1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.9
6 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
7 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
8 and may include things like its command line arguments.
12 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
13 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
14 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
18 maint print symbol-cache
19 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
21 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
22 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
24 maint flush-symbol-cache
25 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
29 maint set symbol-cache-size
30 maint show symbol-cache-size
31 Control the size of the symbol cache.
33 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
34 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
36 * Python/Guile scripting
38 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
39 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
41 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
43 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
47 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
48 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
49 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
50 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
51 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
52 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
53 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
54 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
55 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
56 selecting a new file to debug.
57 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
58 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
60 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
63 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
64 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
65 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
66 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
68 * New Python-based convenience functions:
70 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
71 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
72 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
73 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
75 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
76 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
77 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
78 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
79 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
80 interface with this new feature are:
82 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
83 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
87 demangle [-l language] [--] name
88 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
89 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
90 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
91 as "maint demangler-warning".
93 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
94 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
96 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
97 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
100 maint print user-registers
101 List all currently available "user" registers.
103 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
104 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
105 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
107 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
108 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
109 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
112 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
113 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
114 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
115 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
118 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
119 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
120 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
121 switched threads meanwhile.
123 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
125 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
126 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
127 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
128 is now the default mode.
132 set debug symbol-lookup
133 show debug symbol-lookup
134 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
138 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
139 inferiors that have exited.
143 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
147 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
149 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
150 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
151 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
152 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
153 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
155 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
156 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
157 its alias "share", instead.
159 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
161 * New command line options
164 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
166 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
167 as specified in ISO C99.
169 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
170 with or without disassembly.
174 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
175 available is determined at configure time.
176 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
177 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
179 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
183 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
187 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
189 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
190 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
192 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
193 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
197 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
198 show print symbol-loading
199 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
200 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
201 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
204 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
205 show guile print-stack
206 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
208 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
209 show auto-load guile-scripts
210 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
212 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
213 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
214 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
215 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
216 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
217 usage of this option.
219 set auto-connect-native-target
221 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
222 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
223 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
225 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
226 show record btrace replay-memory-access
227 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
229 maint set target-async (on|off)
230 maint show target-async
231 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
232 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
233 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
234 occurring only in synchronous mode.
236 set mi-async (on|off)
238 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
239 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
241 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
242 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
244 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
245 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
246 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
247 "set target-async on" command.
249 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
251 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
252 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
253 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
254 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
255 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
257 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
258 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
259 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
261 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
262 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
263 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
264 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
265 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
266 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
267 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
269 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
270 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
272 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
273 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
274 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
276 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
277 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
280 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
282 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
283 remote. It now works with all targets.
285 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
286 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
287 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
288 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
289 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
290 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
291 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
292 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
293 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
296 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
297 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
298 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
300 * GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
302 * Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
303 Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers
304 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
308 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
309 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
310 branch trace incrementally.
314 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
315 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
317 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
318 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
319 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
320 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
321 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
324 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
326 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
327 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
328 its alias "share", instead.
330 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
331 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
336 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
337 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
338 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
339 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
340 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
341 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
342 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
343 commands and CLI execution commands.
345 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
347 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
348 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
349 recording has been added.
351 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
353 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
354 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
356 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
357 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
358 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
359 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
360 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
361 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
364 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
366 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
368 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
369 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
370 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
371 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
376 (gdb) info registers rax
379 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
380 "*value not available*".
382 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
387 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
388 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
389 ** Line tables representation has been added.
390 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
391 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
392 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
396 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
397 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
398 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
400 * Removed native configurations
402 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
403 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
405 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
406 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
407 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
408 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
409 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
410 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
411 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
415 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
417 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
419 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
421 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
424 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
426 maint set|show per-command
427 maint set|show per-command space
428 maint set|show per-command time
429 maint set|show per-command symtab
430 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
432 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
433 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
434 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
435 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
436 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
439 info exceptions REGEXP
440 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
441 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
446 set debug symfile off|on
448 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
449 symbol tables within those files
451 set print raw frame-arguments
452 show print raw frame-arguments
453 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
454 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
456 set remote trace-status-packet
457 show remote trace-status-packet
458 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
462 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
466 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
468 set startup-with-shell
469 show startup-with-shell
470 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
475 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
476 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
478 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
479 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
480 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
481 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
484 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
485 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
486 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
488 * New command-line options
490 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
492 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
493 buffer in Common Trace Format.
495 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
498 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
500 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
501 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
503 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
504 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
506 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
507 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
508 due to an uncaught signal.
512 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
513 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
514 command, which should contain "language-option".
516 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
517 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
519 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
520 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
521 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
522 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
523 "undefined-command-error-code".
525 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
528 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
530 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
531 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
534 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
535 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
537 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
538 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
539 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
541 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
542 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
543 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
544 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
545 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
546 "exec-run-start-option".
548 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
549 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
551 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
552 the new "info exceptions" command.
554 * New system-wide configuration scripts
555 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
556 configuration scripts for the following systems:
560 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
561 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
562 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
565 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
566 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
568 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
569 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
570 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
576 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
577 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
578 involvemement at each single-step.
580 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
581 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
582 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
583 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
584 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
585 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
588 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
590 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
591 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
593 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
594 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
595 trace state variables.
597 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
600 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
601 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
603 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
605 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
606 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
607 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
608 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
610 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
612 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
613 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
614 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
615 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
617 set|show record full insn-number-max
618 set|show record full stop-at-limit
619 set|show record full memory-query
621 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
622 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
623 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
624 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
625 This new recording method can be enabled using:
629 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
630 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
632 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
633 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
634 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
636 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
637 instruction granularity
639 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
642 * New native configurations
644 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
645 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
646 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
647 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
651 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
652 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
653 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
654 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
655 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
657 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
658 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
659 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
660 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
661 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
662 --data-directory command-line option.
664 * New command line options:
666 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
667 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
669 * Removed command line options
671 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
674 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
677 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
681 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
683 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
685 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
687 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
689 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
690 of architecture in the Python API.
692 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
693 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
695 * New Python-based convenience functions:
697 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
698 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
700 ** $_regex(str, regex)
702 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
705 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
706 default for GCC since November 2000.
708 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
710 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
711 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
713 * New configure options
715 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
716 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
717 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
718 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
719 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
720 options allow the user to override that default.
721 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
722 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
723 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
725 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
728 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
729 conditions to be attached.
