1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.1
8 The GDB Python API now has access to symbols, symbol tables, and
11 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
17 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
18 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
19 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
20 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
21 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
25 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
26 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
31 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
32 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
36 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
41 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
44 * Multi-program debugging.
46 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
47 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
48 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
49 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
50 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
51 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
52 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
53 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
55 * New tracing features
57 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
59 ** Trace state variables
61 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
62 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
63 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
64 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
65 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
66 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
67 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
68 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
69 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
70 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
74 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
75 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
76 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
77 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
78 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
79 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
80 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
81 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
82 the regular trace command.
84 ** Disconnected tracing
86 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
87 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
88 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
89 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
90 connection is lost unexpectedly.
94 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
95 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
96 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
97 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
98 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
99 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
105 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
106 the arguments to be comma-separated.
109 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
110 which only declare a variable are not shown.
113 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
114 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
117 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
118 "set script-extension" (see below).
120 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
122 record save [<FILENAME>]
123 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
124 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
126 record restore <FILENAME>
127 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
128 earlier time, for replay debugging.
130 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
133 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
134 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
140 maint info program-spaces
141 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
143 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
144 show remote interrupt-sequence
145 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
146 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
147 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
148 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
149 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
151 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
152 show remote interrupt-on-connect
153 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
154 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
157 set remotebreak [on | off]
159 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
161 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
162 Create or modify a trace state variable.
165 List trace state variables and their values.
167 delete tvariable $NAME ...
168 Delete one or more trace state variables.
171 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
172 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
174 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
175 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
177 * New expression syntax
179 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
180 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
184 set follow-exec-mode new|same
185 show follow-exec-mode
186 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
187 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
188 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
190 set default-collect EXPR, ...
192 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
193 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
194 such as registers or a critical global variable.
196 set disconnected-tracing
197 show disconnected-tracing
198 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
199 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
202 set script-extension off|soft|strict
203 show script-extension
204 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
205 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
206 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
207 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
209 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
211 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
212 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
213 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
214 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
215 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
216 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
217 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
220 * Python API Improvements
222 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
223 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
224 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
226 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
227 `is_base_class' attribute.
229 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
231 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
232 evaluate an expression.
237 Define a trace state variable.
240 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
243 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
246 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
250 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
252 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
253 much more reliable. In particular:
254 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
255 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
256 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
257 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
258 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
259 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
260 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
261 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
262 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
263 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
264 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
265 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
266 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
267 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
268 non-threaded programs.
270 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
271 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
272 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
275 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
277 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
278 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
279 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
280 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
281 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
283 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
284 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
285 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
286 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
287 for tracepoint actions.
289 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
290 in hex as well as in symbolic form.
292 * Process record and replay
294 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
295 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
296 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
299 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
300 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
301 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
304 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
305 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
308 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
309 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
310 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
311 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
312 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
313 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
314 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
315 the installation instructions for more information.
317 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
318 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
319 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
320 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
322 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
323 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
325 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
326 now complete on file names.
328 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
329 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
330 For instance, consider:
332 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
333 # struct example variable;
336 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
337 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
339 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
340 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
342 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
343 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
346 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
347 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
348 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
350 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
351 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
352 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
353 and simulator targets may also provide them.
358 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
361 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
362 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
363 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
366 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
367 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
370 Obtains additional operating system information
374 Read or write additional signal information.
376 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
378 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
379 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
380 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
382 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
385 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
386 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
388 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
389 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
390 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
392 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
393 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
395 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
397 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
399 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
400 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
402 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
403 list of section offsets.
405 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
406 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
407 have also been fixed.
409 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
410 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
411 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
413 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
416 template<typename T> class C { };
419 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
421 ptype C<char const *>
423 ptype C<const char *>
426 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
428 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
429 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
431 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
432 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
433 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
435 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
436 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
438 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
441 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
442 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
444 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
445 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
450 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
451 available is determined at configure time.
453 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
455 * Ada tasking support
457 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
461 Print the list of Ada tasks.
463 Print detailed information about task number N.
465 Print the task number of the current task.
467 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
469 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
470 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
472 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
474 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
475 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
476 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
477 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
478 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
479 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
482 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
483 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
486 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
487 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
488 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
489 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
492 * Multi-architecture debugging.
