1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
7 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
8 For instance, consider:
10 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
11 # struct example variable;
14 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
15 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
20 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
22 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
24 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
25 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
26 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
28 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
31 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
32 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
34 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
35 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
36 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
38 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
39 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
41 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
43 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
44 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
46 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
47 list of section offsets.
49 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
50 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
53 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
55 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
56 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
58 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
59 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
60 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
64 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
66 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
70 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
75 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
77 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
79 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
80 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
81 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
83 set breakpoint always-inserted
84 show breakpoint always-inserted
85 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
86 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
87 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
89 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
90 show arm fallback-mode
91 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
93 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
94 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
95 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
96 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
100 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
102 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
104 * New native configurations
106 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
107 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
111 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
112 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
114 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
116 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
117 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
118 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
119 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
121 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
122 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
124 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
127 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
128 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
129 and in inlined functions.
131 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
132 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
133 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
135 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
137 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
138 registers on PowerPC targets.
140 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
141 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
143 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
144 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
146 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
147 extended-remote mode.
149 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
150 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
151 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
152 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
154 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
155 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
156 target architectures.
158 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
159 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
160 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
161 stored in two consecutive float registers.
163 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
166 * Improved support for debugging Ada
167 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
169 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
170 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
171 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
172 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
174 - Improved command completion in Ada
177 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
182 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
183 show print frame-arguments
184 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
185 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
190 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
197 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
206 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
209 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
213 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
215 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
217 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
218 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
219 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
221 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
222 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
223 -Bsymbolic linker option.
225 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
226 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
229 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
230 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
232 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
233 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
235 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
237 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
238 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
239 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
241 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
242 automatically displayed as character or string data.
244 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
245 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
248 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
249 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
250 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
252 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
255 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
256 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
257 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
259 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
261 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
263 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
264 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
265 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
267 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
268 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
270 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
271 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
272 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
273 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
274 Windows and SymbianOS).
276 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
277 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
279 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
280 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
286 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
287 when debugging using remote targets.
289 set mem inaccessible-by-default
290 show mem inaccessible-by-default
291 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
292 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
293 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
294 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
295 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
297 set breakpoint auto-hw
298 show breakpoint auto-hw
299 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
300 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
301 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
302 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
303 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
304 including "next" and "finish".
307 catch exception unhandled
308 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
311 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
315 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
316 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
317 an alias to "set sysroot".
320 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
321 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
324 * New native configurations
326 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
331 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
332 not query the target for its built-in description.
336 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
337 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
338 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
343 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
344 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
347 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
352 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
353 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
355 qXfer:libraries:read:
356 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
357 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
358 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
359 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
363 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
372 i[34567]86-*-netware*
373 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
374 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
376 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
379 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
380 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
389 * Other removed features
396 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
403 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
408 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
409 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
414 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
415 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
417 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
419 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
420 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
421 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
422 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
426 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
427 in debugging information.
431 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
432 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
434 set mips stack-arg-size
435 set mips saved-gpreg-size
437 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
439 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
444 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
446 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
447 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
448 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
450 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
451 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
454 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
455 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
457 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
458 stub provides the required support.
460 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
461 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
466 unset substitute-path
468 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
469 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
470 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
471 between compilation and debugging.
475 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
476 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
477 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
481 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
483 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
484 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
486 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
491 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
492 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
493 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
494 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
498 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
499 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
501 qXfer:memory-map:read:
502 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
503 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
508 Erase and program a flash memory device.
510 * Removed remote packets
513 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
514 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
516 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
520 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
522 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
526 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
527 only if it doesn't already have a value.
529 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
531 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
533 restart <n> Return the program state to a
534 previously saved state.
536 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
538 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
540 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
541 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
543 info forks List forks of the user program that
544 are available to be debugged.
546 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
547 forks of the user program that are
548 available to be debugged.
550 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
551 that are available to be debugged (and
552 kill the forked process).
554 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
555 that are available to be debugged (and
556 allow the process to continue).
560 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
562 * Improved Windows host support
564 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
565 native console support, and remote communications using either
566 network sockets or serial ports.
568 * Improved Modula-2 language support
570 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
571 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
572 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
573 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
574 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
575 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
579 The ARM rdi-share module.
581 The Netware NLM debug server.
583 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
585 * New native configurations
587 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
588 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
592 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
594 * New command line options
596 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
597 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
598 the child (debugged) program exited with.