732 List the BFDs known to GDB.
734 python-interactive [command]
736 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
737 and print the result of expressions.
740 "py" is a new alias for "python".
742 enable type-printer [name]...
743 disable type-printer [name]...
744 Enable or disable type printers.
748 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
749 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
754 set print type methods (on|off)
755 show print type methods
756 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
757 The default is to show them.
759 set print type typedefs (on|off)
760 show print type typedefs
761 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
762 The default is to show them.
764 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
765 show filename-display
766 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
767 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
769 set trace-buffer-size
770 show trace-buffer-size
771 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
773 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
774 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
775 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
779 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
782 set debug coff-pe-read
783 show debug coff-pe-read
784 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
789 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
792 set debug notification
793 show debug notification
794 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
798 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
799 "=cmd-param-changed".
800 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
801 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
802 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
803 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
804 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
805 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
806 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
807 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
809 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
810 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
811 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
812 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
813 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
814 library load/unload events.
815 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
816 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
817 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
818 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
819 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
820 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
821 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
822 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
824 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
825 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
826 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
827 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
832 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
833 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
836 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
837 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
841 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
842 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
845 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
846 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
848 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
850 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
851 for more x32 ABI info.
853 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
855 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
857 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
858 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
859 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
860 "info os files" lists file descriptors
861 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
862 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
863 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
864 "info os msg" lists message queues
865 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
867 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
868 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
869 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
870 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
871 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
872 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
874 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
875 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
876 record/replay support.
878 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
882 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
885 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
887 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
888 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
890 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
892 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
893 the source at which the symbol was defined.
895 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
896 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
897 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
900 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
901 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
903 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
904 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
905 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
907 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
908 object associated with a PC value.
910 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
911 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
913 * Go language support.
914 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
917 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
918 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
920 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
921 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
923 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
924 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
925 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
926 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
927 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
930 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
931 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
932 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
935 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
936 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
938 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
941 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
942 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
943 command does. For instance:
945 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
947 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
948 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
949 created, using the "condition" command.
951 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
952 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
954 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
956 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
957 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
958 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
959 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
960 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
961 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
962 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
963 files with older .gdb_index sections.
965 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
966 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
967 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
968 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
969 the .gdb_index section.
971 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
973 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
978 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
980 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
984 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
985 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
986 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
988 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
989 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
991 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
994 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
995 C++ and Java objects.
997 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
998 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
999 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1000 configured with '--with-python'.
1002 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1003 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1004 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1005 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1006 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1007 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1008 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1010 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1011 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1012 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1013 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1015 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1016 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1017 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1018 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1020 ** "set print symbol"
1022 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1023 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1024 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1026 * Deprecated commands
1028 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1029 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1033 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1034 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
1036 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1037 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1038 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1039 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1044 set mips compression
1045 show mips compression
1046 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1047 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1050 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1052 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1053 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
1054 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
1055 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1057 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1061 Disable auto-loading globally.
1064 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1066 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1067 show auto-load gdb-scripts
1068 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1070 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1071 show auto-load python-scripts
1072 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1074 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1075 show auto-load local-gdbinit
1076 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1078 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1079 show auto-load libthread-db
1080 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1082 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1083 show auto-load scripts-directory
1084 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1085 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1086 of the directories listed by this option.
1087 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1089 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1090 show auto-load safe-path
1091 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1092 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1094 set debug auto-load on|off
1095 show debug auto-load
1096 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1098 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
1100 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1101 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1102 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1103 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
1105 set dprintf-function <expr>
1106 show dprintf-function
1107 set dprintf-channel <expr>
1108 show dprintf-channel
1109 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1110 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1112 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1113 show disconnected-dprintf
1114 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1115 after GDB disconnects.
1117 * New configure options
1119 --with-auto-load-dir
1120 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1121 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1122 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1123 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1124 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
1126 --with-auto-load-safe-path
1127 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
1128 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
1130 --without-auto-load-safe-path
1131 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1134 * New remote packets
1136 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1138 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1139 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1140 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1141 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1145 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1146 program without GDB involvement.
1148 * New command line options
1150 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1151 before loading inferior.
1152 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1153 execute it before loading inferior.
1155 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
1157 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1158 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1159 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1160 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1163 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1164 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1166 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1167 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1168 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1169 target hardware watchpoint.
1171 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1172 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1173 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1174 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1178 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
1179 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
1182 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
1183 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1184 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1185 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1186 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1189 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
1192 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1193 modules library. This module provides functionality for
1194 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
1195 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1196 corresponding value.
1198 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1199 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1200 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1203 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1204 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1205 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1206 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1208 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1210 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1213 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1214 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1215 available in the CLI.
1217 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1218 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1219 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1220 "some_type.items()".
1222 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1225 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1226 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1227 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1228 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1229 any anonymous fields.
1233 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1236 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1237 "=breakpoint-modified".
1239 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1241 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1242 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1243 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1246 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1247 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1248 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1249 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1250 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1252 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1253 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1255 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1256 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1257 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1258 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1259 use this option to specify where to find it.
1261 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1262 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1263 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1264 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1265 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1266 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1267 section in the user manual for more details.
1269 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1270 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1271 become available after that.
1273 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
1275 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1276 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1282 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1283 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1287 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1288 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1289 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1291 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1292 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1293 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1295 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1296 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1297 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1298 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1299 name starts with a hyphen.
1301 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1302 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1303 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1304 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1305 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1306 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1307 number of bytes that will be collected.
1310 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1311 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1312 setting the variable trace-notes.
1315 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1316 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1317 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1320 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1321 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1322 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1323 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1324 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1327 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1328 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1329 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1333 set debug dwarf2-read
1334 show debug dwarf2-read
1335 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1336 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1338 set debug symtab-create
1339 show debug symtab-create
1340 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1341 creation. The default is off.
1344 show extended-prompt
1345 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1346 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1347 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1348 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1349 prompt is displayed.
1351 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1352 show print entry-values
1353 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1354 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1355 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1357 set debug entry-values
1358 show debug entry-values
1359 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1360 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1362 set basenames-may-differ
1363 show basenames-may-differ
1364 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1365 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1366 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1367 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1368 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1369 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1370 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1371 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1377 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1378 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1379 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1380 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1382 set trace-stop-notes
1383 show trace-stop-notes
1384 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1385 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1386 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1387 started by someone else.
1389 * New remote packets
1393 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1397 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1401 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1405 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1409 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1412 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1413 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1417 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1421 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1423 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1425 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1427 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
1429 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1430 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1431 matches the given regular expression.