494 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
495 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
496 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
497 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
498 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
500 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
501 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
502 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
503 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
504 --enable-targets configure option.
506 * Non-stop mode debugging.
508 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
509 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
510 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
511 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
512 section in the user manual for more information.
514 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
515 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
516 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
517 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
518 extensions on linux targets.
520 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
522 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
523 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
524 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
525 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
526 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
527 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
528 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
529 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
530 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
532 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
534 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
536 maint set python print-stack
537 maint show python print-stack
538 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
541 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
546 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
550 Show operating system information about processes.
553 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
556 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
559 Detach from inferior number NUM.
562 Kill inferior number NUM.
567 show spu stop-on-load
568 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
570 set spu auto-flush-cache
571 show spu auto-flush-cache
572 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
573 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
575 set sh calling-convention
576 show sh calling-convention
577 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
581 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
583 set disassemble-next-line
584 show disassemble-next-line
585 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
588 set remote noack-packet
589 show remote noack-packet
590 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
591 under "New remote packets."
593 set remote query-attached-packet
594 show remote query-attached-packet
595 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
597 set remote read-siginfo-object
598 show remote read-siginfo-object
599 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
602 set remote write-siginfo-object
603 show remote write-siginfo-object
604 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
607 set remote reverse-continue
608 show remote reverse-continue
609 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
611 set remote reverse-step
612 show remote reverse-step
613 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
615 set displaced-stepping
616 show displaced-stepping
617 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
618 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
619 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
623 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
625 maint set internal-error
626 maint show internal-error
627 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
629 maint set internal-warning
630 maint show internal-warning
631 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
636 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
638 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
639 show multiple-symbols
640 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
641 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
642 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
644 set breakpoint always-inserted
645 show breakpoint always-inserted
646 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
647 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
648 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
650 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
651 show arm fallback-mode
652 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
654 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
655 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
656 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
657 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
659 set disable-randomization
660 show disable-randomization
661 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
662 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
663 multiple debugging sessions.
667 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
672 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
673 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
674 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
675 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
677 set target-wide-charset
678 show target-wide-charset
679 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
680 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
682 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
684 set tcp connect-timeout
685 show tcp connect-timeout
686 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
687 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
688 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
690 set libthread-db-search-path
691 show libthread-db-search-path
692 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
695 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
696 show schedule-multiple
697 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
702 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
703 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
704 affecting correctness.
706 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
707 show interactive-mode
708 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
709 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
710 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
711 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
712 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
717 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
718 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
719 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
723 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
724 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
725 alias for the `fork' command.
728 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
729 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
730 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
733 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
734 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
735 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
739 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
740 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
741 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
744 * New native configurations
746 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
748 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
752 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
753 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
754 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
757 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
758 (mingw32ce) debugging.
764 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
766 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
768 * New native configurations
770 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
771 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
775 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
776 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
778 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
780 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
781 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
782 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
783 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
785 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
786 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
788 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
791 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
792 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
793 and in inlined functions.
795 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
796 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
797 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
799 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
801 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
802 registers on PowerPC targets.
804 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
805 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
807 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
808 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
810 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
811 extended-remote mode.
813 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
814 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
815 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
816 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
818 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
819 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
820 target architectures.
822 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
823 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
824 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
825 stored in two consecutive float registers.
827 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
830 * Improved support for debugging Ada
831 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
833 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
834 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
835 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
836 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
838 - Improved command completion in Ada
841 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
846 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
847 show print frame-arguments
848 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
849 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
854 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
861 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
870 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
873 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
877 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
879 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
881 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
882 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
883 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
885 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
886 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
887 -Bsymbolic linker option.
889 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
890 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
893 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
894 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
896 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
897 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
899 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
901 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
902 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
903 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
905 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
906 automatically displayed as character or string data.
908 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
909 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
912 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
913 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
914 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
916 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
919 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
920 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
921 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
923 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
925 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
927 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
928 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
929 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
931 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
932 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
934 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
935 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
936 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
937 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
938 Windows and SymbianOS).
940 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
941 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
943 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
944 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
950 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
951 when debugging using remote targets.
