 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2908 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2909 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2910 and optional debug files.
2912 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2914 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2915 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2918 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2919 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2923 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2924 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2925 considered "useable".
2927 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2929 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2930 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2933 * GDB supports logging output to a file
2935 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2936 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2938 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2940 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2941 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2944 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2946 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2947 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2951 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2952 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2953 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2954 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2955 data, for more informative profiling results.
2957 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2959 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2960 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2961 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2963 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2966 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2967 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2968 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2969 in a subsequent -var-update.
2971 * New native configurations.
2973 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2975 * Multi-arched targets.
2977 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2978 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2980 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2982 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2983 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2984 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2985 permanently REMOVED.
2987 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2988 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2989 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2990 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2991 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2992 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2993 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2994 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2995 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2996 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2997 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2998 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3000 * REMOVED configurations and files
3003 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3004 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3005 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3006 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3007 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3008 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3010 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3011 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3012 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3013 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3014 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3015 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3017 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
3019 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3020 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3021 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3022 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3023 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3025 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
3027 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3029 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3030 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3031 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3032 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3033 shared libs like mad''.
3035 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
3037 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3038 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3039 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3040 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
3042 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3044 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3045 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3048 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3049 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3051 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3052 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3054 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3055 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3056 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3057 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3059 * Multi-arched targets.
3061 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3062 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
3064 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
3065 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3066 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3070 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3073 * New native configurations
3075 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
3076 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
3077 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
3078 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
3080 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3082 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3083 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3084 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3085 permanently REMOVED.
3087 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3088 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3089 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3090 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3091 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3092 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3093 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3094 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3095 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3096 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3098 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3099 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3101 * OBSOLETE languages
3103 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3105 * REMOVED configurations and files
3107 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3108 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3109 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3110 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3111 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3113 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3115 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3117 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3118 commands. The default is 1024.
3120 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3122 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3124 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3126 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3127 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3128 from a file into memory (restore).
3130 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3132 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3133 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3134 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3136 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3144 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3145 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3146 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3148 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3149 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3150 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3152 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3153 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3154 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3156 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3157 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3158 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3160 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
3162 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3164 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3165 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3166 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3167 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3168 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3169 (notably embedded) targets.
3171 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3173 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3174 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3175 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3176 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
3178 * New command line option
3180 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3182 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3184 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3185 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3186 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3187 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3188 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3189 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3190 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3191 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3192 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3193 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3195 * Changes in ARM configurations.
3197 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3198 configuration is fully multi-arch.
3200 * New native configurations
3202 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
3203 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
3204 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
3205 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
3209 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3211 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3213 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3214 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3215 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3216 permanently REMOVED.
3218 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3219 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3220 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3221 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3222 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3224 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3226 * REMOVED configurations and files
3228 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3230 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3231 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3232 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3233 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3234 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3235 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3236 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3237 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3238 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3239 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3240 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
3242 * Changes to command line processing
3244 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3245 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3247 * Changes to key bindings
3249 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3251 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3253 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3255 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3258 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3260 Numerous documentation fixes.
3262 Numerous testsuite fixes.
3264 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
3266 * New native configurations
3268 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3269 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
3270 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
3271 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3272 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
3273 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
3277 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
3279 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
3281 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3283 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
3284 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3285 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3286 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3287 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3289 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3290 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3291 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3292 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3293 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3294 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3295 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3296 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
3298 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3299 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3301 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3302 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3303 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3304 permanently REMOVED.
3306 * REMOVED configurations and files
3308 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3309 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3311 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3315 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
3317 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
3318 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3323 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3325 * The MI enabled by default.
3327 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3328 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3329 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3330 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3331 which is now deprecated.
3333 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3335 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3336 main features are supported:
3338 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3340 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3343 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3345 - a Pascal expression parser.
3347 However, some important features are not yet supported.
3349 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3351 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3353 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3354 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3356 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3358 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3360 * Changes in completion.
3362 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3363 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3364 users expect at the shell prompt.
3366 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3367 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3368 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3369 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3370 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3371 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3372 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3374 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3376 * New platform-independent commands:
3378 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3379 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3380 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3382 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3384 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3385 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3386 many threads as your system allows you to have.
3388 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3390 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3391 multi-threaded programs though.
3393 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
3395 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3397 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3398 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3401 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3403 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3404 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3405 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3406 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3407 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3410 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3411 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3412 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3414 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3416 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3417 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3419 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3420 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3423 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3424 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3425 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3426 a given linear address.
3428 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3429 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3430 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3432 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3434 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3436 * Changes in documentation.
3438 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3439 Documentation License.
3441 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3444 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3446 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3449 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3450 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3451 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3453 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3455 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3456 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3457 contents of this file.
3461 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
3463 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
3465 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3467 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3468 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3469 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3470 greater level of detail.