1433 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1435 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1436 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1438 * New command line options
1440 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1441 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1443 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1444 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1446 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1447 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1448 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1450 * GDB now understands thread names.
1452 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1453 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1455 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1456 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1459 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1460 has been integrated into GDB.
1464 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1465 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1466 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1468 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1469 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1470 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1471 and allows for more dynamic content.
1473 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1474 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1475 have an is_valid method.
1477 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1478 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1479 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1481 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1483 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1484 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1485 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1486 that function like so:
1488 result = some_value (10,20)
1490 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1491 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1492 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1494 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1495 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1496 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1497 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1498 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1500 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1501 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1503 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1505 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1508 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1509 holds the thread's name.
1511 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1512 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
1513 occurring in the process being debugged.
1514 The following events are currently supported:
1515 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1516 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1517 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1521 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1522 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1524 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1526 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1527 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1528 was added to GCC 4.5.
1530 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1531 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1532 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1533 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1534 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1535 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1537 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1538 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1539 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1540 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1541 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1543 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1544 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1545 execution to a label.
1547 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1548 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1549 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1550 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1552 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
1553 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
1554 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1557 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1559 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1560 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1561 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1562 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1563 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1564 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1567 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1569 While now you see this:
1572 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1574 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1577 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1578 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1579 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1580 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1582 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1583 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1584 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1585 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1586 section in the user manual for more details.
1588 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1590 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1591 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
1593 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1595 * New native configurations
1597 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1601 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1603 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1604 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1605 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1606 in the GDB user manual.
1608 * Guile support was removed.
1610 * New features in the GNU simulator
1612 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1614 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1616 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
1618 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
1620 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1621 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1622 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1623 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1624 was always disabled for such configurations.
1628 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1630 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1631 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1641 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1642 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1643 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1645 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1647 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1648 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1649 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1650 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1652 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1653 mentioned flavors of operators.
1655 ** static const class members
1657 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1658 class definition has been fixed.
1660 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
1662 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1663 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1664 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1665 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1666 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1667 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1669 * Static tracepoints
1671 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1672 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1673 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1674 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1675 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1676 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1677 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1678 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1679 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1680 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1681 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1682 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1683 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1684 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1685 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1686 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1687 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1688 the "New remote packets" section below.
1690 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1692 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1693 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1694 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1695 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1699 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1700 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1701 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1702 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1703 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1704 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1705 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1707 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1710 * New remote packets
1714 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1718 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1719 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1720 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1721 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1722 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1723 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1727 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1731 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1734 qXfer:statictrace:read
1736 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1737 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1738 to gdb's qSupported query.
1742 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1746 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1747 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1749 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1750 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1753 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1755 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1756 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1757 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1758 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1760 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1761 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1762 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1763 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1764 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1765 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1766 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1768 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1769 for static tracepoints support.
1771 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1773 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1774 it understands register description.
1776 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1778 * X86 general purpose registers
1780 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1781 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1782 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1783 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1784 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1786 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
1787 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1788 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1789 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1790 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1791 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
1793 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1794 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1795 in the specified file.
1797 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1798 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1799 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1800 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1801 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1802 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1803 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1804 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1805 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1806 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1810 eval template, expressions...
1811 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1812 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1814 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1815 show target-file-system-kind
1816 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1819 save breakpoints <filename>
1820 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1821 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1822 definitions, use the `source' command.
1824 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1827 info static-tracepoint-markers
1828 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1830 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1831 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1832 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1836 Enable and disable observer mode.
1838 set may-write-registers on|off
1839 set may-write-memory on|off
1840 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1841 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1842 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1843 set may-interrupt on|off
1844 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1845 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1846 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1847 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1848 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1849 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1850 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1852 set record memory-query on|off
1853 show record memory-query
1854 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1855 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1860 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1864 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1865 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1866 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1867 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1868 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1870 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
1871 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1872 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1873 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
1875 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
1876 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1878 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
1880 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
1882 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1884 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1885 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1886 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1888 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1889 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1890 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1891 regular breakpoints.
1895 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1897 * D language support.
1898 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1901 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1902 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1903 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1904 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1905 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1907 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1908 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1909 conditions of the form:
1911 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1913 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1914 interface mentioned above.
1916 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
1920 ** Namespace Support
1922 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1923 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1924 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1925 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1926 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1930 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1931 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1936 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1937 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1941 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
1946 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
1949 * Multi-program debugging.
1951 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1952 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1953 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1954 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1955 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1956 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1957 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1958 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1960 * New tracing features
1962 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1964 ** Trace state variables
1966 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1967 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1968 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1969 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1970 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1971 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1972 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1973 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1974 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1975 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
1979 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1980 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1981 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1982 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1983 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1984 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1985 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1986 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1987 the regular trace command.
1989 ** Disconnected tracing
1991 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1992 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1993 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1994 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1995 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1999 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2000 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2001 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2002 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2003 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2004 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2007 ** Circular trace buffer
2009 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2010 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2011 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2012 not be available for all target agents.
2017 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2018 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2021 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2022 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2025 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2026 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2029 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2030 "set script-extension" (see below).
2032 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2034 record save [<FILENAME>]
2035 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2036 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2038 record restore <FILENAME>
2039 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2040 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2042 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2045 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2046 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2047 inferior has loaded.
2052 maint info program-spaces
2053 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2055 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2056 show remote interrupt-sequence
2057 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2058 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2059 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2060 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2061 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2063 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2064 show remote interrupt-on-connect
2065 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2066 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2069 set remotebreak [on | off]
2071 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2073 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2074 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2077 List trace state variables and their values.
2079 delete tvariable $NAME ...
2080 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2083 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2084 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2086 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2087 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2089 * New expression syntax
2091 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2092 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2096 set follow-exec-mode new|same
2097 show follow-exec-mode
2098 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2099 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2100 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2102 set default-collect EXPR, ...
2103 show default-collect
2104 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2105 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2106 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2108 set disconnected-tracing
2109 show disconnected-tracing
2110 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2111 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2114 set circular-trace-buffer
2115 show circular-trace-buffer
2116 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2117 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2118 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2119 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2121 set script-extension off|soft|strict
2122 show script-extension
2123 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2124 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2125 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2126 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2128 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2130 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2131 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2132 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2133 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2134 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2135 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2136 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2139 * Python API Improvements
2141 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2142 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2143 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2145 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2146 `is_base_class' attribute.