953 set mem inaccessible-by-default
954 show mem inaccessible-by-default
955 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
956 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
957 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
958 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
959 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
961 set breakpoint auto-hw
962 show breakpoint auto-hw
963 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
964 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
965 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
966 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
967 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
968 including "next" and "finish".
971 catch exception unhandled
972 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
975 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
979 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
980 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
981 an alias to "set sysroot".
984 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
985 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
988 * New native configurations
990 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
995 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
996 not query the target for its built-in description.
1000 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1001 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1002 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1004 * New remote packets
1007 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1008 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1010 qXfer:features:read:
1011 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1016 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1017 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1019 qXfer:libraries:read:
1020 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1021 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1022 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1023 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1027 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1035 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1036 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1037 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1038 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1040 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1043 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1044 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1053 * Other removed features
1060 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1067 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1072 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1073 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1078 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1079 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1081 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1083 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1084 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1085 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1086 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1088 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1090 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1091 in debugging information.
1095 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1096 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1098 set mips stack-arg-size
1099 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1101 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1103 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1108 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1110 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1111 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1112 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1114 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1115 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1118 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1119 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1121 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1122 stub provides the required support.
1124 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1125 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1130 unset substitute-path
1131 show substitute-path
1132 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1133 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1134 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1135 between compilation and debugging.
1139 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1140 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1141 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1145 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1147 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1148 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1150 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1152 * New remote packets
1155 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1156 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1157 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1158 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1162 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1163 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1165 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1166 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1167 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1172 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1174 * Removed remote packets
1177 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1178 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1180 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1184 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1186 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1190 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1191 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1193 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1195 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1197 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1198 previously saved state.
1200 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1202 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1204 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1205 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1207 info forks List forks of the user program that
1208 are available to be debugged.
1210 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1211 forks of the user program that are
1212 available to be debugged.
1214 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1215 that are available to be debugged (and
1216 kill the forked process).
1218 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1219 that are available to be debugged (and
1220 allow the process to continue).
1224 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1226 * Improved Windows host support
1228 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1229 native console support, and remote communications using either
1230 network sockets or serial ports.
1232 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1234 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1235 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1236 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1237 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1238 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1239 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1243 The ARM rdi-share module.
1245 The Netware NLM debug server.
1247 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1249 * New native configurations
1251 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1252 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1256 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1258 * New command line options
1260 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1261 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1262 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1263 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1264 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1265 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1266 with the --command (-x) option.
1268 * Deprecated commands removed
1270 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1274 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1275 othernames set arm disassembler
1276 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1277 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1278 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1281 * New BSD user-level threads support
1283 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1284 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1287 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1288 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1289 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1291 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1292 are not yet supported.
1294 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1295 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1297 * REMOVED configurations and files
1299 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1300 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1301 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1303 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1305 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1306 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1309 * VAX floating point support
1311 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1313 * User-defined command support
1315 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1316 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1317 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1319 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1321 * New command line option
1323 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1326 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1328 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1329 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1330 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1331 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1332 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1334 * Internationalization
1336 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1337 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1338 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1342 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1343 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1344 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1346 * New native configurations
1348 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1352 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1353 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1355 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1357 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1358 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1359 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1362 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1363 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1364 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1374 powerpc bdm protocol
1376 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1377 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1379 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1381 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1382 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1383 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1384 permanently REMOVED.
1393 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1395 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1397 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1398 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1401 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1403 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1404 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1405 IRIX long double values).
1409 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1410 command. This problem has been fixed.
1412 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1414 * Fix for ``many threads''
1416 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1417 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1420 ptrace: No such process.
1421 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1423 This problem has been fixed.
1425 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1427 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1430 * New ``start'' command.
1432 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1434 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1436 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1437 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1438 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1440 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1441 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1442 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1443 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1444 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1445 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1446 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1447 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1448 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1450 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1452 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1453 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1454 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1455 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1456 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1458 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1459 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1460 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1462 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1464 * New native configurations
1466 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1467 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1468 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1469 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1470 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1471 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1472 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1474 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1476 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1477 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1478 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1479 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1480 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1481 work, was also included.