3472 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3474 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3475 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3476 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3479 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3481 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3482 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3483 machines ``out of the box''.
3485 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3486 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3487 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3488 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3489 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3491 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3492 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3493 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3494 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3495 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3497 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3498 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3501 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3504 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3505 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3506 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3507 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3509 * New native configurations
3511 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
3512 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3516 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
3517 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3518 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
3519 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3521 * OBSOLETE configurations
3523 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3524 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3526 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3529 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3530 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3531 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3532 be permanently REMOVED.
3534 * Gould support removed
3536 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3538 * New features for SVR4
3540 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3541 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3542 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3544 * Many C++ enhancements
3546 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3547 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3549 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3551 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3552 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3553 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3554 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3556 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3557 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3559 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
3561 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3562 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3563 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3565 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3566 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3568 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3570 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3571 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3572 include ``set remote P-packet''.
3574 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3576 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3577 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3578 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3580 * ``apropos'' command added.
3582 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3583 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3584 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3588 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3589 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
3590 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3591 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3592 enabled by configuring with:
3594 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3596 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3598 * New native configurations
3600 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3601 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
3602 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
3606 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3607 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3608 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3610 * OBSOLETE configurations
3612 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3614 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3615 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3616 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3617 be permanently REMOVED.
3621 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3622 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3623 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3624 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3625 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3626 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3627 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3632 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3634 * set extension-language
3636 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3637 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3638 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3639 set extension-language .c c++
3640 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3641 and their associated languages.
3643 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3645 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3646 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3647 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3651 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3652 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3654 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3655 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3657 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3658 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3659 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3660 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3661 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3662 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3663 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3664 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3666 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3667 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3668 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3669 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3673 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3674 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3675 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3676 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3677 for xdb and dbx commands.
3681 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3682 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3683 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3685 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3686 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3687 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3689 * Debugging across forks
3691 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3696 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3697 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3698 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3700 * GDB remote protocol additions
3702 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3703 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3704 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3705 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3707 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3708 full 64-bit address. The command
3710 set remoteaddresssize 32
3712 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3713 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3716 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3717 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3719 maint packet heythere
3721 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3722 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3725 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3726 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3727 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3729 * Tracing can collect general expressions
3731 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3732 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3733 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3735 * mask-address variable for Mips
3737 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3738 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3739 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3741 * Higher serial baud rates
3743 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3744 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3745 to achieve all of these rates.)
3749 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3750 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3753 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3755 * New native configurations
3757 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3758 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3759 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3760 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3761 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3762 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3763 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3767 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3768 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3769 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3770 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3771 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3772 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3773 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3774 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3775 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3776 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3777 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3779 * New debugging protocols
3781 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3782 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3783 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3784 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3785 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3786 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3790 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3791 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3796 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3797 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3799 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3801 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3802 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3803 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3805 * Live range splitting
3807 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3808 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3809 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3813 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3814 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3818 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3819 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3820 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3825 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3830 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3831 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3832 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3833 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3834 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3835 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3839 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3840 the symbol at the specified address.
3844 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3845 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3846 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3847 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3848 file tracepoint.c for more details.
3852 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3853 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3854 of most MIPS variants.
3858 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3859 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3860 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3864 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3865 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3866 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3867 the possible architectures.
3869 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3871 * New native configurations
3873 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3874 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3875 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3876 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3877 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3878 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3882 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3883 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3884 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3885 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3886 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3888 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3892 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3893 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3894 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3895 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3896 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3900 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3902 * Windows 95/NT native
3904 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3905 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3906 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3907 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3908 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3910 * dont-repeat command
3912 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3913 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3914 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3915 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3917 * Send break instead of ^C
3919 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3920 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3921 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3923 * Remote protocol timeout
3925 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3926 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3927 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3929 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3931 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3932 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3933 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3934 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3935 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3937 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3938 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3939 automatically on hpux10.
3941 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3943 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3945 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3947 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3948 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3949 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3950 every character. The default value is 1050.
3952 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3954 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3955 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3956 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3957 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3958 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3959 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3961 * Speedups for remote debugging
3963 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3964 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3965 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3967 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3969 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3970 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3972 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3974 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3976 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3977 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3979 * Remote targets use caching
3981 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3982 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3983 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3984 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3985 off' turns the the data cache off.
3987 * Remote targets may have threads
3989 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3990 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3991 gdb/remote.c for details.
3995 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3996 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3997 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3998 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3999 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4000 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4001 sequence is something like
4003 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4005 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4009 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4010 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4011 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4012 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4013 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4014 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4015 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4016 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4020 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4021 but does simplify configuration and building.