2148 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2150 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2151 evaluate an expression.
2153 * New remote packets
2156 Define a trace state variable.
2159 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2162 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2165 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2168 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2172 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2174 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2175 much more reliable. In particular:
2176 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2177 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2178 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2179 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2180 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2181 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2182 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2183 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2184 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2185 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2186 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2187 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2188 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2189 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2190 non-threaded programs.
2192 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2193 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2194 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2197 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
2199 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2200 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2201 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2202 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2203 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2205 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2206 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2207 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2208 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2209 for tracepoint actions.
2211 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2212 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2213 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
2215 * Process record and replay
2217 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2218 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2219 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2222 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2223 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2224 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2227 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2228 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
2231 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2232 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2233 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2234 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2235 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2236 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2237 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2238 the installation instructions for more information.
2240 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2241 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2242 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2243 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2245 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2246 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2248 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2249 now complete on file names.
2251 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2252 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2253 For instance, consider:
2255 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2256 # struct example variable;
2259 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2260 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2262 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2263 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2265 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2266 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2269 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
2270 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2271 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2273 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2274 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2275 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2276 and simulator targets may also provide them.
2278 * New remote packets
2281 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2284 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2285 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2286 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2289 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2290 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2293 Obtains additional operating system information
2297 Read or write additional signal information.
2299 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2301 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2302 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2303 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2305 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
2306 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
2308 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
2309 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2310 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
2312 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2313 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2315 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2317 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2319 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2320 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2322 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
2323 list of section offsets.
2325 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2326 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2327 have also been fixed.
2329 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
2330 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2331 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
2333 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2336 template<typename T> class C { };
2339 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2341 ptype C<char const *>
2342 ptype C<char const*>
2343 ptype C<const char *>
2344 ptype C<const char*>
2346 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2348 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2349 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2351 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2352 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2353 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2355 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2356 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2358 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2361 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2362 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2364 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2365 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2370 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2371 available is determined at configure time.
2373 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2375 * Ada tasking support
2377 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2381 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2383 Print detailed information about task number N.
2385 Print the task number of the current task.
2387 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2389 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2390 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2392 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2394 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2395 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2396 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2397 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2398 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2399 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2402 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2403 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2406 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2407 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2408 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2409 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2412 * Multi-architecture debugging.
2414 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2415 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2416 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2417 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2418 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2420 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2421 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2422 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2423 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2424 --enable-targets configure option.
2426 * Non-stop mode debugging.
2428 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2429 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2430 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2431 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2432 section in the user manual for more information.
2434 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2435 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2436 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2437 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2438 extensions on linux targets.
2440 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2442 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2443 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2444 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2445 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2446 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2447 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2448 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2449 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2450 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2452 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2454 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2456 maint set python print-stack
2457 maint show python print-stack
2458 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2461 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2466 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2470 Show operating system information about processes.
2473 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2476 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2479 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2482 Kill inferior number NUM.
2486 set spu stop-on-load
2487 show spu stop-on-load
2488 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2490 set spu auto-flush-cache
2491 show spu auto-flush-cache
2492 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2493 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2495 set sh calling-convention
2496 show sh calling-convention
2497 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2500 show debug timestamp
2501 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2503 set disassemble-next-line
2504 show disassemble-next-line
2505 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2508 set remote noack-packet
2509 show remote noack-packet
2510 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2511 under "New remote packets."
2513 set remote query-attached-packet
2514 show remote query-attached-packet
2515 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2517 set remote read-siginfo-object
2518 show remote read-siginfo-object
2519 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2522 set remote write-siginfo-object
2523 show remote write-siginfo-object
2524 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2527 set remote reverse-continue
2528 show remote reverse-continue
2529 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2531 set remote reverse-step
2532 show remote reverse-step
2533 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2535 set displaced-stepping
2536 show displaced-stepping
2537 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2538 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2539 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2542 show debug displaced
2543 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2545 maint set internal-error
2546 maint show internal-error
2547 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2549 maint set internal-warning
2550 maint show internal-warning
2551 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
2556 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2558 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2559 show multiple-symbols
2560 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2561 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2562 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2564 set breakpoint always-inserted
2565 show breakpoint always-inserted
2566 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2567 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2568 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2570 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2571 show arm fallback-mode
2572 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2574 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2575 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2576 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2577 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2579 set disable-randomization
2580 show disable-randomization
2581 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2582 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2583 multiple debugging sessions.
2587 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2592 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2593 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2594 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2595 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2597 set target-wide-charset
2598 show target-wide-charset
2599 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2600 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2602 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2604 set tcp connect-timeout
2605 show tcp connect-timeout
2606 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2607 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2608 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2610 set libthread-db-search-path
2611 show libthread-db-search-path
2612 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2615 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2616 show schedule-multiple
2617 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2618 the current process.
2622 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2623 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2624 affecting correctness.
2626 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2627 show interactive-mode
2628 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2629 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2630 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2631 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2632 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2637 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2638 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2639 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2643 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2644 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2645 alias for the `fork' command.
2648 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2649 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2650 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2653 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2654 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2655 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2659 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2660 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2661 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2664 * New native configurations
2666 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2668 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2672 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
2673 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
2674 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
2677 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2678 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2684 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2686 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
2688 * New native configurations
2690 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
2691 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
2695 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
2696 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
2698 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2700 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2701 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2702 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2703 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2705 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2706 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2708 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
2711 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
2712 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2713 and in inlined functions.
2715 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2716 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2717 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2719 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2721 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2722 registers on PowerPC targets.
2724 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2725 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2727 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2728 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2730 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2731 extended-remote mode.
2733 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
2734 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2735 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2736 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
2738 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2739 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2740 target architectures.
2742 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2743 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2744 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2745 stored in two consecutive float registers.
2747 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2750 * Improved support for debugging Ada
2751 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2753 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2754 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2755 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2756 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2758 - Improved command completion in Ada
2761 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2766 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2767 show print frame-arguments
2768 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2769 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2774 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2781 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2783 * New remote packets
2790 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
2793 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2797 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2799 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
2801 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2802 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2803 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2805 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2806 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2807 -Bsymbolic linker option.
2809 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2810 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2813 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2814 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2816 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
2817 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
2819 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2821 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2822 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2823 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2825 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2826 automatically displayed as character or string data.