599 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
600 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
601 specified multiple times and in conjunction
602 with the --command (-x) option.
604 * Deprecated commands removed
606 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
610 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
611 othernames set arm disassembler
612 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
613 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
614 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
617 * New BSD user-level threads support
619 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
620 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
623 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
624 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
625 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
627 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
628 are not yet supported.
630 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
631 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
633 * REMOVED configurations and files
635 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
636 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
637 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
639 * New "set print array-indexes" command
641 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
642 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
645 * VAX floating point support
647 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
649 * User-defined command support
651 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
652 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
653 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
655 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
657 * New command line option
659 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
662 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
664 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
665 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
666 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
667 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
668 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
670 * Internationalization
672 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
673 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
674 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
678 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
679 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
680 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
682 * New native configurations
684 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
688 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
689 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
691 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
693 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
694 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
695 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
698 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
699 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
700 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
712 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
713 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
715 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
717 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
718 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
719 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
729 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
731 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
733 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
734 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
737 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
739 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
740 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
741 IRIX long double values).
745 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
746 command. This problem has been fixed.
748 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
750 * Fix for ``many threads''
752 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
753 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
756 ptrace: No such process.
757 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
759 This problem has been fixed.
761 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
763 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
766 * New ``start'' command.
768 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
770 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
772 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
773 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
774 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
776 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
777 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
778 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
779 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
780 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
781 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
782 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
783 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
784 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
786 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
788 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
789 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
790 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
791 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
792 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
794 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
795 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
796 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
798 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
800 * New native configurations
802 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
803 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
804 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
805 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
806 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
807 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
808 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
810 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
812 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
813 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
814 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
815 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
816 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
817 work, was also included.
819 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
820 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
830 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
831 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
833 * REMOVED configurations and files
835 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
836 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
837 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
838 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
839 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
840 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
841 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
842 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
843 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
845 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
847 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
849 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
851 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
852 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
853 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
854 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
857 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
859 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
860 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
861 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
862 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
863 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
864 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
867 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
869 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
871 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
872 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
873 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
875 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
877 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
878 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
880 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
882 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
883 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
884 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
886 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
888 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
889 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
891 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
893 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
894 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
895 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
897 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
899 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
900 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
901 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
903 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
905 * Removed --with-mmalloc
907 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
908 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
910 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
912 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
913 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
914 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
915 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
917 * Revised SPARC target
919 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
920 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
921 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
922 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
923 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
927 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
928 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
929 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
932 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
934 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
935 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
938 * C++ nested types and namespaces
940 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
941 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
942 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
943 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
944 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
945 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
946 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
947 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
948 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
950 * New native configurations
952 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
953 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
954 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
955 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
956 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
958 * New debugging protocols
960 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
962 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
964 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
965 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
966 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
968 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
970 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
971 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
972 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
975 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
976 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
977 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
978 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
979 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
980 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
981 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
982 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
983 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
985 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
987 * REMOVED configurations and files
989 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
990 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
991 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
992 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
993 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
994 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
995 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
996 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
997 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
998 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
999 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1000 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1001 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1002 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1003 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1004 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1005 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1007 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1011 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1012 integrated into GDB.
1014 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1016 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1017 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1018 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1021 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1022 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1023 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1027 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1028 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1029 remote protocol documentation for details.
1031 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1033 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1034 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1035 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1038 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1040 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1041 per-thread variables.
1043 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1045 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1046 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1048 * Separate debug info.
1050 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1051 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1052 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1053 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1054 and optional debug files.
1056 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1058 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1059 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1062 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1063 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1067 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1068 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1069 considered "useable".
1071 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1073 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1074 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1077 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1079 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1080 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1082 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1084 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1085 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1088 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1090 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1091 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1095 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1096 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1097 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1098 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1099 data, for more informative profiling results.
1101 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1103 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1104 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1105 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1107 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1110 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1111 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1112 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1113 in a subsequent -var-update.
1115 * New native configurations.
1117 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1119 * Multi-arched targets.
1121 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1122 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1124 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1126 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1127 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1128 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1129 permanently REMOVED.
1131 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1132 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1133 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1134 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1135 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1136 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1137 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1138 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1139 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1140 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1141 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1142 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1144 * REMOVED configurations and files
1147 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1148 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1149 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1150 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1151 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1152 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1154 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1155 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1156 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1157 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1158 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1159 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1161 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1163 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1164 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1165 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1166 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1167 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1169 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1171 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1173 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1174 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1175 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1176 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1177 shared libs like mad''.