4025 GDB now supports hpux10.
4027 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4029 * New native configurations
4031 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4032 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4033 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4034 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4038 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4039 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4040 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4041 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4044 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4046 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4047 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4048 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4049 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4050 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4052 * Arguments to user-defined commands
4054 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4055 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4058 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4060 To execute the command use:
4063 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4064 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4065 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4067 * New `if' and `while' commands
4069 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4070 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4071 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4072 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4073 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4074 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4075 if the expression is zero.
4077 * Fortran source language mode
4079 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4080 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4081 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4082 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4085 * Better HPUX support
4087 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4088 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4089 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4090 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4091 that behavior do the following before running the program:
4097 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4098 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4104 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4105 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4108 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4109 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4111 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4113 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4114 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4115 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4116 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4117 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4118 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4120 * New DOS host serial code
4122 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4123 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4126 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4128 * New "complete" command
4130 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4131 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4133 * Trailing space optional in prompt
4135 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4136 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4138 * Breakpoint hit counts
4140 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4141 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4142 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4143 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4144 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4147 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4149 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4150 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4151 arrays actually contain only short strings.
4153 * Shared library breakpoints
4155 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4156 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4158 * Hardware watchpoints
4160 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4161 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4163 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
4167 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4168 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4170 * Improved Irix 5 support
4172 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4174 * Improved HPPA support
4176 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4178 * New native configurations
4180 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4181 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4182 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4183 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4187 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4188 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4191 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4193 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4194 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4198 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4199 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4201 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4203 * Irix 5 is now supported
4207 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4208 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4209 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4210 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4211 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4214 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4216 * User visible changes:
4220 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4221 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4222 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4223 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4224 debugging info for the mips target).
4226 * DEC Alpha native support
4228 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4229 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4230 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4231 Alpha-specific notes.
4233 * Preliminary thread implementation
4235 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4237 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
4239 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4240 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4243 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4245 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4246 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4247 call methods, ...etc.
4249 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4251 * User visible changes:
4253 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4254 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4255 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4256 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4258 Filename completion now works.
4260 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4261 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4262 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4264 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4265 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4266 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4267 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4268 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4272 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4273 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4276 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4280 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4281 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4282 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4286 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4287 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4288 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4289 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4290 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4294 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4295 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4296 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4298 * New targets supported
4300 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4301 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4302 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4303 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4304 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4306 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4307 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4308 GO32 memory extender.
4310 * New remote protocols
4312 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4314 * New source languages supported
4316 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4317 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4318 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4321 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4323 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4325 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4326 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4327 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4328 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4329 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4330 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4332 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4334 * Faster and better demangling
4336 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4337 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4338 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4339 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4340 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4341 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4344 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4345 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4346 compiler does not actually implement.
4348 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4350 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4351 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4352 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4353 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4354 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4355 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4358 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4359 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4361 * Improved configure script
4363 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4364 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4365 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4366 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4368 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4369 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4370 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4371 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4372 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4373 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4375 * Documentation improvements
4377 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4378 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4379 before submitting changes.
4381 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4382 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4383 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4384 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4385 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4387 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4388 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4389 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4390 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4391 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4392 around this problem.
4396 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4397 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4398 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4401 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4402 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4404 * New native hosts supported
4406 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4407 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4409 * New targets supported
4411 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4413 * New file formats supported
4415 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4416 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4420 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4422 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4423 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4425 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4426 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4427 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4429 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4430 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4432 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4433 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4434 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4437 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4438 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4439 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4440 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4441 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4443 * Internal improvements
4445 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4446 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4448 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4449 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4450 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4451 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4452 shared code that handles any of them.
4454 * New command line options
4456 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4460 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4461 General Public License.
4463 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4465 * Host/native/target split
4467 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4468 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4469 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4470 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4471 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4473 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4474 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4475 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4476 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4477 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4478 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4479 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4481 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4482 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4483 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4485 * New hosts supported
4487 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4488 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4489 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4491 * New targets supported
4493 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4494 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4496 * New native hosts supported
4498 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4499 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4500 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4502 * New file formats supported
4504 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4505 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4506 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4510 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4511 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4512 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4514 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4516 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4517 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4518 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4519 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4523 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4524 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4525 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4527 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4531 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4532 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4535 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4536 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4538 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4539 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4540 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4541 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4542 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4543 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4545 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4546 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4547 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4548 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4552 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4553 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4554 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4555 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4556 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4558 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4559 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4560 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4561 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4565 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4566 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4567 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4568 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4569 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4570 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4571 each instruction being stepped through.
4573 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4574 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4576 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4577 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4578 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4579 processor with a serial port.
4583 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4584 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4585 supported, and what files each one uses.
4589 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4590 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4591 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4592 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4594 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4595 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4596 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4597 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4601 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4602 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4603 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4604 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4605 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4606 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4608 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4611 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4613 * Better support for C++ function names
4615 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4616 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4617 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4618 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4619 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4621 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4622 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4623 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4624 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4625 for the list of formats.