2828 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2829 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2832 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2833 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
2834 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
2836 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2839 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2840 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2841 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2843 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2845 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2847 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2848 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2849 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2851 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2852 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2854 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2855 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2856 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2857 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2858 Windows and SymbianOS).
2860 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2861 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
2863 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2864 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
2870 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2871 when debugging using remote targets.
2873 set mem inaccessible-by-default
2874 show mem inaccessible-by-default
2875 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2876 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2877 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2878 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2879 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2881 set breakpoint auto-hw
2882 show breakpoint auto-hw
2883 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2884 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2885 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2886 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2887 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2888 including "next" and "finish".
2891 catch exception unhandled
2892 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2895 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2899 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2900 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2901 an alias to "set sysroot".
2904 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2905 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2908 * New native configurations
2910 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2913 unset tdesc filename
2915 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2916 not query the target for its built-in description.
2920 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
2921 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
2922 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
2924 * New remote packets
2927 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2928 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2930 qXfer:features:read:
2931 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2936 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2937 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2939 qXfer:libraries:read:
2940 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2941 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2942 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2943 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2947 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2955 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2956 i[34567]86-*-netware*
2957 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2958 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2960 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2963 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2964 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2973 * Other removed features
2980 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2987 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2992 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2993 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2998 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2999 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3001 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3003 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3004 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3005 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3006 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3008 MIPS ".pdr" sections
3010 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3011 in debugging information.
3015 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3016 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3018 set mips stack-arg-size
3019 set mips saved-gpreg-size
3021 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3023 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
3028 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
3030 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3031 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3032 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3034 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3035 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3038 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3039 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3041 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3042 stub provides the required support.
3044 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3045 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3050 unset substitute-path
3051 show substitute-path
3052 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3053 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3054 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3055 between compilation and debugging.
3059 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3060 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3061 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3065 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3067 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3068 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3070 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3072 * New remote packets
3075 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3076 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3077 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3078 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3082 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3083 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3085 qXfer:memory-map:read:
3086 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3087 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3092 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3094 * Removed remote packets
3097 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3098 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3100 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
3104 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3106 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3110 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3111 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3113 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3115 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3117 restart <n> Return the program state to a
3118 previously saved state.
3120 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3122 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3124 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3125 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3127 info forks List forks of the user program that
3128 are available to be debugged.
3130 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3131 forks of the user program that are
3132 available to be debugged.
3134 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3135 that are available to be debugged (and
3136 kill the forked process).
3138 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3139 that are available to be debugged (and
3140 allow the process to continue).
3144 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3146 * Improved Windows host support
3148 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3149 native console support, and remote communications using either
3150 network sockets or serial ports.
3152 * Improved Modula-2 language support
3154 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3155 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3156 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3157 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3158 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3159 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3163 The ARM rdi-share module.
3165 The Netware NLM debug server.
3167 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
3169 * New native configurations
3171 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
3172 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3176 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3178 * New command line options
3180 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3181 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3182 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3183 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3184 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3185 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3186 with the --command (-x) option.
3188 * Deprecated commands removed
3190 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3194 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3195 othernames set arm disassembler
3196 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3197 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3198 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3201 * New BSD user-level threads support
3203 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3204 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3207 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3208 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3209 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3211 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3212 are not yet supported.
3214 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3215 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3217 * REMOVED configurations and files
3219 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
3220 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3221 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
3223 * New "set print array-indexes" command
3225 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3226 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3229 * VAX floating point support
3231 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3233 * User-defined command support
3235 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3236 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3237 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3239 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3241 * New command line option
3243 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3246 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3248 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3249 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3250 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3251 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3252 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
3254 * Internationalization
3256 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3257 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3258 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3262 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3263 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3264 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3266 * New native configurations
3268 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3272 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3273 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3275 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3277 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3278 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3279 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3282 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3283 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3284 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3294 powerpc bdm protocol
3296 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3297 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3299 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3301 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3302 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3303 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3304 permanently REMOVED.
3313 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3315 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3317 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3318 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3321 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3323 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3324 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3325 IRIX long double values).
3329 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3330 command. This problem has been fixed.
3332 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
3334 * Fix for ``many threads''
3336 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3337 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3340 ptrace: No such process.
3341 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3343 This problem has been fixed.
3345 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3347 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3350 * New ``start'' command.
3352 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3354 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3356 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3357 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3358 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3360 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3361 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3362 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3363 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3364 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3365 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3366 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3367 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3368 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3370 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
3372 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3373 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3374 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3375 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3376 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3378 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3379 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3380 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3382 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3384 * New native configurations
3386 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
3387 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
3388 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3389 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
3390 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
3391 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
3392 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
3394 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3396 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3397 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3398 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3399 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3400 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3401 work, was also included.
3403 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3404 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3414 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3415 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3417 * REMOVED configurations and files
3419 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3420 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3421 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3422 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3423 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3424 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3425 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3426 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3427 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3428 sonymips mips-sony-*
3429 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3431 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3433 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3435 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3436 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3437 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3438 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3441 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3443 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3444 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3445 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3446 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3447 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3448 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3451 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3453 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
3455 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3456 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3457 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3459 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3461 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3462 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3464 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3466 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3467 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3468 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3470 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3472 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3473 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3475 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3477 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3478 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3479 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3481 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3483 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3484 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3485 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3487 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
3489 * Removed --with-mmalloc
3491 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3492 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3494 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
3496 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3497 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3498 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3499 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3501 * Revised SPARC target
3503 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3504 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
3505 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3506 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3507 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
3511 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3512 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3513 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3516 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3518 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3519 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3522 * C++ nested types and namespaces
3524 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3525 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3526 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3527 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3528 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3529 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3530 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3531 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3532 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3534 * New native configurations
3536 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
3537 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3538 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
3539 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3540 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
3542 * New debugging protocols
3544 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3546 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3548 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3549 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3550 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3552 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3554 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3555 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3556 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3557 permanently REMOVED.
3559 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3560 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3561 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3562 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3563 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3564 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3565 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3566 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3567 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3568 sonymips mips-sony-*
3569 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3571 * REMOVED configurations and files
3573 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3574 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3575 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3576 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3577 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3578 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3579 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3580 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3581 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3582 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
3583 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3584 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3585 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3586 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3587 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
3588 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3589 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3591 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3595 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3596 integrated into GDB.
3598 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3600 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3601 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3602 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3605 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3606 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3607 DWARF 2 CFI support.
3611 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3612 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3613 remote protocol documentation for details.