1179 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1181 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1182 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1183 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1184 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1186 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1188 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1189 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1192 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1193 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1195 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1196 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1198 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1199 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1200 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1201 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1203 * Multi-arched targets.
1205 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1206 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1208 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1209 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1210 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1214 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1217 * New native configurations
1219 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1220 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1221 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1222 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1224 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1226 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1227 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1228 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1229 permanently REMOVED.
1231 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1232 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1233 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1234 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1235 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1236 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1237 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1238 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1239 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1240 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1242 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1243 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1245 * OBSOLETE languages
1247 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1249 * REMOVED configurations and files
1251 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1252 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1253 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1254 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1255 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1257 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1259 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1261 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1262 commands. The default is 1024.
1264 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1266 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1268 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1270 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1271 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1272 from a file into memory (restore).
1274 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1276 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1277 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1278 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1280 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1288 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1289 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1290 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1292 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1293 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1294 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1296 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1297 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1298 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1300 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1301 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1302 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1304 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1306 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1308 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1309 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1310 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1311 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1312 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1313 (notably embedded) targets.
1315 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1317 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1318 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1319 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1320 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1322 * New command line option
1324 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1326 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1328 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1329 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1330 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1331 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1332 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1333 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1334 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1335 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1336 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1337 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1339 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1341 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1342 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1344 * New native configurations
1346 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1347 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1348 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1349 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1353 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1355 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1357 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1358 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1359 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1360 permanently REMOVED.
1362 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1363 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1364 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1365 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1366 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1368 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1370 * REMOVED configurations and files
1372 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1374 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1375 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1376 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1377 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1378 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1379 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1380 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1381 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1382 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1383 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1384 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1386 * Changes to command line processing
1388 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1389 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1391 * Changes to key bindings
1393 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1395 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1397 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1399 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1402 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1404 Numerous documentation fixes.
1406 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1408 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1410 * New native configurations
1412 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1413 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1414 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1415 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1416 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1417 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1421 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1423 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1425 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1427 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1428 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1429 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1430 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1431 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1433 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1434 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1435 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1436 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1437 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1438 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1439 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1440 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1442 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1443 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1445 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1446 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1447 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1448 permanently REMOVED.
1450 * REMOVED configurations and files
1452 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1453 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1455 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1459 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1461 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1462 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1467 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1469 * The MI enabled by default.
1471 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1472 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1473 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1474 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1475 which is now deprecated.
1477 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1479 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1480 main features are supported:
1482 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1484 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1487 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1489 - a Pascal expression parser.
1491 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1493 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1495 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1497 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1498 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1500 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1502 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1504 * Changes in completion.
1506 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1507 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1508 users expect at the shell prompt.
1510 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1511 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1512 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1513 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1514 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1515 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1516 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1518 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1520 * New platform-independent commands:
1522 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1523 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1524 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1526 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1528 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1529 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1530 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1532 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1534 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1535 multi-threaded programs though.
1537 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1539 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1541 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1542 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1545 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1547 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1548 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1549 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1550 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1551 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1554 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1555 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1556 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1558 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1560 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1561 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1563 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1564 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1567 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1568 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1569 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1570 a given linear address.
1572 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1573 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1574 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1576 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1578 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1580 * Changes in documentation.
1582 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1583 Documentation License.
1585 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1588 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1590 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1593 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1594 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1595 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1597 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1599 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1600 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1601 contents of this file.
1605 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1607 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1609 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1611 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1612 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1613 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1614 greater level of detail.
1616 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1618 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1619 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1620 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1623 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1625 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1626 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1627 machines ``out of the box''.
1629 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1630 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1631 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1632 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1633 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1635 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1636 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1637 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1638 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1639 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1641 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1642 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1645 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1648 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1649 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1650 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1651 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1653 * New native configurations
1655 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1656 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1660 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1661 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1662 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1663 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1665 * OBSOLETE configurations
1667 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1668 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1670 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1673 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1674 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1675 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1676 be permanently REMOVED.
1678 * Gould support removed
1680 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1682 * New features for SVR4
1684 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1685 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1686 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1688 * Many C++ enhancements
1690 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1691 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1693 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1695 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1696 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1697 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1698 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1700 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1701 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1703 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1705 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1706 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1707 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1709 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1710 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1712 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1714 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1715 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1716 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1718 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1720 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1721 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1722 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1724 * ``apropos'' command added.