4627 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4629 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4630 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4631 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4632 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4633 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4634 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4637 * New 'maintenance' command
4639 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4640 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4641 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4643 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4644 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4645 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4646 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4647 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4648 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4650 The following commands are new:
4652 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4653 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4654 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4656 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4658 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4659 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4660 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4661 read after argv processing.
4663 * New hosts supported
4665 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4667 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4669 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4670 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4671 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4672 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4673 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4676 * New targets supported
4678 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4680 * More smarts about finding #include files
4682 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4683 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4684 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4685 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4686 the one that contains your sources.
4688 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4689 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4690 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4692 * Interesting infernals change
4694 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4695 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4696 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4697 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4699 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4701 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4702 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4703 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4705 See the ChangeLog for details.
4707 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4709 * New machines supported (host and target)
4711 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4713 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4715 * New malloc package
4717 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4718 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4719 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4720 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4721 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4722 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4726 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4727 'help info proc' for details.
4729 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4731 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4732 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4735 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4737 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4738 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4739 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4740 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4741 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4742 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4744 * Cross byte order fixes
4746 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4747 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4749 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4751 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4752 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4753 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4754 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4755 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4756 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4757 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4758 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4759 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4760 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4762 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4763 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4764 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4765 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4767 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4768 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4769 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4772 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4774 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4775 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4776 shared across multiple host platforms.
4778 * longjmp() handling
4780 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4781 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4782 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4783 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4787 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4788 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4793 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4794 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4795 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4797 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4799 * New machines supported (host and target)
4801 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4803 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4804 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4806 * New machines supported (target)
4808 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4812 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4813 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4814 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4816 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4817 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4818 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4819 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4820 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4823 * New features for SVR4
4825 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4826 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4827 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4829 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4830 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4831 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4833 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4834 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4836 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4838 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4839 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4840 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4841 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4842 same code linked statically.
4846 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4847 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4848 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4849 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4850 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4851 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4855 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4856 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4857 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4860 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4862 * New machines supported (host and target)
4864 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4865 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4866 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4868 * Almost SCO Unix support
4870 We had hoped to support:
4871 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4872 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4873 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4874 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4876 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4878 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4879 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4880 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4881 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4886 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4887 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4888 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4892 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4893 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4894 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4896 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4898 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4899 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4900 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4902 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4903 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4904 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4905 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4908 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4909 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4910 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4911 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4914 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4915 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4918 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4919 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4920 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4923 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4925 * Improved configuration
4927 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4928 Porting BFD is simpler.
4932 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4933 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4934 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4935 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4939 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4941 * New host supported (not target)
4943 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4946 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4948 * Multiple source language support
4950 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4951 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4952 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4953 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4954 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4955 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4959 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4960 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4961 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4962 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4964 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4965 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4966 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4968 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4969 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4973 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4974 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4975 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4976 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4979 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4981 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4982 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4983 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4984 examining core files.
4988 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4991 * New machines supported (host and target)
4993 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4994 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4995 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4997 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4999 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5001 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5003 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5004 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5005 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5007 * New remote interfaces
5013 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5017 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5019 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5020 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5021 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5022 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5023 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5024 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5025 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5026 stub on the target system.
5028 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5030 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5031 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5032 object file types such as a.out and coff.
5034 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5035 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5038 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5040 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5041 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5043 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5044 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5045 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5047 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5048 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5049 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5050 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5052 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5053 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5054 it is already running. Default is ON.
5056 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5057 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5058 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5059 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5062 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5063 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5064 or the value of the environment variable
5067 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5068 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5071 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5072 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5073 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5075 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5076 history expansion will be performed on
5077 command line input. The default is OFF.
5079 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5080 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5081 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5083 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5084 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5085 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5088 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5089 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5090 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5093 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5094 ``set width'' instead.
5096 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5097 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5098 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5099 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5101 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5104 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5107 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5110 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5113 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5115 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5116 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5117 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5121 * Support for Shared Libraries
5123 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5124 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5125 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5126 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5127 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5128 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5129 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5130 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5132 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5133 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5134 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5136 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5141 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5142 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5143 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5144 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5145 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5146 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5148 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5150 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5152 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5153 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5154 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5157 * C++ multiple inheritance
5159 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5162 * C++ exception handling
5164 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5165 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5166 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5169 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5170 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5171 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5173 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5174 current stack frame.
5177 * Minor command changes
5179 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5180 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5181 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5183 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5184 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5185 frames without printing.
5187 * New directory command
5189 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5190 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5191 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5192 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5193 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5195 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5197 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5200 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5201 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5202 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5203 where the program that you are debugging will run.