1483 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1484 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1494 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1495 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1497 * REMOVED configurations and files
1499 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1500 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1501 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1502 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1503 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1504 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1505 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1506 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1507 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1508 sonymips mips-sony-*
1509 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1511 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1513 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1515 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1516 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1517 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1518 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1521 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1523 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1524 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1525 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1526 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1527 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1528 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1531 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1533 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1535 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1536 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1537 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1539 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1541 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1542 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1544 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1546 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1547 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1548 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1550 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1552 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1553 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1555 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1557 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1558 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1559 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1561 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1563 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1564 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1565 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1567 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1569 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1571 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1572 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1574 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1576 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1577 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1578 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1579 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1581 * Revised SPARC target
1583 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1584 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1585 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1586 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1587 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1591 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1592 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1593 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1596 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1598 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1599 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1602 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1604 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1605 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1606 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1607 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1608 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1609 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1610 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1611 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1612 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1614 * New native configurations
1616 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1617 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1618 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1619 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1620 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1622 * New debugging protocols
1624 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1626 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1628 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1629 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1630 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1632 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1634 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1635 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1636 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1637 permanently REMOVED.
1639 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1640 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1641 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1642 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1643 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1644 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1645 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1646 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1647 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1648 sonymips mips-sony-*
1649 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1651 * REMOVED configurations and files
1653 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1654 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1655 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1656 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1657 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1658 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1659 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1660 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1661 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1662 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1663 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1664 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1665 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1666 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1667 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1668 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1669 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1671 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1675 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1676 integrated into GDB.
1678 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1680 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1681 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1682 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1685 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1686 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1687 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1691 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1692 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1693 remote protocol documentation for details.
1695 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1697 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1698 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1699 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1702 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1704 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1705 per-thread variables.
1707 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1709 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1710 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1712 * Separate debug info.
1714 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1715 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1716 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1717 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1718 and optional debug files.
1720 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1722 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1723 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1726 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1727 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1731 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1732 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1733 considered "useable".
1735 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1737 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1738 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1741 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1743 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1744 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1746 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1748 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1749 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1752 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1754 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1755 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1759 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1760 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1761 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1762 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1763 data, for more informative profiling results.
1765 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1767 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1768 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1769 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1771 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1774 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1775 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1776 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1777 in a subsequent -var-update.
1779 * New native configurations.
1781 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1783 * Multi-arched targets.
1785 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1786 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1788 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1790 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1791 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1792 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1793 permanently REMOVED.
1795 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1796 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1797 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1798 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1799 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1800 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1801 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1802 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1803 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1804 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1805 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1806 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1808 * REMOVED configurations and files
1811 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1812 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1813 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1814 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1815 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1816 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1818 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1819 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1820 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1821 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1822 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1823 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1825 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1827 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1828 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1829 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1830 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1831 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1833 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1835 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1837 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1838 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1839 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1840 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1841 shared libs like mad''.
1843 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1845 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1846 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1847 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1848 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1850 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1852 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1853 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1856 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1857 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1859 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1860 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1862 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1863 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1864 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1865 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1867 * Multi-arched targets.
1869 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1870 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1872 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1873 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1874 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1878 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1881 * New native configurations
1883 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1884 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1885 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1886 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1888 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1890 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1891 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1892 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1893 permanently REMOVED.
1895 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1896 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1897 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1898 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1899 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1900 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1901 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1902 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1903 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1904 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1906 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1907 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1909 * OBSOLETE languages
1911 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1913 * REMOVED configurations and files
1915 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1916 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1917 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1918 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1919 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1921 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1923 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1925 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1926 commands. The default is 1024.
1928 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1930 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1932 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1934 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1935 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1936 from a file into memory (restore).
1938 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1940 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1941 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1942 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1944 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1952 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1953 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1954 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1956 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1957 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1958 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1960 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1961 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1962 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1964 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1965 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1966 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1968 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1970 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1972 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1973 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1974 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1975 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1976 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1977 (notably embedded) targets.