1726 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1727 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1728 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1732 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1733 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1734 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1735 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1736 enabled by configuring with:
1738 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1740 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1742 * New native configurations
1744 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1745 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1746 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1750 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1751 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1752 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1754 * OBSOLETE configurations
1756 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1758 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1759 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1760 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1761 be permanently REMOVED.
1765 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1766 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1767 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1768 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1769 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1770 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1771 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1776 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1778 * set extension-language
1780 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1781 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1782 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1783 set extension-language .c c++
1784 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1785 and their associated languages.
1787 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1789 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1790 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1791 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1795 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1796 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1798 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1799 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1801 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1802 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1803 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1804 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1805 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1806 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1807 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1808 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1810 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1811 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1812 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1813 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1817 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1818 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1819 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1820 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1821 for xdb and dbx commands.
1825 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1826 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1827 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1829 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1830 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1831 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1833 * Debugging across forks
1835 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1840 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1841 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1842 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1844 * GDB remote protocol additions
1846 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1847 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1848 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1849 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1851 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1852 full 64-bit address. The command
1854 set remoteaddresssize 32
1856 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1857 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1860 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1861 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1863 maint packet heythere
1865 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1866 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1869 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1870 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1871 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1873 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1875 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1876 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1877 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1879 * mask-address variable for Mips
1881 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1882 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1883 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1885 * Higher serial baud rates
1887 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1888 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1889 to achieve all of these rates.)
1893 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1894 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1897 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1899 * New native configurations
1901 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1902 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1903 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1904 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1905 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1906 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1907 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1911 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1912 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1913 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1914 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1915 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1916 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1917 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1918 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1919 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1920 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1921 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1923 * New debugging protocols
1925 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1926 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1927 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1928 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1929 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1930 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1934 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1935 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1940 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1941 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1943 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1945 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1946 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1947 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1949 * Live range splitting
1951 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1952 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1953 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1957 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1958 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1962 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1963 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1964 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1969 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1974 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1975 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1976 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1977 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1978 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1979 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1983 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1984 the symbol at the specified address.
1988 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1989 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1990 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1991 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1992 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1996 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1997 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1998 of most MIPS variants.
2002 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2003 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2004 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2008 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2009 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2010 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2011 the possible architectures.
2013 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2015 * New native configurations
2017 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2018 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2019 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2020 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2021 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2022 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2026 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2027 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2028 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2029 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2030 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2032 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2036 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2037 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2038 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2039 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2040 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2044 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2046 * Windows 95/NT native
2048 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2049 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2050 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2051 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2052 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2054 * dont-repeat command
2056 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2057 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2058 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2059 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2061 * Send break instead of ^C
2063 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2064 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2065 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2067 * Remote protocol timeout
2069 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2070 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2071 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2073 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2075 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2076 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2077 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2078 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2079 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2081 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2082 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2083 automatically on hpux10.
2085 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2087 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2089 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2091 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2092 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2093 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2094 every character. The default value is 1050.
2096 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2098 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2099 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2100 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2101 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2102 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2103 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2105 * Speedups for remote debugging
2107 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2108 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2109 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2111 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2113 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2114 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2116 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2118 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2120 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2121 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2123 * Remote targets use caching
2125 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2126 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2127 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2128 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2129 off' turns the the data cache off.
2131 * Remote targets may have threads
2133 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2134 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2135 gdb/remote.c for details.
2139 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2140 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2141 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2142 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2143 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2144 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2145 sequence is something like
2147 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2149 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2153 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2154 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2155 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2156 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2157 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2158 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2159 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2160 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2164 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2165 but does simplify configuration and building.
2169 GDB now supports hpux10.
2171 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2173 * New native configurations
2175 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2176 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2177 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2178 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2182 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2183 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2184 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2185 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2188 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2190 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2191 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2192 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2193 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2194 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2196 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2198 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2199 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2202 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2204 To execute the command use:
2207 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2208 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2209 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2211 * New `if' and `while' commands
2213 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2214 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2215 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2216 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2217 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2218 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2219 if the expression is zero.