3615 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
3617 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3618 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3619 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3622 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3624 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3625 per-thread variables.
3627 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3629 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3630 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3632 * Separate debug info.
3634 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3635 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3636 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3637 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3638 and optional debug files.
3640 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3642 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3643 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3646 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3647 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3651 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3652 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3653 considered "useable".
3655 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3657 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3658 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3661 * GDB supports logging output to a file
3663 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3664 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
3666 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3668 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3669 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3672 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
3674 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3675 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3679 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3680 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3681 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3682 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3683 data, for more informative profiling results.
3685 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3687 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3688 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
3689 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
3691 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3694 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3695 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3696 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3697 in a subsequent -var-update.
3699 * New native configurations.
3701 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3703 * Multi-arched targets.
3705 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
3706 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3708 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3710 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3711 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3712 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3713 permanently REMOVED.
3715 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3716 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3717 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3718 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3719 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3720 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3721 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3722 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3723 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3724 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3725 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3726 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3728 * REMOVED configurations and files
3731 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3732 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3733 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3734 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3735 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3736 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3738 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3739 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3740 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3741 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3742 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3743 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3745 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
3747 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3748 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3749 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3750 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3751 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3753 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
3755 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3757 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3758 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3759 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3760 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3761 shared libs like mad''.
3763 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
3765 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3766 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3767 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3768 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
3770 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3772 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3773 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3776 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3777 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3779 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3780 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3782 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3783 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3784 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3785 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3787 * Multi-arched targets.
3789 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3790 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
3792 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
3793 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3794 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3798 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3801 * New native configurations
3803 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
3804 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
3805 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
3806 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
3808 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3810 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3811 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3812 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3813 permanently REMOVED.
3815 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3816 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3817 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3818 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3819 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3820 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3821 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3822 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3823 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3824 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3826 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3827 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3829 * OBSOLETE languages
3831 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3833 * REMOVED configurations and files
3835 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3836 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3837 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3838 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3839 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3841 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3843 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3845 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3846 commands. The default is 1024.
3848 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3850 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3852 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3854 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3855 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3856 from a file into memory (restore).
3858 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3860 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3861 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3862 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3864 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3872 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3873 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3874 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3876 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3877 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3878 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3880 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3881 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3882 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3884 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3885 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3886 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3888 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
3890 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3892 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3893 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3894 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3895 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3896 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3897 (notably embedded) targets.
3899 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3901 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3902 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3903 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3904 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
3906 * New command line option
3908 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3910 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3912 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3913 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3914 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3915 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3916 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3917 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3918 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3919 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3920 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3921 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3923 * Changes in ARM configurations.
3925 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3926 configuration is fully multi-arch.
3928 * New native configurations
3930 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
3931 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
3932 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
3933 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
3937 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3939 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3941 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3942 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3943 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3944 permanently REMOVED.
3946 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3947 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3948 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3949 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3950 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3952 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3954 * REMOVED configurations and files
3956 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3958 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3959 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3960 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3961 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3962 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3963 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3964 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3965 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3966 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3967 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3968 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
3970 * Changes to command line processing
3972 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3973 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3975 * Changes to key bindings
3977 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3979 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3981 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3983 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3986 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3988 Numerous documentation fixes.
3990 Numerous testsuite fixes.
3992 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
3994 * New native configurations
3996 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3997 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
3998 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
3999 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4000 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
4001 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
4005 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
4007 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
4009 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4011 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
4012 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4013 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4014 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4015 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4017 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4018 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4019 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4020 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4021 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4022 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4023 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4024 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
4026 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4027 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4029 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4030 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4031 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4032 permanently REMOVED.
4034 * REMOVED configurations and files
4036 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4037 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4039 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4043 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
4045 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
4046 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4051 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4053 * The MI enabled by default.
4055 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4056 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4057 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4058 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4059 which is now deprecated.
4061 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4063 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4064 main features are supported:
4066 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4068 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4071 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4073 - a Pascal expression parser.
4075 However, some important features are not yet supported.
4077 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4079 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4081 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4082 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4084 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4086 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4088 * Changes in completion.
4090 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4091 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4092 users expect at the shell prompt.
4094 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4095 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4096 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4097 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4098 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4099 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4100 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4102 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4104 * New platform-independent commands:
4106 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4107 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4108 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4110 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4112 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4113 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4114 many threads as your system allows you to have.
4116 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4118 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4119 multi-threaded programs though.
4121 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
4123 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4125 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4126 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4129 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4131 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4132 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4133 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4134 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4135 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4138 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4139 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4140 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4142 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4144 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4145 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4147 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4148 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4151 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4152 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4153 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4154 a given linear address.
4156 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4157 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4158 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4160 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4162 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4164 * Changes in documentation.
4166 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4167 Documentation License.
4169 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4172 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4174 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4177 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4178 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4179 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4181 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4183 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4184 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4185 contents of this file.
4189 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
4191 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
4193 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4195 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4196 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4197 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4198 greater level of detail.
4200 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4202 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4203 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4204 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4207 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4209 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4210 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4211 machines ``out of the box''.
4213 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4214 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4215 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4216 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4217 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4219 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4220 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4221 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4222 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4223 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4225 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4226 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4229 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4232 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4233 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4234 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4235 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4237 * New native configurations
4239 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
4240 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4244 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
4245 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4246 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
4247 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4249 * OBSOLETE configurations
4251 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4252 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4254 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4257 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4258 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4259 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4260 be permanently REMOVED.
4262 * Gould support removed
4264 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4266 * New features for SVR4
4268 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4269 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4270 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4272 * Many C++ enhancements
4274 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4275 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4277 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4279 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4280 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4281 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4282 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4284 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4285 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4287 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
4289 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4290 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4291 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4293 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4294 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4296 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4298 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4299 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4300 include ``set remote P-packet''.
4302 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4304 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4305 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4306 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4308 * ``apropos'' command added.
4310 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4311 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4312 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4316 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4317 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
4318 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4319 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4320 enabled by configuring with:
4322 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4324 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4326 * New native configurations
4328 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4329 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
4330 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
4334 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4335 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4336 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4338 * OBSOLETE configurations
4340 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4342 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4343 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4344 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4345 be permanently REMOVED.
4349 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4350 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4351 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4352 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4353 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4354 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4355 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4360 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4362 * set extension-language
4364 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4365 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4366 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4367 set extension-language .c c++
4368 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4369 and their associated languages.