1979 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1981 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1982 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1983 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1984 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1986 * New command line option
1988 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1990 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1992 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1993 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1994 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1995 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1996 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1997 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1998 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1999 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2000 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2001 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2003 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2005 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2006 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2008 * New native configurations
2010 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2011 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2012 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2013 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2017 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2019 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2021 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2022 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2023 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2024 permanently REMOVED.
2026 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2027 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2028 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2029 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2030 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2032 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2034 * REMOVED configurations and files
2036 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2038 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2039 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2040 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2041 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2042 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2043 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2044 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2045 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2046 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2047 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2048 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2050 * Changes to command line processing
2052 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2053 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2055 * Changes to key bindings
2057 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2059 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2061 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2063 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2066 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2068 Numerous documentation fixes.
2070 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2072 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2074 * New native configurations
2076 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2077 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2078 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2079 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2080 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2081 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2085 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2087 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2089 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2091 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2092 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2093 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2094 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2095 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2097 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2098 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2099 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2100 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2101 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2102 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2103 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2104 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2106 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2107 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2109 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2110 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2111 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2112 permanently REMOVED.
2114 * REMOVED configurations and files
2116 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2117 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2119 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2123 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2125 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2126 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2131 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2133 * The MI enabled by default.
2135 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2136 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2137 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2138 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2139 which is now deprecated.
2141 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2143 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2144 main features are supported:
2146 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2148 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2151 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2153 - a Pascal expression parser.
2155 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2157 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2159 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2161 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2162 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2164 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2166 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2168 * Changes in completion.
2170 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2171 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2172 users expect at the shell prompt.
2174 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2175 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2176 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2177 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2178 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2179 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2180 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2182 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2184 * New platform-independent commands:
2186 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2187 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2188 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2190 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2192 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2193 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2194 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2196 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2198 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2199 multi-threaded programs though.
2201 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2203 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2205 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2206 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2209 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2211 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2212 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2213 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2214 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2215 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2218 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2219 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2220 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2222 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2224 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2225 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2227 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2228 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2231 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2232 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2233 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2234 a given linear address.
2236 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2237 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2238 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2240 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2242 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2244 * Changes in documentation.
2246 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2247 Documentation License.
2249 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2252 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2254 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2257 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2258 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2259 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2261 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2263 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2264 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2265 contents of this file.
2269 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2271 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2273 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2275 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2276 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2277 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2278 greater level of detail.
2280 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2282 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2283 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2284 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2287 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2289 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2290 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2291 machines ``out of the box''.
2293 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2294 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2295 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2296 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2297 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2299 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2300 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2301 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2302 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2303 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2305 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2306 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2309 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2312 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2313 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2314 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2315 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2317 * New native configurations
2319 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2320 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2324 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2325 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2326 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2327 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2329 * OBSOLETE configurations
2331 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2332 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2334 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2337 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2338 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2339 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2340 be permanently REMOVED.
2342 * Gould support removed
2344 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2346 * New features for SVR4
2348 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2349 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2350 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2352 * Many C++ enhancements
2354 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2355 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2357 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2359 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2360 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2361 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2362 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2364 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2365 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2367 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2369 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2370 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2371 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2373 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2374 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2376 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2378 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2379 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2380 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2382 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2384 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2385 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2386 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2388 * ``apropos'' command added.
2390 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2391 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2392 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2396 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2397 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2398 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2399 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2400 enabled by configuring with:
2402 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2404 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2406 * New native configurations
2408 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2409 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2410 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2414 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2415 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2416 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2418 * OBSOLETE configurations
2420 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2422 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2423 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2424 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2425 be permanently REMOVED.
2429 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2430 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2431 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2432 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2433 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2434 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2435 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2440 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2442 * set extension-language
2444 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2445 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2446 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2447 set extension-language .c c++
2448 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2449 and their associated languages.
2451 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2453 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2454 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2455 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2459 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2460 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2462 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2463 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2465 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2466 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2467 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2468 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2469 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2470 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2471 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2472 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2474 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2475 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2476 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2477 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2481 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2482 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2483 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2484 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2485 for xdb and dbx commands.
2489 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2490 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2491 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2493 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2494 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2495 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2497 * Debugging across forks
2499 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2504 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2505 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2506 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2508 * GDB remote protocol additions
2510 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2511 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2512 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2513 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2515 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2516 full 64-bit address. The command
2518 set remoteaddresssize 32
2520 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2521 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2524 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2525 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2527 maint packet heythere
2529 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2530 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2533 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2534 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2535 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2537 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2539 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2540 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2541 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2543 * mask-address variable for Mips
2545 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2546 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2547 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2549 * Higher serial baud rates
2551 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2552 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2553 to achieve all of these rates.)
2557 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2558 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2561 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2563 * New native configurations
2565 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2566 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2567 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2568 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2569 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2570 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2571 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2575 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2576 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2577 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2578 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2579 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2580 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2581 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2582 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2583 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2584 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2585 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2587 * New debugging protocols
2589 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2590 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2591 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2592 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2593 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2594 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2598 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2599 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2604 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2605 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2607 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2609 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2610 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2611 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2613 * Live range splitting
2615 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2616 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2617 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2621 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2622 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2626 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2627 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2628 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2633 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2638 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2639 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2640 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2641 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2642 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2643 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2647 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2648 the symbol at the specified address.
2652 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2653 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2654 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2655 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2656 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2660 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2661 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2662 of most MIPS variants.
2666 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2667 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2668 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2672 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2673 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2674 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2675 the possible architectures.
2677 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2679 * New native configurations
2681 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2682 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2683 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2684 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2685 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2686 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2690 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2691 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2692 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2693 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2694 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2696 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2700 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2701 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2702 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2703 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2704 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2708 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2710 * Windows 95/NT native
2712 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2713 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2714 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2715 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2716 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2718 * dont-repeat command
2720 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2721 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2722 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2723 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2725 * Send break instead of ^C
2727 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2728 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2729 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2731 * Remote protocol timeout
2733 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2734 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2735 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2737 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2739 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2740 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2741 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2742 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2743 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2745 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2746 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2747 automatically on hpux10.
2749 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2751 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2753 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2755 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2756 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2757 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2758 every character. The default value is 1050.
2760 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2762 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2763 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2764 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2765 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2766 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2767 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2769 * Speedups for remote debugging
2771 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2772 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2773 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2775 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2777 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2778 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2780 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2782 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2784 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2785 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2787 * Remote targets use caching
2789 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2790 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2791 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2792 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2793 off' turns the the data cache off.
2795 * Remote targets may have threads
2797 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2798 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2799 gdb/remote.c for details.
2803 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2804 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2805 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2806 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2807 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2808 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2809 sequence is something like
2811 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2813 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2817 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2818 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2819 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2820 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2821 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2822 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2823 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2824 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2828 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2829 but does simplify configuration and building.
2833 GDB now supports hpux10.
2835 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2837 * New native configurations
2839 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2840 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2841 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2842 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2846 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2847 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2848 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2849 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2852 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2854 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2855 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2856 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2857 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2858 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2860 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2862 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2863 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2866 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2868 To execute the command use:
2871 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2872 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2873 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2875 * New `if' and `while' commands
2877 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2878 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2879 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2880 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2881 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2882 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2883 if the expression is zero.
2885 * Fortran source language mode
2887 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2888 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2889 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2890 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2893 * Better HPUX support
2895 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2896 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2897 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2898 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2899 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2905 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2906 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2912 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2913 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2916 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2917 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2919 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2921 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2922 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2923 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2924 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2925 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2926 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2928 * New DOS host serial code
2930 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2931 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2934 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2936 * New "complete" command
2938 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2939 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2941 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2943 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2944 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2946 * Breakpoint hit counts
2948 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2949 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2950 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2951 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2952 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2955 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2957 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2958 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2959 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2961 * Shared library breakpoints
2963 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2964 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2966 * Hardware watchpoints
2968 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2969 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2971 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2975 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2976 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2978 * Improved Irix 5 support
2980 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2982 * Improved HPPA support
2984 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2986 * New native configurations
2988 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2989 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2990 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2991 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2995 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2996 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2999 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3001 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3002 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3006 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3007 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3009 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3011 * Irix 5 is now supported
3015 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3016 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3017 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3018 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3019 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3022 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3024 * User visible changes:
3028 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3029 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3030 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3031 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3032 debugging info for the mips target).
3034 * DEC Alpha native support
3036 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3037 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3038 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3039 Alpha-specific notes.
3041 * Preliminary thread implementation
3043 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3045 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3047 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3048 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3051 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3053 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3054 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3055 call methods, ...etc.
3057 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3059 * User visible changes:
3061 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3062 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3063 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3064 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3066 Filename completion now works.
3068 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3069 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3070 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3072 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3073 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3074 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3075 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3076 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3080 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3081 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3084 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3088 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3089 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3090 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3094 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3095 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3096 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3097 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3098 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3102 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3103 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3104 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3106 * New targets supported
3108 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3109 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3110 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3111 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3112 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3114 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3115 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3116 GO32 memory extender.
3118 * New remote protocols
3120 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3122 * New source languages supported
3124 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3125 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3126 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3129 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3131 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3133 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3134 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3135 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3136 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3137 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3138 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3140 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3142 * Faster and better demangling
3144 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3145 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3146 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3147 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3148 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3149 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3152 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3153 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3154 compiler does not actually implement.
3156 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3158 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3159 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3160 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3161 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3162 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3163 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3166 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3167 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3169 * Improved configure script
3171 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3172 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3173 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3174 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3176 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3177 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3178 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3179 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3180 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3181 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3183 * Documentation improvements
3185 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3186 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3187 before submitting changes.
3189 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3190 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3191 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3192 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3193 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3195 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3196 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3197 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3198 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3199 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3200 around this problem.
3204 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3205 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3206 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3209 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3210 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3212 * New native hosts supported
3214 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3215 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3217 * New targets supported
3219 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3221 * New file formats supported
3223 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3224 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3228 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3230 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3231 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3233 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3234 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3235 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3237 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3238 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3240 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3241 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3242 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3245 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3246 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3247 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3248 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3249 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3251 * Internal improvements
3253 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3254 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3256 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3257 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3258 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3259 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3260 shared code that handles any of them.
3262 * New command line options
3264 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3268 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3269 General Public License.
3271 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3273 * Host/native/target split
3275 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3276 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3277 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3278 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3279 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3281 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3282 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3283 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3284 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3285 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3286 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3287 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3289 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3290 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3291 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3293 * New hosts supported
3295 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3296 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3297 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3299 * New targets supported
3301 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3302 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3304 * New native hosts supported
3306 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3307 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3308 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3310 * New file formats supported
3312 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3313 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3314 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3318 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3319 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3320 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3322 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3324 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3325 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3326 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3327 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3331 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3332 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3333 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3335 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3339 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3340 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3343 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3344 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3346 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3347 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3348 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3349 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3350 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3351 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3353 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3354 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3355 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3356 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3360 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3361 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3362 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3363 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3364 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3366 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3367 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3368 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3369 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3373 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3374 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3375 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3376 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3377 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3378 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3379 each instruction being stepped through.
3381 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3382 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3384 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3385 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3386 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3387 processor with a serial port.
3391 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3392 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3393 supported, and what files each one uses.
3397 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3398 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3399 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3400 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3402 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3403 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3404 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3405 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3409 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3410 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3411 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3412 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3413 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3414 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3416 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3419 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3421 * Better support for C++ function names
3423 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3424 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3425 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3426 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3427 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3429 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3430 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3431 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3432 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3433 for the list of formats.
3435 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3437 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3438 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3439 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3440 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3441 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3442 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3445 * New 'maintenance' command
3447 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3448 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3449 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3451 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3452 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3453 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3454 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3455 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3456 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3458 The following commands are new:
3460 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3461 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3462 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3464 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3466 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3467 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3468 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3469 read after argv processing.
3471 * New hosts supported
3473 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3475 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3477 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3478 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3479 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3480 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3481 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3484 * New targets supported
3486 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3488 * More smarts about finding #include files
3490 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3491 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3492 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3493 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3494 the one that contains your sources.
3496 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3497 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3498 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3500 * Interesting infernals change
3502 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3503 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3504 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3505 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3507 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3509 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3510 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3511 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3513 See the ChangeLog for details.
3515 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3517 * New machines supported (host and target)
3519 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3521 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3523 * New malloc package
3525 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3526 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3527 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3528 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3529 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3530 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3534 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3535 'help info proc' for details.
3537 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3539 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3540 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3543 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3545 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3546 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3547 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3548 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3549 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3550 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3552 * Cross byte order fixes
3554 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3555 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3557 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3559 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3560 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3561 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3562 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3563 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3564 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3565 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3566 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3567 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3568 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3570 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3571 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3572 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3573 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3575 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3576 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3577 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3580 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3582 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3583 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3584 shared across multiple host platforms.
3586 * longjmp() handling
3588 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3589 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3590 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3591 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3595 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3596 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3601 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3602 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3603 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3605 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3607 * New machines supported (host and target)
3609 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3611 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3612 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3614 * New machines supported (target)
3616 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3620 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3621 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3622 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3624 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3625 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3626 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3627 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3628 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3631 * New features for SVR4
3633 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3634 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3635 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3637 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3638 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3639 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3641 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3642 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3644 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3646 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3647 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3648 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3649 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3650 same code linked statically.
3654 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3655 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3656 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3657 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3658 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3659 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3663 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3664 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3665 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3668 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3670 * New machines supported (host and target)
3672 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3673 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3674 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3676 * Almost SCO Unix support
3678 We had hoped to support:
3679 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3680 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3681 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3682 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3684 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3686 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3687 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3688 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3689 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3694 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3695 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3696 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3700 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3701 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3702 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3704 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3706 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3707 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3708 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3710 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3711 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3712 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3713 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3716 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3717 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3718 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3719 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3722 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3723 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3726 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3727 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3728 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3731 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3733 * Improved configuration
3735 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3736 Porting BFD is simpler.
3740 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3741 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3742 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3743 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3747 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3749 * New host supported (not target)
3751 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3754 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3756 * Multiple source language support
3758 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3759 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3760 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3761 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3762 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3763 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3767 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3768 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3769 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3770 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3772 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3773 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3774 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3776 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3777 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3781 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3782 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3783 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3784 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3787 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3789 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3790 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3791 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3792 examining core files.
3796 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3799 * New machines supported (host and target)
3801 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3802 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3803 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3805 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3807 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3809 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3811 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3812 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3813 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3815 * New remote interfaces
3821 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3825 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3827 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3828 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3829 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3830 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3831 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3832 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3833 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3834 stub on the target system.
3836 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3838 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3839 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3840 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3842 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3843 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3846 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3848 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3849 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3851 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3852 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3853 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3855 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3856 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3857 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3858 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3860 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3861 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3862 it is already running. Default is ON.
3864 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3865 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3866 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3867 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3870 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3871 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3872 or the value of the environment variable
3875 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3876 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3879 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3880 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3881 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3883 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3884 history expansion will be performed on
3885 command line input. The default is OFF.
3887 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3888 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3889 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3891 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3892 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3893 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3896 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3897 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3898 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3901 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3902 ``set width'' instead.
3904 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3905 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3906 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3907 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3909 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3912 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3915 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3918 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3921 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3923 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3924 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3925 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3929 * Support for Shared Libraries
3931 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3932 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3933 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3934 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3935 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3936 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3937 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3938 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3940 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3941 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3942 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3944 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3949 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3950 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3951 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3952 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3953 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3954 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3956 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3958 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3960 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3961 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3962 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3965 * C++ multiple inheritance
3967 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3970 * C++ exception handling
3972 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3973 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3974 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3977 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3978 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3979 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3981 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3982 current stack frame.
3985 * Minor command changes
3987 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3988 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3989 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3991 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3992 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3993 frames without printing.
3995 * New directory command
3997 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3998 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3999 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4000 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4001 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4003 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4005 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4008 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4009 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4010 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4011 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / external / binutils.git / blob