2221 * Fortran source language mode
2223 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2224 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2225 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2226 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2229 * Better HPUX support
2231 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2232 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2233 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2234 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2235 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2241 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2242 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2248 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2249 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2252 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2253 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2255 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2257 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2258 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2259 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2260 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2261 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2262 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2264 * New DOS host serial code
2266 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2267 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2270 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2272 * New "complete" command
2274 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2275 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2277 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2279 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2280 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2282 * Breakpoint hit counts
2284 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2285 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2286 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2287 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2288 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2291 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2293 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2294 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2295 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2297 * Shared library breakpoints
2299 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2300 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2302 * Hardware watchpoints
2304 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2305 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2307 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2311 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2312 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2314 * Improved Irix 5 support
2316 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2318 * Improved HPPA support
2320 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2322 * New native configurations
2324 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2325 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2326 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2327 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2331 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2332 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2335 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2337 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2338 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2342 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2343 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2345 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2347 * Irix 5 is now supported
2351 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2352 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2353 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2354 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2355 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2358 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2360 * User visible changes:
2364 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2365 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2366 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2367 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2368 debugging info for the mips target).
2370 * DEC Alpha native support
2372 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2373 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2374 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2375 Alpha-specific notes.
2377 * Preliminary thread implementation
2379 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2381 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2383 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2384 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2387 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2389 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2390 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2391 call methods, ...etc.
2393 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2395 * User visible changes:
2397 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2398 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2399 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2400 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2402 Filename completion now works.
2404 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2405 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2406 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2408 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2409 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2410 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2411 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2412 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2416 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2417 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2420 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2424 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2425 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2426 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2430 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2431 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2432 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2433 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2434 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2438 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2439 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2440 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2442 * New targets supported
2444 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2445 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2446 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2447 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2448 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2450 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2451 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2452 GO32 memory extender.
2454 * New remote protocols
2456 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2458 * New source languages supported
2460 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2461 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2462 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2465 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2467 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2469 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2470 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2471 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2472 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2473 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2474 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2476 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2478 * Faster and better demangling
2480 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2481 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2482 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2483 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2484 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2485 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2488 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2489 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2490 compiler does not actually implement.
2492 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2494 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2495 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2496 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2497 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2498 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2499 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2502 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2503 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2505 * Improved configure script
2507 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2508 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2509 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2510 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2512 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2513 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2514 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2515 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2516 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2517 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2519 * Documentation improvements
2521 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2522 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2523 before submitting changes.
2525 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2526 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2527 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2528 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2529 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2531 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2532 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2533 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2534 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2535 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2536 around this problem.
2540 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2541 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2542 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2545 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2546 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2548 * New native hosts supported
2550 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2551 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2553 * New targets supported
2555 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2557 * New file formats supported
2559 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2560 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2564 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2566 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2567 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2569 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2570 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2571 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2573 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2574 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2576 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2577 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2578 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2581 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2582 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2583 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2584 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2585 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2587 * Internal improvements
2589 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2590 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2592 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2593 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2594 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2595 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2596 shared code that handles any of them.
2598 * New command line options
2600 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2604 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2605 General Public License.
2607 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2609 * Host/native/target split
2611 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2612 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2613 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2614 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2615 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2617 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2618 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2619 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2620 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2621 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2622 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2623 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2625 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2626 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2627 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2629 * New hosts supported
2631 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2632 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2633 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2635 * New targets supported
2637 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2638 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2640 * New native hosts supported
2642 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2643 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2644 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2646 * New file formats supported
2648 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2649 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2650 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2654 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2655 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2656 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2658 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2660 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2661 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2662 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2663 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2667 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2668 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2669 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2671 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2675 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2676 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2679 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2680 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2682 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2683 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2684 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2685 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2686 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2687 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2689 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2690 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2691 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2692 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2696 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2697 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2698 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2699 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2700 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2702 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2703 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2704 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2705 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2709 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2710 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2711 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2712 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2713 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2714 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2715 each instruction being stepped through.
2717 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2718 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2720 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2721 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2722 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2723 processor with a serial port.
2727 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2728 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2729 supported, and what files each one uses.
2733 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2734 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2735 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2736 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2738 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2739 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2740 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2741 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2745 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2746 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2747 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2748 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2749 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2750 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2752 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2755 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2757 * Better support for C++ function names
2759 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2760 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2761 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2762 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2763 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2765 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2766 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2767 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2768 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2769 for the list of formats.
2771 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2773 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2774 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2775 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2776 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2777 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2778 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2781 * New 'maintenance' command
2783 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2784 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2785 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2787 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2788 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2789 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2790 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2791 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2792 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2794 The following commands are new:
2796 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2797 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2798 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2800 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2802 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2803 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2804 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2805 read after argv processing.