4371 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4373 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4374 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4375 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4379 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4380 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4382 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4383 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4385 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4386 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4387 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4388 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4389 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4390 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4391 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4392 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4394 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4395 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4396 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4397 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4401 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4402 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4403 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4404 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4405 for xdb and dbx commands.
4409 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4410 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4411 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4413 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4414 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4415 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4417 * Debugging across forks
4419 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4424 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4425 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4426 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4428 * GDB remote protocol additions
4430 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4431 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4432 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4433 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4435 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4436 full 64-bit address. The command
4438 set remoteaddresssize 32
4440 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4441 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4444 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4445 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4447 maint packet heythere
4449 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4450 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4453 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4454 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4455 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4457 * Tracing can collect general expressions
4459 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4460 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4461 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4463 * mask-address variable for Mips
4465 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4466 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4467 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4469 * Higher serial baud rates
4471 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4472 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4473 to achieve all of these rates.)
4477 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4478 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4481 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4483 * New native configurations
4485 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4486 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4487 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4488 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4489 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4490 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4491 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4495 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4496 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4497 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4498 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4499 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4500 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4501 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4502 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4503 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4504 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4505 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4507 * New debugging protocols
4509 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4510 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4511 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4512 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4513 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4514 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4518 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4519 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4524 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4525 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4527 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4529 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4530 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4531 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4533 * Live range splitting
4535 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4536 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4537 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4541 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4542 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4546 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4547 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4548 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4553 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4558 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4559 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4560 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4561 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4562 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4563 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4567 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4568 the symbol at the specified address.
4572 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4573 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4574 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4575 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4576 file tracepoint.c for more details.
4580 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4581 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4582 of most MIPS variants.
4586 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4587 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4588 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4592 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4593 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4594 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4595 the possible architectures.
4597 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4599 * New native configurations
4601 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4602 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4603 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4604 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4605 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4606 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4610 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4611 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4612 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4613 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4614 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4616 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4620 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4621 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4622 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4623 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4624 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4628 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4630 * Windows 95/NT native
4632 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4633 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4634 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4635 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4636 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4638 * dont-repeat command
4640 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4641 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4642 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4643 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4645 * Send break instead of ^C
4647 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4648 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4649 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4651 * Remote protocol timeout
4653 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4654 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4655 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4657 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4659 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4660 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4661 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4662 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4663 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4665 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4666 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4667 automatically on hpux10.
4669 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4671 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4673 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4675 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4676 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4677 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4678 every character. The default value is 1050.
4680 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4682 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4683 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4684 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4685 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4686 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4687 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4689 * Speedups for remote debugging
4691 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4692 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4693 and more efficient S-record downloading.
4695 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4697 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4698 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4700 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4702 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
4704 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4705 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4707 * Remote targets use caching
4709 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4710 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4711 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4712 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4713 off' turns the the data cache off.
4715 * Remote targets may have threads
4717 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4718 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4719 gdb/remote.c for details.
4723 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4724 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4725 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4726 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4727 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4728 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4729 sequence is something like
4731 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4733 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4737 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4738 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4739 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4740 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4741 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4742 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4743 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4744 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4748 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4749 but does simplify configuration and building.
4753 GDB now supports hpux10.
4755 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4757 * New native configurations
4759 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4760 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4761 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4762 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4766 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4767 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4768 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4769 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4772 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4774 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4775 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4776 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4777 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4778 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4780 * Arguments to user-defined commands
4782 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4783 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4786 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4788 To execute the command use:
4791 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4792 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4793 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4795 * New `if' and `while' commands
4797 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4798 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4799 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4800 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4801 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4802 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4803 if the expression is zero.
4805 * Fortran source language mode
4807 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4808 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4809 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4810 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4813 * Better HPUX support
4815 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4816 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4817 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4818 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4819 that behavior do the following before running the program:
4825 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4826 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4832 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4833 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4836 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4837 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4839 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4841 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4842 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4843 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4844 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4845 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4846 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4848 * New DOS host serial code
4850 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4851 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4854 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4856 * New "complete" command
4858 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4859 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4861 * Trailing space optional in prompt
4863 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4864 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4866 * Breakpoint hit counts
4868 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4869 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4870 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4871 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4872 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4875 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4877 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4878 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4879 arrays actually contain only short strings.
4881 * Shared library breakpoints
4883 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4884 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4886 * Hardware watchpoints
4888 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4889 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4891 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
4895 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4896 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4898 * Improved Irix 5 support
4900 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4902 * Improved HPPA support
4904 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4906 * New native configurations
4908 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4909 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4910 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4911 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4915 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4916 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4919 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4921 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4922 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4926 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4927 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4929 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4931 * Irix 5 is now supported
4935 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4936 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4937 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4938 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4939 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4942 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4944 * User visible changes:
4948 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4949 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4950 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4951 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4952 debugging info for the mips target).
4954 * DEC Alpha native support
4956 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4957 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4958 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4959 Alpha-specific notes.
4961 * Preliminary thread implementation
4963 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4965 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
4967 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4968 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4971 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4973 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4974 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4975 call methods, ...etc.
4977 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4979 * User visible changes:
4981 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4982 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4983 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4984 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4986 Filename completion now works.
4988 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4989 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4990 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4992 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4993 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4994 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4995 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4996 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5000 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5001 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5004 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5008 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5009 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5010 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5014 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5015 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5016 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5017 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5018 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5022 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5023 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5024 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5026 * New targets supported
5028 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5029 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5030 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5031 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5032 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5034 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5035 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5036 GO32 memory extender.
5038 * New remote protocols
5040 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5042 * New source languages supported
5044 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5045 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5046 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5049 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5051 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5053 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5054 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5055 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5056 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5057 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5058 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5060 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5062 * Faster and better demangling
5064 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5065 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5066 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5067 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5068 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5069 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5072 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5073 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5074 compiler does not actually implement.
5076 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5078 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5079 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5080 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5081 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5082 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5083 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5086 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5087 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5089 * Improved configure script
5091 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5092 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5093 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5094 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5096 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5097 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5098 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5099 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5100 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5101 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5103 * Documentation improvements
5105 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5106 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5107 before submitting changes.
5109 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5110 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5111 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5112 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5113 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5115 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5116 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5117 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5118 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5119 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5120 around this problem.
5124 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5125 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5126 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5129 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5130 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5132 * New native hosts supported
5134 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5135 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5137 * New targets supported
5139 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5141 * New file formats supported
5143 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5144 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5148 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5150 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5151 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5153 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5154 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5155 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5157 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5158 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5160 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5161 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5162 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5165 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5166 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5167 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5168 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5169 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5171 * Internal improvements
5173 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5174 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5176 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5177 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5178 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5179 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5180 shared code that handles any of them.
5182 * New command line options
5184 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5188 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5189 General Public License.
5191 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5193 * Host/native/target split
5195 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5196 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5197 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5198 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5199 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5201 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5202 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5203 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5204 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5205 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5206 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5207 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5209 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5210 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5211 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5213 * New hosts supported
5215 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5216 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5217 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5219 * New targets supported
5221 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5222 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5224 * New native hosts supported
5226 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5227 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5228 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5230 * New file formats supported
5232 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5233 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5234 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5238 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5239 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5240 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5242 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5244 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5245 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5246 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5247 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5251 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5252 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5253 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5255 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5259 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5260 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5263 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5264 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5266 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5267 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5268 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5269 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5270 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5271 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5273 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5274 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5275 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5276 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5280 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5281 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5282 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5283 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5284 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5286 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5287 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5288 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5289 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5293 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5294 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5295 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5296 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5297 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5298 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5299 each instruction being stepped through.
5301 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5302 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5304 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5305 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5306 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5307 processor with a serial port.
5311 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5312 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5313 supported, and what files each one uses.
5317 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5318 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5319 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5320 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5322 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5323 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5324 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5325 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5329 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5330 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5331 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5332 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5333 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5334 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5336 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5339 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5341 * Better support for C++ function names
5343 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5344 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5345 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5346 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5347 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5349 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5350 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5351 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5352 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5353 for the list of formats.
5355 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5357 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5358 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5359 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5360 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5361 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5362 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5365 * New 'maintenance' command
5367 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5368 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5369 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5371 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5372 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5373 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5374 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5375 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5376 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5378 The following commands are new:
5380 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5381 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5382 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5384 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5386 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5387 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5388 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5389 read after argv processing.
5391 * New hosts supported
5393 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5395 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
5397 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5398 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5399 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5400 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5401 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5404 * New targets supported
5406 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5408 * More smarts about finding #include files
5410 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5411 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5412 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5413 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5414 the one that contains your sources.
5416 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5417 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5418 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5420 * Interesting infernals change
5422 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5423 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5424 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5425 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5427 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5429 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5430 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5431 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5433 See the ChangeLog for details.
5435 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5437 * New machines supported (host and target)
5439 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5441 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5443 * New malloc package
5445 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5446 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5447 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5448 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5449 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5450 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5454 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5455 'help info proc' for details.
5457 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5459 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5460 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5463 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5465 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5466 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5467 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5468 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5469 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5470 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5472 * Cross byte order fixes
5474 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5475 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5477 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5479 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5480 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5481 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5482 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5483 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5484 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5485 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5486 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5487 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5488 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5490 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5491 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5492 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5493 slower, but makes future operations faster.
5495 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5496 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5497 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5500 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5502 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5503 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5504 shared across multiple host platforms.
5506 * longjmp() handling
5508 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5509 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5510 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5511 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5515 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5516 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5521 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5522 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5523 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5525 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5527 * New machines supported (host and target)
5529 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5531 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5532 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5534 * New machines supported (target)
5536 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5540 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5541 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5542 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5544 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5545 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5546 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5547 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5548 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5551 * New features for SVR4
5553 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5554 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5555 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5557 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5558 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5559 it prints the address mappings of the process.
5561 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5562 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5564 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5566 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5567 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5568 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5569 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5570 same code linked statically.
5574 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5575 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5576 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5577 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5578 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5579 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5583 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5584 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5585 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5588 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5590 * New machines supported (host and target)
5592 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5593 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5594 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5596 * Almost SCO Unix support
5598 We had hoped to support:
5599 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5600 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5601 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5602 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5604 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5606 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5607 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5608 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5609 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5614 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5615 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5616 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5620 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5621 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5622 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5624 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5626 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5627 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5628 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5630 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5631 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5632 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5633 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5636 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5637 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5638 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5639 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5642 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5643 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5646 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5647 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5648 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5651 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5653 * Improved configuration
5655 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5656 Porting BFD is simpler.
5660 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5661 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5662 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5663 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5667 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5669 * New host supported (not target)
5671 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5674 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5676 * Multiple source language support
5678 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5679 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5680 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5681 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5682 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5683 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5687 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5688 currently under development at the State University of New York at
5689 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5690 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5692 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5693 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5694 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5696 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5697 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5701 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5702 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5703 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5704 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5707 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5709 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5710 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5711 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5712 examining core files.
5716 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5719 * New machines supported (host and target)
5721 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5722 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5723 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5725 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5727 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5729 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5731 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5732 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5733 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5735 * New remote interfaces
5741 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5745 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5747 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5748 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5749 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5750 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5751 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5752 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5753 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5754 stub on the target system.
5756 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5758 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5759 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5760 object file types such as a.out and coff.
5762 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5763 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5766 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5768 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5769 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5771 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5772 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5773 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5775 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5776 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5777 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5778 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5780 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5781 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5782 it is already running. Default is ON.
5784 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5785 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5786 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5787 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5790 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5791 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5792 or the value of the environment variable
5795 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5796 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5799 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5800 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5801 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5803 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5804 history expansion will be performed on
5805 command line input. The default is OFF.
5807 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5808 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5809 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5811 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5812 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5813 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5816 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5817 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5818 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5821 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5822 ``set width'' instead.
5824 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5825 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5826 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5827 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5829 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5832 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5835 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5838 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5841 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5843 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5844 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5845 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5849 * Support for Shared Libraries
5851 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5852 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5853 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5854 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5855 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5856 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5857 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5858 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5860 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5861 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5862 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5864 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5869 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5870 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5871 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5872 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5873 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5874 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5876 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5878 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5880 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5881 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5882 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5885 * C++ multiple inheritance
5887 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5890 * C++ exception handling
5892 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5893 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5894 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5897 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5898 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5899 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5901 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5902 current stack frame.
5905 * Minor command changes
5907 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5908 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5909 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5911 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5912 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5913 frames without printing.
5915 * New directory command
5917 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5918 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5919 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5920 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5921 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5923 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5925 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5928 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5929 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5930 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5931 where the program that you are debugging will run.