2807 * New hosts supported
2809 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2811 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2813 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2814 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2815 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2816 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2817 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2820 * New targets supported
2822 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2824 * More smarts about finding #include files
2826 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2827 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2828 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2829 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2830 the one that contains your sources.
2832 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2833 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2834 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2836 * Interesting infernals change
2838 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2839 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2840 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2841 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2843 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2845 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2846 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2847 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2849 See the ChangeLog for details.
2851 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2853 * New machines supported (host and target)
2855 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2857 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2859 * New malloc package
2861 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2862 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2863 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2864 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2865 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2866 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2870 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2871 'help info proc' for details.
2873 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2875 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2876 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2879 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2881 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2882 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2883 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2884 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2885 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2886 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2888 * Cross byte order fixes
2890 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2891 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2893 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2895 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2896 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2897 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2898 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2899 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2900 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2901 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2902 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2903 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2904 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2906 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2907 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2908 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2909 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2911 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2912 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2913 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2916 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2918 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2919 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2920 shared across multiple host platforms.
2922 * longjmp() handling
2924 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2925 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2926 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2927 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2931 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2932 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2937 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2938 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2939 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2941 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2943 * New machines supported (host and target)
2945 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2947 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2948 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2950 * New machines supported (target)
2952 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2956 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2957 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2958 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2960 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2961 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2962 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2963 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2964 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2967 * New features for SVR4
2969 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2970 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2971 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2973 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2974 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2975 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2977 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2978 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2980 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2982 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2983 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2984 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2985 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2986 same code linked statically.
2990 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2991 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2992 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2993 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2994 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2995 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2999 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3000 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3001 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3004 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3006 * New machines supported (host and target)
3008 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3009 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3010 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3012 * Almost SCO Unix support
3014 We had hoped to support:
3015 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3016 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3017 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3018 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3020 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3022 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3023 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3024 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3025 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3030 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3031 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3032 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3036 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3037 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3038 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3040 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3042 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3043 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3044 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3046 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3047 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3048 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3049 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3052 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3053 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3054 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3055 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3058 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3059 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3062 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3063 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3064 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3067 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3069 * Improved configuration
3071 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3072 Porting BFD is simpler.
3076 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3077 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3078 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3079 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3083 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3085 * New host supported (not target)
3087 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3090 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3092 * Multiple source language support
3094 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3095 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3096 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3097 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3098 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3099 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3103 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3104 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3105 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3106 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3108 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3109 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3110 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3112 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3113 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3117 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3118 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3119 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3120 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3123 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3125 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3126 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3127 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3128 examining core files.
3132 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3135 * New machines supported (host and target)
3137 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3138 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3139 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3141 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3143 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3145 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3147 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3148 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3149 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3151 * New remote interfaces
3157 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3161 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3163 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3164 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3165 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3166 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3167 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3168 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3169 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3170 stub on the target system.
3172 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3174 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3175 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3176 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3178 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3179 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3182 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3184 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3185 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3187 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3188 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3189 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3191 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3192 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3193 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3194 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3196 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3197 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3198 it is already running. Default is ON.
3200 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3201 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3202 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3203 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3206 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3207 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3208 or the value of the environment variable
3211 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3212 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3215 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3216 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3217 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3219 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3220 history expansion will be performed on
3221 command line input. The default is OFF.
3223 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3224 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3225 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3227 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3228 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3229 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3232 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3233 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3234 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3237 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3238 ``set width'' instead.
3240 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3241 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3242 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3243 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3245 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3248 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3251 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3254 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3257 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3259 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3260 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3261 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3265 * Support for Shared Libraries
3267 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3268 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3269 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3270 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3271 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3272 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3273 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3274 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3276 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3277 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3278 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3280 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3285 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3286 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3287 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3288 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3289 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3290 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3292 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3294 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3296 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3297 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3298 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3301 * C++ multiple inheritance
3303 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3306 * C++ exception handling
3308 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3309 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3310 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3313 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3314 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3315 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3317 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3318 current stack frame.
3321 * Minor command changes
3323 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3324 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3325 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3327 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3328 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3329 frames without printing.
3331 * New directory command
3333 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3334 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3335 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3336 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3337 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3339 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3341 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3344 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3345 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3346 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3347 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob