* config/tc-ppc.c (md_assemble <TE_PE>): Ignore line after
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.5
5
6 * New targets
7
8 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
9
10 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
11 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
12 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
13 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
14 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
15 --data-directory command-line option.
16
17 * New command line options:
18
19 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
20 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
21
22 * Removed command line options
23
24 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
25 Emacs.
26
27 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
28 type formatting.
29
30 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
31
32 * Python scripting
33
34 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
35
36 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
37
38 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
39
40 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
41
42 * New Python-based convenience functions:
43
44 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
45 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
46 ** $_strlen(str)
47 ** $_regex(str, regex)
48
49 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
50 given an argument.
51
52 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
53
54 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
55 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
56
57 * New configure options
58
59 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
60 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
61 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
62 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
63 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
64 options allow the user to override that default.
65
66 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
67
68 maint info bfds
69 List the BFDs known to GDB.
70
71 python-interactive [command]
72 pi [command]
73 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
74 and print the result of expressions.
75
76 py [command]
77 "py" is a new alias for "python".
78
79 enable type-printer [name]...
80 disable type-printer [name]...
81 Enable or disable type printers.
82
83 set debug notification
84 show debug notification
85 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
86
87 * Removed commands
88
89 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
90 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
91 instead.
92
93 * New options
94
95 set print type methods (on|off)
96 show print type methods
97 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
98 The default is to show them.
99
100 set print type typedefs (on|off)
101 show print type typedefs
102 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
103 The default is to show them.
104
105 * MI changes
106
107 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
108 "=cmd-param-changed".
109 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
110 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
111 ** The creation and deletion of trace state variables are now notified
112 using new async records "=tsv-created" and "=tsv-deleted".
113 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
114 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
115 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
116 "=memory-changed".
117 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
118 containing the absolute file name when GDB can determine it and source
119 has been requested.
120 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
121 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
122 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
123 library load/unload events.
124 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
125 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
126 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
127
128 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
129 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
130 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
131 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
132
133 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
134
135 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
136 for more x32 ABI info.
137
138 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
139
140 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
141
142 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
143 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
144 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
145 "info os files" lists file descriptors
146 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
147 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
148 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
149 "info os msg" lists message queues
150 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
151
152 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
153 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
154 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
155 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
156 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
157 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
158
159 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
160 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
161 record/replay support.
162
163 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
164
165 * Python scripting
166
167 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
168 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
169
170 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
171
172 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
173 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
174
175 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
176
177 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
178 the source at which the symbol was defined.
179
180 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
181 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
182 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
183 symbol's value.
184
185 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
186 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
187
188 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
189 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
190 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
191
192 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
193 object associated with a PC value.
194
195 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
196 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
197
198 * Go language support.
199 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
200 language.
201
202 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
203 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
204
205 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
206 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
207
208 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
209 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
210 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
211 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
212 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
213 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
214
215 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
216 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
217 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
218 build/libcpp/expr.c.
219
220 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
221 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
222
223 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
224 since December 2007.
225
226 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
227 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
228 command does. For instance:
229
230 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
231
232 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
233 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
234 created, using the "condition" command.
235
236 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
237 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
238
239 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
240
241 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
242 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
243 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
244 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
245 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
246 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
247 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
248 files with older .gdb_index sections.
249
250 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
251 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
252 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
253 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
254 the .gdb_index section.
255
256 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
257
258 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
259 target.
260
261 * MI changes
262
263 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
264
265 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
266
267 * New commands
268
269 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
270 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
271 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
272
273 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
274 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
275
276 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
277 several hits.
278
279 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
280 C++ and Java objects.
281
282 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
283 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
284 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
285 configured with '--with-python'.
286
287 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
288 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
289 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
290 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
291 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
292 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
293 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
294
295 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
296 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
297 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
298 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
299
300 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
301 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
302 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
303 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
304
305 ** "set print symbol"
306 "show print symbol"
307 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
308 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
309 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
310
311 * Deprecated commands
312
313 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
314 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
315
316 * New targets
317
318 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
319 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
320
321 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
322 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
323 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
324 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
325 evaluates to true.
326
327 * New options
328
329 set mips compression
330 show mips compression
331 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
332 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
333 mips16
334 micromips
335 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
336
337 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
338 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
339 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
340 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
341 available mode.
342 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
343 target.
344
345 set auto-load off
346 Disable auto-loading globally.
347
348 show auto-load
349 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
350
351 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
352 show auto-load gdb-scripts
353 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
354
355 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
356 show auto-load python-scripts
357 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
358
359 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
360 show auto-load local-gdbinit
361 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
362
363 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
364 show auto-load libthread-db
365 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
366
367 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
368 show auto-load scripts-directory
369 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
370 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
371 of the directories listed by this option.
372 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
373
374 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
375 show auto-load safe-path
376 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
377 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
378
379 set debug auto-load on|off
380 show debug auto-load
381 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
382
383 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
384 show dprintf-style
385 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
386 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
387 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
388 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
389
390 set dprintf-function <expr>
391 show dprintf-function
392 set dprintf-channel <expr>
393 show dprintf-channel
394 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
395 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
396
397 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
398 show disconnected-dprintf
399 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
400 after GDB disconnects.
401
402 * New configure options
403
404 --with-auto-load-dir
405 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
406 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
407 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
408 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
409 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
410
411 --with-auto-load-safe-path
412 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
413 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
414
415 --without-auto-load-safe-path
416 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
417 security feature.
418
419 * New remote packets
420
421 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
422
423 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
424 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
425 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
426 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
427
428 QProgramSignals:
429
430 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
431 program without GDB involvement.
432
433 * New command line options
434
435 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
436 before loading inferior.
437 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
438 execute it before loading inferior.
439
440 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
441
442 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
443 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
444 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
445 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
446 inferior changes.
447
448 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
449 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
450
451 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
452 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
453 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
454 target hardware watchpoint.
455
456 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
457 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
458 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
459 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
460
461 * Python scripting
462
463 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
464 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
465 existing one.
466
467 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
468 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
469 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
470 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
471 now "message", which just prints the error message without
472 the stack trace.
473
474 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
475 Python API.
476
477 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
478 modules library. This module provides functionality for
479 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
480 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
481 corresponding value.
482
483 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
484 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
485 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
486 on GDB start-up.
487
488 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
489 static_block will return the global and static blocks
490 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
491 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
492
493 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
494
495 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
496 "gdb.breakpoints".
497
498 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
499 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
500 available in the CLI.
501
502 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
503 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
504 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
505 "some_type.items()".
506
507 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
508 new object file.
509
510 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
511 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
512 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
513 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
514 any anonymous fields.
515
516 * MI changes
517
518 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
519 "solib-event".
520
521 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
522 "=breakpoint-modified".
523
524 ** New command -ada-task-info.
525
526 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
527 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
528 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
529 lives.
530
531 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
532 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
533 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
534 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
535 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
536
537 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
538 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
539
540 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
541 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
542 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
543 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
544 use this option to specify where to find it.
545
546 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
547 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
548 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
549 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
550 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
551 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
552 section in the user manual for more details.
553
554 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
555 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
556 become available after that.
557
558 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
559
560 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
561 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
562 gcc version 4.7.
563
564 * New commands
565
566 !SHELL COMMAND
567 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
568 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
569
570 * Changed commands
571
572 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
573 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
574 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
575
576 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
577 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
578 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
579
580 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
581 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
582 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
583 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
584 name starts with a hyphen.
585
586 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
587 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
588 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
589 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
590 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
591 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
592 number of bytes that will be collected.
593
594 tstart [NOTES]
595 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
596 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
597 setting the variable trace-notes.
598
599 tstop [NOTES]
600 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
601 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
602 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
603 trace-stop-notes.
604
605 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
606 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
607 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
608 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
609 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
610 is running.
611
612 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
613 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
614 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
615
616 * New options
617
618 set debug dwarf2-read
619 show debug dwarf2-read
620 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
621 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
622
623 set debug symtab-create
624 show debug symtab-create
625 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
626 creation. The default is off.
627
628 set extended-prompt
629 show extended-prompt
630 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
631 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
632 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
633 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
634 prompt is displayed.
635
636 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
637 show print entry-values
638 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
639 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
640 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
641
642 set debug entry-values
643 show debug entry-values
644 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
645 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
646
647 set basenames-may-differ
648 show basenames-may-differ
649 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
650 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
651 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
652 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
653 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
654 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
655 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
656 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
657
658 set trace-user
659 show trace-user
660 set trace-notes
661 show trace-notes
662 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
663 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
664 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
665 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
666
667 set trace-stop-notes
668 show trace-stop-notes
669 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
670 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
671 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
672 started by someone else.
673
674 * New remote packets
675
676 QTEnable
677
678 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
679
680 QTDisable
681
682 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
683
684 QTNotes
685
686 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
687
688 qTP
689
690 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
691
692 qTMinFTPILen
693
694 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
695 be placed.
696
697 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
698 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
699
700 * New targets
701
702 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
703
704 * New Simulators
705
706 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
707
708 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
709
710 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
711
712 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
713
714 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
715 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
716 matches the given regular expression.
717
718 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
719
720 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
721 dumping the instruction opcodes.
722
723 * New command line options
724
725 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
726 This is mostly for testing purposes.
727
728 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
729 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
730
731 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
732 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
733 source path list instead of augmenting it.
734
735 * GDB now understands thread names.
736
737 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
738 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
739
740 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
741 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
742
743 * OpenCL C
744 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
745 has been integrated into GDB.
746
747 * Python scripting
748
749 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
750 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
751 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
752
753 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
754 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
755 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
756 and allows for more dynamic content.
757
758 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
759 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
760 have an is_valid method.
761
762 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
763 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
764 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
765
766 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
767
768 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
769 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
770 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
771 that function like so:
772
773 result = some_value (10,20)
774
775 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
776 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
777 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
778
779 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
780 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
781 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
782 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
783 New function: register_pretty_printer.
784
785 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
786 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
787
788 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
789
790 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
791 selected thread.
792
793 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
794 holds the thread's name.
795
796 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
797 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
798 occurring in the process being debugged.
799 The following events are currently supported:
800 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
801 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
802 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
803
804 * C++ Improvements:
805
806 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
807 instantiation. For example, if you have:
808
809 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
810
811 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
812 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
813 was added to GCC 4.5.
814
815 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
816 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
817 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
818 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
819 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
820 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
821
822 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
823 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
824 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
825 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
826 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
827
828 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
829 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
830 execution to a label.
831
832 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
833 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
834 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
835 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
836
837 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
838 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
839 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
840 of scope.
841
842 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
843
844 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
845 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
846 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
847 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
848 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
849 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
850
851 (gdb) info threads
852 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
853
854 While now you see this:
855
856 (gdb) info threads
857 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
858
859 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
860 dumps.
861
862 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
863 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
864 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
865 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
866
867 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
868 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
869 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
870 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
871 section in the user manual for more details.
872
873 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
874
875 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
876 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
877
878 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
879
880 * New native configurations
881
882 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
883
884 * New targets:
885
886 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
887
888 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
889 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
890 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
891 in the GDB user manual.
892
893 * Guile support was removed.
894
895 * New features in the GNU simulator
896
897 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
898
899 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
900
901 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
902
903 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
904
905 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
906 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
907 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
908 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
909 was always disabled for such configurations.
910
911 * C++ Improvements:
912
913 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
914
915 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
916 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
917 For example:
918 namespace A
919 {
920 class B { };
921 void foo (B) { }
922 }
923 ...
924 A::B b
925 foo(b)
926 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
927 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
928 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
929
930 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
931
932 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
933 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
934 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
935 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
936 entry.
937 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
938 mentioned flavors of operators.
939
940 ** static const class members
941
942 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
943 class definition has been fixed.
944
945 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
946
947 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
948 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
949 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
950 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
951 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
952 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
953
954 * Static tracepoints
955
956 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
957 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
958 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
959 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
960 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
961 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
962 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
963 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
964 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
965 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
966 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
967 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
968 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
969 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
970 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
971 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
972 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
973 the "New remote packets" section below.
974
975 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
976
977 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
978 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
979 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
980 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
981
982 * Observer mode
983
984 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
985 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
986 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
987 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
988 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
989 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
990 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
991
992 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
993 current thread.
994
995 * New remote packets
996
997 qGetTIBAddr
998
999 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1000
1001 qRelocInsn
1002
1003 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1004 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1005 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1006 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1007 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1008 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1009
1010 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1011
1012 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1013
1014 qTSTMat
1015
1016 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1017 program.
1018
1019 qXfer:statictrace:read
1020
1021 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1022 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1023 to gdb's qSupported query.
1024
1025 QAllow
1026
1027 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1028
1029 QTDPsrc
1030
1031 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1032 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1033
1034 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1035 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1036 a directory.
1037
1038 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1039
1040 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1041 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1042 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1043 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1044
1045 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1046 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1047 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1048 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1049 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1050 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1051 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1052
1053 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1054 for static tracepoints support.
1055
1056 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1057
1058 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1059 it understands register description.
1060
1061 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1062
1063 * X86 general purpose registers
1064
1065 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1066 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1067 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1068 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1069 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1070
1071 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
1072 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1073 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1074 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1075 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1076 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
1077
1078 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1079 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1080 in the specified file.
1081
1082 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1083 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1084 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1085 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1086 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1087 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1088 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1089 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1090 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1091 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1092
1093 * New commands
1094
1095 eval template, expressions...
1096 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1097 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1098
1099 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1100 show target-file-system-kind
1101 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1102 names.
1103
1104 save breakpoints <filename>
1105 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1106 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1107 definitions, use the `source' command.
1108
1109 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1110 is now deprecated.
1111
1112 info static-tracepoint-markers
1113 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1114
1115 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1116 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1117 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1118
1119 set observer on|off
1120 show observer
1121 Enable and disable observer mode.
1122
1123 set may-write-registers on|off
1124 set may-write-memory on|off
1125 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1126 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1127 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1128 set may-interrupt on|off
1129 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1130 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1131 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1132 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1133 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1134 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1135 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1136
1137 set record memory-query on|off
1138 show record memory-query
1139 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1140 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1141
1142 * Changed commands
1143
1144 disassemble
1145 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1146
1147 * Python scripting
1148
1149 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1150 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1151 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1152 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1153 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1154
1155 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
1156 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1157 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1158 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
1159
1160 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
1161 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1162
1163 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
1164
1165 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
1166
1167 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1168
1169 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1170 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1171 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1172
1173 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1174 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1175 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1176 regular breakpoints.
1177
1178 * New targets
1179
1180 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1181
1182 * D language support.
1183 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1184 language.
1185
1186 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1187 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1188 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1189 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1190 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1191
1192 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1193 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1194 conditions of the form:
1195
1196 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1197
1198 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1199 interface mentioned above.
1200
1201 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
1202
1203 * C++ Improvements
1204
1205 ** Namespace Support
1206
1207 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1208 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1209 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1210 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1211 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1212
1213 ** Bug Fixes
1214
1215 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1216 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1217 qualified name.
1218
1219 ** Cast Operators
1220
1221 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1222 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1223
1224 * New targets
1225
1226 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
1227 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
1228
1229 * New Simulators
1230
1231 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
1232 Renesas RX rx
1233
1234 * Multi-program debugging.
1235
1236 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1237 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1238 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1239 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1240 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1241 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1242 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1243 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1244
1245 * New tracing features
1246
1247 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1248
1249 ** Trace state variables
1250
1251 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1252 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1253 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1254 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1255 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1256 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1257 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1258 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1259 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1260 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
1261
1262 ** Fast tracepoints
1263
1264 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1265 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1266 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1267 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1268 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1269 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1270 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1271 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1272 the regular trace command.
1273
1274 ** Disconnected tracing
1275
1276 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1277 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1278 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1279 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1280 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1281
1282 ** Trace files
1283
1284 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1285 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1286 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1287 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1288 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1289 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1290 <name>".
1291
1292 ** Circular trace buffer
1293
1294 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1295 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1296 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1297 not be available for all target agents.
1298
1299 * Changed commands
1300
1301 disassemble
1302 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1303 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1304
1305 info variables
1306 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1307 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1308
1309 source
1310 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1311 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1312 support.
1313
1314 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1315 "set script-extension" (see below).
1316
1317 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1318
1319 record save [<FILENAME>]
1320 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1321 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1322
1323 record restore <FILENAME>
1324 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1325 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1326
1327 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1328 Add a new inferior.
1329
1330 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1331 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1332 inferior has loaded.
1333
1334 remove-inferior ID
1335 Remove an inferior.
1336
1337 maint info program-spaces
1338 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1339
1340 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1341 show remote interrupt-sequence
1342 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1343 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1344 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1345 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1346 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1347
1348 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1349 show remote interrupt-on-connect
1350 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1351 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1352 Linux kernel.
1353
1354 set remotebreak [on | off]
1355 show remotebreak
1356 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1357
1358 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1359 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1360
1361 info tvariables
1362 List trace state variables and their values.
1363
1364 delete tvariable $NAME ...
1365 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1366
1367 teval EXPR, ...
1368 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1369 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1370
1371 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1372 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1373
1374 * New expression syntax
1375
1376 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1377 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1378
1379 * New options
1380
1381 set follow-exec-mode new|same
1382 show follow-exec-mode
1383 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1384 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1385 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1386
1387 set default-collect EXPR, ...
1388 show default-collect
1389 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1390 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1391 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1392
1393 set disconnected-tracing
1394 show disconnected-tracing
1395 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1396 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1397 upon disconnection.
1398
1399 set circular-trace-buffer
1400 show circular-trace-buffer
1401 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1402 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1403 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1404 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1405
1406 set script-extension off|soft|strict
1407 show script-extension
1408 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1409 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1410 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1411 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1412 evaluation failed.
1413 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1414
1415 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1416 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1417 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1418 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1419 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1420 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1421 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1422 is on.
1423
1424 * Python API Improvements
1425
1426 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1427 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1428 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1429
1430 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1431 `is_base_class' attribute.
1432
1433 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1434
1435 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1436 evaluate an expression.
1437
1438 * New remote packets
1439
1440 QTDV
1441 Define a trace state variable.
1442
1443 qTV
1444 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1445
1446 QTDisconnected
1447 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1448
1449 QTBuffer:circular
1450 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1451
1452 qTfP, qTsP
1453 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1454
1455 * Bug fixes
1456
1457 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1458
1459 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1460 much more reliable. In particular:
1461 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1462 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1463 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1464 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1465 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1466 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1467 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1468 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1469 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1470 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1471 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1472 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1473 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1474 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1475 non-threaded programs.
1476
1477 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1478 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1479 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1480 executable program.
1481
1482 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
1483
1484 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1485 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1486 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1487 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1488 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1489
1490 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1491 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1492 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1493 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1494 for tracepoint actions.
1495
1496 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1497 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1498 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
1499
1500 * Process record and replay
1501
1502 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1503 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1504 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1505 execute commands.
1506
1507 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1508 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1509 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1510 reverse execution.
1511
1512 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1513 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
1514 2.6.28 or later.
1515
1516 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1517 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1518 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1519 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1520 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1521 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1522 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1523 the installation instructions for more information.
1524
1525 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1526 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1527 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1528 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1529
1530 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1531 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1532
1533 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1534 now complete on file names.
1535
1536 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1537 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1538 For instance, consider:
1539
1540 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1541 # struct example variable;
1542 (gdb) p variable.
1543
1544 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1545 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1546
1547 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1548 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1549
1550 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1551 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1552 macros.
1553
1554 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
1555 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1556 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1557
1558 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1559 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1560 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1561 and simulator targets may also provide them.
1562
1563 * New remote packets
1564
1565 qSearch:memory:
1566 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1567
1568 QStartNoAckMode
1569 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1570 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1571 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1572
1573 vKill
1574 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1575 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1576
1577 qXfer:osdata:read
1578 Obtains additional operating system information
1579
1580 qXfer:siginfo:read
1581 qXfer:siginfo:write
1582 Read or write additional signal information.
1583
1584 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1585
1586 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1587 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1588 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1589
1590 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
1591 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
1592
1593 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
1594 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1595 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
1596
1597 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1598 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1599
1600 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1601
1602 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1603
1604 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1605 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1606
1607 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
1608 list of section offsets.
1609
1610 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1611 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1612 have also been fixed.
1613
1614 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
1615 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1616 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
1617
1618 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1619 example, given:
1620
1621 template<typename T> class C { };
1622 C<char const *> c;
1623
1624 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1625
1626 ptype C<char const *>
1627 ptype C<char const*>
1628 ptype C<const char *>
1629 ptype C<const char*>
1630
1631 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1632
1633 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1634 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1635
1636 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1637 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1638 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1639
1640 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1641 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1642
1643 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1644 gdbserver.
1645
1646 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1647 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1648
1649 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1650 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1651 as appropriate.
1652
1653 * Python scripting
1654
1655 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1656 available is determined at configure time.
1657
1658 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1659
1660 * Ada tasking support
1661
1662 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1663 been introduced:
1664
1665 info tasks
1666 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1667 info task N
1668 Print detailed information about task number N.
1669 task
1670 Print the task number of the current task.
1671 task N
1672 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1673
1674 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1675 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1676
1677 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1678
1679 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1680 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1681 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1682 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1683 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1684 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1685 below.
1686
1687 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1688 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1689 information.
1690
1691 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1692 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1693 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1694 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1695 more information.
1696
1697 * Multi-architecture debugging.
1698
1699 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1700 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1701 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1702 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1703 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1704
1705 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1706 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1707 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1708 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1709 --enable-targets configure option.
1710
1711 * Non-stop mode debugging.
1712
1713 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1714 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1715 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1716 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1717 section in the user manual for more information.
1718
1719 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1720 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1721 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1722 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1723 extensions on linux targets.
1724
1725 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1726
1727 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1728 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1729 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1730 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1731 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1732 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1733 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1734 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1735 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1736
1737 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1738 val1 [, val2, ...]
1739 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1740
1741 maint set python print-stack
1742 maint show python print-stack
1743 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1744
1745 python [CODE]
1746 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1747
1748 macro define
1749 macro list
1750 macro undef
1751 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1752 interactively.
1753
1754 info os processes
1755 Show operating system information about processes.
1756
1757 info inferiors
1758 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1759
1760 inferior NUM
1761 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1762
1763 detach inferior NUM
1764 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1765
1766 kill inferior NUM
1767 Kill inferior number NUM.
1768
1769 * New options
1770
1771 set spu stop-on-load
1772 show spu stop-on-load
1773 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1774
1775 set spu auto-flush-cache
1776 show spu auto-flush-cache
1777 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1778 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1779
1780 set sh calling-convention
1781 show sh calling-convention
1782 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1783
1784 set debug timestamp
1785 show debug timestamp
1786 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1787
1788 set disassemble-next-line
1789 show disassemble-next-line
1790 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1791 the debuggee stops.
1792
1793 set remote noack-packet
1794 show remote noack-packet
1795 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1796 under "New remote packets."
1797
1798 set remote query-attached-packet
1799 show remote query-attached-packet
1800 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1801
1802 set remote read-siginfo-object
1803 show remote read-siginfo-object
1804 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1805 packet.
1806
1807 set remote write-siginfo-object
1808 show remote write-siginfo-object
1809 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1810 packet.
1811
1812 set remote reverse-continue
1813 show remote reverse-continue
1814 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1815
1816 set remote reverse-step
1817 show remote reverse-step
1818 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1819
1820 set displaced-stepping
1821 show displaced-stepping
1822 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1823 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1824 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1825
1826 set debug displaced
1827 show debug displaced
1828 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1829
1830 maint set internal-error
1831 maint show internal-error
1832 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1833
1834 maint set internal-warning
1835 maint show internal-warning
1836 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1837
1838 set exec-wrapper
1839 show exec-wrapper
1840 unset exec-wrapper
1841 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1842
1843 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1844 show multiple-symbols
1845 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1846 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1847 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1848
1849 set breakpoint always-inserted
1850 show breakpoint always-inserted
1851 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1852 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1853 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1854
1855 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1856 show arm fallback-mode
1857 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1858 show arm force-mode
1859 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1860 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1861 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1862 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1863
1864 set disable-randomization
1865 show disable-randomization
1866 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1867 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1868 multiple debugging sessions.
1869
1870 set non-stop
1871 show non-stop
1872 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1873 a breakpoint.
1874
1875 set target-async
1876 show target-async
1877 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1878 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1879 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1880 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1881
1882 set target-wide-charset
1883 show target-wide-charset
1884 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1885 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1886
1887 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1888 show tcp auto-retry
1889 set tcp connect-timeout
1890 show tcp connect-timeout
1891 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1892 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1893 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1894
1895 set libthread-db-search-path
1896 show libthread-db-search-path
1897 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1898 libthread_db.
1899
1900 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1901 show schedule-multiple
1902 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1903 the current process.
1904
1905 set stack-cache
1906 show stack-cache
1907 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1908 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1909 affecting correctness.
1910
1911 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1912 show interactive-mode
1913 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1914 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1915 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1916 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1917 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1918
1919 * Removed commands
1920
1921 info forks
1922 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1923 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1924 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1925 command.
1926
1927 fork NUM
1928 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1929 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1930 alias for the `fork' command.
1931
1932 process PID
1933 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1934 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1935 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1936
1937 delete fork NUM
1938 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1939 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1940 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1941 fork' command.
1942
1943 detach fork NUM
1944 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1945 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1946 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1947 fork' command.
1948
1949 * New native configurations
1950
1951 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1952
1953 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1954
1955 * New targets
1956
1957 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1958 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1959 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1960 S+core 3 score-*-*
1961
1962 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1963 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1964
1965 * Removed commands
1966
1967 catch load
1968 catch unload
1969 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1970
1971 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1972
1973 * New native configurations
1974
1975 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1976 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1977
1978 * New targets
1979
1980 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1981 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1982
1983 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1984
1985 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1986 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1987 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1988 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1989
1990 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1991 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1992
1993 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1994 is resolved.
1995
1996 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1997 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1998 and in inlined functions.
1999
2000 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2001 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2002 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2003
2004 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2005
2006 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2007 registers on PowerPC targets.
2008
2009 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2010 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2011
2012 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2013 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2014
2015 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2016 extended-remote mode.
2017
2018 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
2019 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2020 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2021 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
2022
2023 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2024 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2025 target architectures.
2026
2027 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2028 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2029 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2030 stored in two consecutive float registers.
2031
2032 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2033 breakpoints now.
2034
2035 * Improved support for debugging Ada
2036 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2037 include:
2038 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2039 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2040 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2041 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2042 of an assignment
2043 - Improved command completion in Ada
2044 - Several bug fixes
2045
2046 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2047 process.
2048
2049 * New commands
2050
2051 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2052 show print frame-arguments
2053 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2054 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2055
2056 remote put
2057 remote get
2058 remote delete
2059 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2060
2061 * New MI commands
2062
2063 -target-file-put
2064 -target-file-get
2065 -target-file-delete
2066 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2067
2068 * New remote packets
2069
2070 vFile:open:
2071 vFile:close:
2072 vFile:pread:
2073 vFile:pwrite:
2074 vFile:unlink:
2075 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
2076
2077 vAttach
2078 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2079 mode.
2080
2081 vRun
2082 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2083
2084 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
2085
2086 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2087 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2088 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2089
2090 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2091 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2092 -Bsymbolic linker option.
2093
2094 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2095 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2096 is not supported.
2097
2098 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2099 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2100
2101 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
2102 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
2103
2104 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2105
2106 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2107 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2108 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2109
2110 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2111 automatically displayed as character or string data.
2112
2113 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2114 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2115 as strings.
2116
2117 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2118 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
2119 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
2120
2121 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2122 iWMMXt coprocessor.
2123
2124 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2125 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2126 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2127
2128 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2129
2130 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2131
2132 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2133 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2134 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2135
2136 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2137 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2138
2139 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2140 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2141 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2142 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2143 Windows and SymbianOS).
2144
2145 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2146 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
2147
2148 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2149 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
2150
2151 * New commands
2152
2153 set remoteflow
2154 show remoteflow
2155 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2156 when debugging using remote targets.
2157
2158 set mem inaccessible-by-default
2159 show mem inaccessible-by-default
2160 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2161 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2162 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2163 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2164 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2165
2166 set breakpoint auto-hw
2167 show breakpoint auto-hw
2168 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2169 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2170 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2171 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2172 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2173 including "next" and "finish".
2174
2175 catch exception
2176 catch exception unhandled
2177 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2178
2179 catch assert
2180 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2181
2182 set sysroot
2183 show sysroot
2184 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2185 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2186 an alias to "set sysroot".
2187
2188 info spu
2189 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2190 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2191 architecture.
2192
2193 * New native configurations
2194
2195 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2196
2197 set tdesc filename
2198 unset tdesc filename
2199 show tdesc filename
2200 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2201 not query the target for its built-in description.
2202
2203 * New targets
2204
2205 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
2206 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
2207 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
2208
2209 * New remote packets
2210
2211 QPassSignals:
2212 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2213 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2214
2215 qXfer:features:read:
2216 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2217 features.
2218
2219 qXfer:spu:read:
2220 qXfer:spu:write:
2221 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2222 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2223
2224 qXfer:libraries:read:
2225 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2226 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2227 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2228 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2229
2230 * Removed targets
2231
2232 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2233
2234 alpha*-*-osf1*
2235 alpha*-*-osf2*
2236 d10v-*-*
2237 hppa*-*-hiux*
2238 i[34567]86-ncr-*
2239 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2240 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2241 i[34567]86-*-netware*
2242 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2243 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2244 i[34567]86-*-sco*
2245 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2246 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2247 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2248 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2249 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2250 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2251 i[34567]86-*-isc*
2252 m68*-cisco*-*
2253 m68*-tandem-*
2254 mips*-*-pe
2255 rs6000-*-lynxos*
2256 sh*-*-pe
2257
2258 * Other removed features
2259
2260 target abug
2261 target cpu32bug
2262 target est
2263 target rom68k
2264
2265 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2266
2267 target hms
2268 target e7000
2269 target sh3
2270 target sh3e
2271
2272 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2273 H8/300.
2274
2275 target ocd
2276
2277 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2278 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2279 interfaces.
2280
2281 DWARF 1 support
2282
2283 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2284 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2285
2286 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2287
2288 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2289 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2290 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2291 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2292
2293 MIPS ".pdr" sections
2294
2295 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2296 in debugging information.
2297
2298 Scheme support
2299
2300 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2301 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2302
2303 set mips stack-arg-size
2304 set mips saved-gpreg-size
2305
2306 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2307
2308 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
2309
2310 * New targets
2311
2312 Xtensa xtensa-elf
2313 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
2314
2315 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2316 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2317 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2318
2319 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2320 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2321 supported.
2322
2323 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2324 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2325
2326 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2327 stub provides the required support.
2328
2329 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2330 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2331
2332 * New commands
2333
2334 set substitute-path
2335 unset substitute-path
2336 show substitute-path
2337 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2338 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2339 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2340 between compilation and debugging.
2341
2342 set trace-commands
2343 show trace-commands
2344 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2345 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2346 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2347
2348 * REMOVED features
2349
2350 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2351
2352 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2353 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2354
2355 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2356
2357 * New remote packets
2358
2359 qSupported:
2360 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2361 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2362 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2363 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2364 target.
2365
2366 qXfer:auxv:read:
2367 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2368 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2369
2370 qXfer:memory-map:read:
2371 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2372 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2373
2374 vFlashErase:
2375 vFlashWrite:
2376 vFlashDone:
2377 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2378
2379 * Removed remote packets
2380
2381 qPart:auxv:read:
2382 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2383 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2384
2385 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
2386
2387 * New targets
2388
2389 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2390
2391 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2392
2393 * New commands
2394
2395 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2396 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2397
2398 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2399
2400 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2401
2402 restart <n> Return the program state to a
2403 previously saved state.
2404
2405 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2406
2407 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2408
2409 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2410 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2411
2412 info forks List forks of the user program that
2413 are available to be debugged.
2414
2415 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2416 forks of the user program that are
2417 available to be debugged.
2418
2419 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2420 that are available to be debugged (and
2421 kill the forked process).
2422
2423 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2424 that are available to be debugged (and
2425 allow the process to continue).
2426
2427 * New architecture
2428
2429 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2430
2431 * Improved Windows host support
2432
2433 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2434 native console support, and remote communications using either
2435 network sockets or serial ports.
2436
2437 * Improved Modula-2 language support
2438
2439 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2440 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2441 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2442 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2443 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2444 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2445
2446 * REMOVED features
2447
2448 The ARM rdi-share module.
2449
2450 The Netware NLM debug server.
2451
2452 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
2453
2454 * New native configurations
2455
2456 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
2457 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2458
2459 * New targets
2460
2461 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2462
2463 * New command line options
2464
2465 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2466 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2467 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2468 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2469 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2470 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2471 with the --command (-x) option.
2472
2473 * Deprecated commands removed
2474
2475 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2476 removed:
2477
2478 Command Replacement
2479 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2480 othernames set arm disassembler
2481 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2482 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2483 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2484 regs info registers
2485
2486 * New BSD user-level threads support
2487
2488 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2489 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2490 configurations are:
2491
2492 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2493 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2494 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2495
2496 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2497 are not yet supported.
2498
2499 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2500 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2501
2502 * REMOVED configurations and files
2503
2504 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
2505 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2506 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
2507
2508 * New "set print array-indexes" command
2509
2510 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2511 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2512 behavior.
2513
2514 * VAX floating point support
2515
2516 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2517
2518 * User-defined command support
2519
2520 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2521 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2522 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2523
2524 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2525
2526 * New command line option
2527
2528 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2529 debugging.
2530
2531 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2532
2533 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2534 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2535 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2536 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2537 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
2538
2539 * Internationalization
2540
2541 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2542 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2543 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2544
2545 * Ada
2546
2547 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2548 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2549 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2550
2551 * New native configurations
2552
2553 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2554
2555 * Remote 'p' packet
2556
2557 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2558 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2559
2560 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2561
2562 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2563 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2564 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2565 i386 application).
2566
2567 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2568 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2569 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2570 configurations:
2571
2572 hppa-*-hpux
2573 ia64-*-aix
2574 mips-*-irix*
2575 *-*-lynx
2576 mips-*-linux-gnu
2577 sds protocol
2578 xdr protocol
2579 powerpc bdm protocol
2580
2581 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2582 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2583
2584 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2585
2586 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2587 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2588 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2589 permanently REMOVED.
2590
2591 h8300-*-*
2592 mcore-*-*
2593 mn10300-*-*
2594 ns32k-*-*
2595 sh64-*-*
2596 v850-*-*
2597
2598 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2599
2600 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2601
2602 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2603 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2604 been fixed.
2605
2606 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2607
2608 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2609 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2610 IRIX long double values).
2611
2612 * VAX and "next"
2613
2614 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2615 command. This problem has been fixed.
2616
2617 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
2618
2619 * Fix for ``many threads''
2620
2621 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2622 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2623 error message:
2624
2625 ptrace: No such process.
2626 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2627
2628 This problem has been fixed.
2629
2630 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2631
2632 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2633 GDB to dump core).
2634
2635 * New ``start'' command.
2636
2637 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2638
2639 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2640
2641 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2642 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2643 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2644
2645 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2646 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2647 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2648 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2649 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2650 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2651 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2652 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2653 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2654
2655 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
2656
2657 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2658 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2659 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2660 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2661 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2662
2663 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2664 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2665 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2666
2667 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2668
2669 * New native configurations
2670
2671 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2672 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2673 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2674 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2675 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2676 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2677 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2678
2679 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2680
2681 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2682 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2683 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2684 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2685 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2686 work, was also included.
2687
2688 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2689 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2690
2691 h8300-*-*
2692 mcore-*-*
2693 mn10300-*-*
2694 ns32k-*-*
2695 sh64-*-*
2696 v850-*-*
2697 xstormy16-*-*
2698
2699 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2700 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2701
2702 * REMOVED configurations and files
2703
2704 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2705 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2706 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2707 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2708 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2709 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2710 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2711 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2712 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2713 sonymips mips-sony-*
2714 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2715
2716 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2717
2718 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2719
2720 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2721 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2722 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2723 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2724 with GDB".
2725
2726 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2727
2728 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2729 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2730 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2731 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2732 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2733 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2734 are created.
2735
2736 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2737
2738 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
2739
2740 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2741 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2742 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2743
2744 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2745
2746 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2747 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2748
2749 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2750
2751 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2752 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2753 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2754
2755 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2756
2757 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2758 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2759
2760 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2761
2762 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2763 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2764 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2765
2766 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2767
2768 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2769 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2770 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2771
2772 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2773
2774 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2775
2776 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2777 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2778
2779 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2780
2781 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2782 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2783 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2784 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2785
2786 * Revised SPARC target
2787
2788 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2789 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2790 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2791 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2792 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2793
2794 * New C++ demangler
2795
2796 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2797 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2798 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2799 programs.
2800
2801 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2802
2803 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2804 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2805 encountered these.
2806
2807 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2808
2809 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2810 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2811 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2812 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2813 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2814 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2815 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2816 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2817 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2818
2819 * New native configurations
2820
2821 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2822 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2823 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2824 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2825 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2826
2827 * New debugging protocols
2828
2829 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2830
2831 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2832
2833 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2834 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2835 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2836
2837 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2838
2839 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2840 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2841 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2842 permanently REMOVED.
2843
2844 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2845 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2846 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2847 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2848 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2849 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2850 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2851 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2852 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2853 sonymips mips-sony-*
2854 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2855
2856 * REMOVED configurations and files
2857
2858 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2859 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2860 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2861 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2862 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2863 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2864 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2865 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2866 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2867 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2868 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2869 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2870 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2871 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2872 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2873 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2874 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2875
2876 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2877
2878 * Objective-C
2879
2880 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2881 integrated into GDB.
2882
2883 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2884
2885 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2886 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2887 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2888 backtraces.
2889
2890 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2891 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2892 DWARF 2 CFI support.
2893
2894 * Hosted file I/O.
2895
2896 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2897 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2898 remote protocol documentation for details.
2899
2900 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
2901
2902 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2903 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2904 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2905 ppc32 on ppc64).
2906
2907 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2908
2909 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2910 per-thread variables.
2911
2912 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2913
2914 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2915 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2916
2917 * Separate debug info.
2918
2919 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2920 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2921 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2922 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2923 and optional debug files.
2924
2925 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2926
2927 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2928 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2929 debugger.
2930
2931 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2932 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2933
2934 * Java
2935
2936 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2937 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2938 considered "useable".
2939
2940 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2941
2942 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2943 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2944 kernel.
2945
2946 * GDB supports logging output to a file
2947
2948 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2949 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2950
2951 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2952
2953 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2954 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2955 command.
2956
2957 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2958
2959 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2960 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2961
2962 * Profiling support
2963
2964 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2965 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2966 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2967 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2968 data, for more informative profiling results.
2969
2970 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2971
2972 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2973 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2974 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2975
2976 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2977 removed.
2978
2979 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2980 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2981 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2982 in a subsequent -var-update.
2983
2984 * New native configurations.
2985
2986 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2987
2988 * Multi-arched targets.
2989
2990 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2991 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2992
2993 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2994
2995 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2996 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2997 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2998 permanently REMOVED.
2999
3000 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3001 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3002 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3003 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3004 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3005 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3006 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3007 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3008 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3009 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3010 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3011 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3012
3013 * REMOVED configurations and files
3014
3015 V850EA ISA
3016 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3017 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3018 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3019 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3020 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3021 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3022 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3023 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3024 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3025 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3026 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3027 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3028 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3029
3030 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
3031
3032 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3033 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3034 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3035 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3036 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3037
3038 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
3039
3040 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3041
3042 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3043 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3044 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3045 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3046 shared libs like mad''.
3047
3048 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
3049
3050 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3051 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3052 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3053 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
3054
3055 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3056
3057 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3058 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3059 they expand.
3060
3061 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3062 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3063
3064 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3065 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3066
3067 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3068 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3069 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3070 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3071
3072 * Multi-arched targets.
3073
3074 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3075 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
3076 NEC V850 v850-*-*
3077 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
3078 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3079 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3080
3081 * New targets.
3082
3083 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3084
3085
3086 * New native configurations
3087
3088 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
3089 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
3090 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
3091 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
3092
3093 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3094
3095 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3096 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3097 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3098 permanently REMOVED.
3099
3100 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3101 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3102 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3103 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3104 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3105 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3106 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3107 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3108 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3109 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3110 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3111 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3112 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3113
3114 * OBSOLETE languages
3115
3116 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3117
3118 * REMOVED configurations and files
3119
3120 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3121 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3122 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3123 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3124 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3125
3126 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3127
3128 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3129
3130 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3131 commands. The default is 1024.
3132
3133 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3134
3135 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3136
3137 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3138
3139 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3140 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3141 from a file into memory (restore).
3142
3143 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3144
3145 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3146 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3147 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3148
3149 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3150
3151 * New targets.
3152
3153 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3154
3155 * Bug fixes
3156
3157 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3158 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3159 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3160
3161 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3162 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3163 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3164
3165 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3166 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3167 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3168
3169 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3170 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3171 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3172
3173 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
3174
3175 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3176
3177 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3178 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3179 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3180 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3181 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3182 (notably embedded) targets.
3183
3184 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3185
3186 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3187 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3188 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3189 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
3190
3191 * New command line option
3192
3193 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3194
3195 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3196
3197 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3198 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3199 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3200 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3201 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3202 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3203 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3204 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3205 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3206 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3207
3208 * Changes in ARM configurations.
3209
3210 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3211 configuration is fully multi-arch.
3212
3213 * New native configurations
3214
3215 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
3216 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
3217 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
3218 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
3219
3220 * New targets
3221
3222 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3223
3224 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3225
3226 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3227 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3228 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3229 permanently REMOVED.
3230
3231 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3232 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3233 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3234 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3235 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3236
3237 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3238
3239 * REMOVED configurations and files
3240
3241 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3242 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3243 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3244 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3245 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3246 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3247 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3248 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3249 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3250 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3251 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3252 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3253 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
3254
3255 * Changes to command line processing
3256
3257 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3258 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3259
3260 * Changes to key bindings
3261
3262 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3263
3264 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3265
3266 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3267
3268 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3269 corrupted.
3270
3271 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3272
3273 Numerous documentation fixes.
3274
3275 Numerous testsuite fixes.
3276
3277 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
3278
3279 * New native configurations
3280
3281 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3282 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
3283 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
3284 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3285 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
3286 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
3287
3288 * New targets
3289
3290 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
3291 CRIS cris-axis
3292 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
3293
3294 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3295
3296 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
3297 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3298 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3299 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3300 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3301 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3302 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3303 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3304 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3305 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3306 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3307 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3308 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3309 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
3310
3311 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3312 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3313
3314 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3315 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3316 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3317 permanently REMOVED.
3318
3319 * REMOVED configurations and files
3320
3321 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3322 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3323 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3324 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3325 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3326 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
3327
3328 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
3329
3330 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
3331 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3332 present.
3333
3334 * Other news:
3335
3336 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3337
3338 * The MI enabled by default.
3339
3340 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3341 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3342 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3343 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3344 which is now deprecated.
3345
3346 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3347
3348 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3349 main features are supported:
3350
3351 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3352
3353 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3354 extension;
3355
3356 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3357
3358 - a Pascal expression parser.
3359
3360 However, some important features are not yet supported.
3361
3362 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3363
3364 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3365
3366 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3367 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3368
3369 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3370
3371 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3372
3373 * Changes in completion.
3374
3375 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3376 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3377 users expect at the shell prompt.
3378
3379 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3380 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3381 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3382 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3383 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3384 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3385 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3386
3387 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3388
3389 * New platform-independent commands:
3390
3391 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3392 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3393 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3394
3395 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3396
3397 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3398 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3399 many threads as your system allows you to have.
3400
3401 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3402
3403 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3404 multi-threaded programs though.
3405
3406 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
3407
3408 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3409
3410 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3411 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3412 supported.)
3413
3414 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3415
3416 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3417 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3418 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3419 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3420 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3421 registers.
3422
3423 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3424 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3425 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3426
3427 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3428
3429 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3430 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3431
3432 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3433 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3434 IDT.
3435
3436 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3437 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3438 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3439 a given linear address.
3440
3441 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3442 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3443 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3444
3445 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3446
3447 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3448
3449 * Changes in documentation.
3450
3451 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3452 Documentation License.
3453
3454 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3455 manual.
3456
3457 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3458
3459 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3460 manual.
3461
3462 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3463 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3464 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3465
3466 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3467
3468 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3469 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3470 contents of this file.
3471
3472 * gdba.el deleted
3473
3474 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
3475
3476 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
3477
3478 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3479
3480 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3481 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3482 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3483 greater level of detail.
3484
3485 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3486
3487 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3488 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3489 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3490 written.
3491
3492 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3493
3494 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3495 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3496 machines ``out of the box''.
3497
3498 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3499 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3500 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3501 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3502 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3503
3504 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3505 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3506 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3507 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3508 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3509
3510 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3511 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3512 also works.
3513
3514 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3515 GDB.
3516
3517 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3518 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3519 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3520 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3521
3522 * New native configurations
3523
3524 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
3525 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3526
3527 * New targets
3528
3529 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
3530 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3531 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
3532 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3533
3534 * OBSOLETE configurations
3535
3536 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3537 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3538 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3539 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3540 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3541
3542 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3543 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3544 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3545 be permanently REMOVED.
3546
3547 * Gould support removed
3548
3549 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3550
3551 * New features for SVR4
3552
3553 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3554 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3555 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3556
3557 * Many C++ enhancements
3558
3559 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3560 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3561
3562 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3563
3564 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3565 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3566 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3567 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3568
3569 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3570 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3571
3572 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
3573
3574 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3575 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3576 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3577
3578 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3579 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3580
3581 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3582
3583 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3584 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3585 include ``set remote P-packet''.
3586
3587 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3588
3589 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3590 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3591 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3592
3593 * ``apropos'' command added.
3594
3595 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3596 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3597 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3598
3599 * New MI interface
3600
3601 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3602 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
3603 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3604 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3605 enabled by configuring with:
3606
3607 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3608
3609 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3610
3611 * New native configurations
3612
3613 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3614 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
3615 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
3616
3617 * New targets
3618
3619 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3620 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3621 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3622
3623 * OBSOLETE configurations
3624
3625 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3626
3627 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3628 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3629 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3630 be permanently REMOVED.
3631
3632 * ANSI/ISO C
3633
3634 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3635 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3636 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3637 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3638 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3639 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3640 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3641 already.
3642
3643 * Readline 2.2
3644
3645 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3646
3647 * set extension-language
3648
3649 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3650 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3651 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3652 set extension-language .c c++
3653 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3654 and their associated languages.
3655
3656 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3657
3658 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3659 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3660 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3661
3662 set processor NAME
3663
3664 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3665 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3666
3667 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3668 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3669 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3670 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3671 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3672 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3673 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3674 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3675 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3676 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3677 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3678
3679 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3680 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3681 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3682 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3683
3684 * HP-UX support
3685
3686 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3687 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3688 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3689 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3690 for xdb and dbx commands.
3691
3692 * Catchpoints
3693
3694 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3695 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3696 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3697
3698 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3699 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3700 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3701
3702 * Debugging across forks
3703
3704 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3705 in the inferior.
3706
3707 * TUI
3708
3709 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3710 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3711 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3712
3713 * GDB remote protocol additions
3714
3715 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3716 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3717 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3718 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3719
3720 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3721 full 64-bit address. The command
3722
3723 set remoteaddresssize 32
3724
3725 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3726 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3727 will be discarded.
3728
3729 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3730 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3731
3732 maint packet heythere
3733
3734 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3735 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3736 time.
3737
3738 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3739 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3740 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3741
3742 * Tracing can collect general expressions
3743
3744 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3745 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3746 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3747
3748 * mask-address variable for Mips
3749
3750 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3751 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3752 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3753
3754 * Higher serial baud rates
3755
3756 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3757 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3758 to achieve all of these rates.)
3759
3760 * i960 simulator
3761
3762 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3763 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3764
3765
3766 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3767
3768 * New native configurations
3769
3770 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3771 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3772 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3773 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3774 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3775 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3776 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3777
3778 * New targets
3779
3780 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3781 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3782 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3783 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3784 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3785 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3786 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3787 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3788 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3789 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3790 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3791
3792 * New debugging protocols
3793
3794 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3795 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3796 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3797 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3798 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3799 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3800
3801 * DWARF 2
3802
3803 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3804 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3805 information.
3806
3807 * Java frontend
3808
3809 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3810 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3811
3812 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3813
3814 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3815 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3816 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3817
3818 * Live range splitting
3819
3820 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3821 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3822 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3823
3824 * Hurd support
3825
3826 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3827 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3828
3829 * ARM Thumb support
3830
3831 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3832 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3833 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3834 accordingly.
3835
3836 * MIPS16 support
3837
3838 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3839 instruction set.
3840
3841 * Overlay support
3842
3843 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3844 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3845 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3846 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3847 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3848 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3849
3850 * info symbol
3851
3852 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3853 the symbol at the specified address.
3854
3855 * Trace support
3856
3857 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3858 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3859 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3860 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3861 file tracepoint.c for more details.
3862
3863 * MIPS simulator
3864
3865 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3866 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3867 of most MIPS variants.
3868
3869 * Sparc simulator
3870
3871 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3872 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3873 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3874
3875 * set architecture
3876
3877 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3878 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3879 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3880 the possible architectures.
3881
3882 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3883
3884 * New native configurations
3885
3886 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3887 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3888 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3889 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3890 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3891 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3892
3893 * New targets
3894
3895 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3896 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3897 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3898 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3899 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3900 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3901 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3902
3903 * PowerPC simulator
3904
3905 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3906 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3907 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3908 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3909 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3910
3911 * Solaris 2.5
3912
3913 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3914
3915 * Windows 95/NT native
3916
3917 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3918 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3919 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3920 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3921 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3922
3923 * dont-repeat command
3924
3925 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3926 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3927 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3928 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3929
3930 * Send break instead of ^C
3931
3932 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3933 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3934 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3935
3936 * Remote protocol timeout
3937
3938 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3939 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3940 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3941
3942 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3943
3944 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3945 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3946 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3947 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3948 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3949
3950 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3951 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3952 automatically on hpux10.
3953
3954 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3955
3956 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3957
3958 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3959
3960 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3961 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3962 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3963 every character. The default value is 1050.
3964
3965 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3966
3967 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3968 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3969 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3970 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3971 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3972 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3973
3974 * Speedups for remote debugging
3975
3976 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3977 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3978 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3979
3980 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3981
3982 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3983 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3984
3985 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3986
3987 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3988
3989 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3990 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3991
3992 * Remote targets use caching
3993
3994 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3995 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3996 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3997 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3998 off' turns the the data cache off.
3999
4000 * Remote targets may have threads
4001
4002 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4003 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4004 gdb/remote.c for details.
4005
4006 * NetROM support
4007
4008 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4009 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4010 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4011 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4012 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4013 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4014 sequence is something like
4015
4016 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4017 load <prog>
4018 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4019
4020 * Macintosh host
4021
4022 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4023 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4024 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4025 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4026 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4027 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4028 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4029 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4030
4031 * Autoconf
4032
4033 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4034 but does simplify configuration and building.
4035
4036 * hpux10
4037
4038 GDB now supports hpux10.
4039
4040 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4041
4042 * New native configurations
4043
4044 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4045 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4046 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4047 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4048
4049 * New targets
4050
4051 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4052 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4053 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4054 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4055 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4056
4057 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4058
4059 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4060 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4061 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4062 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4063 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4064
4065 * Arguments to user-defined commands
4066
4067 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4068 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4069 trivial example:
4070 define adder
4071 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4072
4073 To execute the command use:
4074 adder 1 2 3
4075
4076 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4077 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4078 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4079
4080 * New `if' and `while' commands
4081
4082 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4083 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4084 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4085 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4086 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4087 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4088 if the expression is zero.
4089
4090 * Fortran source language mode
4091
4092 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4093 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4094 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4095 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4096 Fortran compilers.
4097
4098 * Better HPUX support
4099
4100 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4101 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4102 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4103 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4104 that behavior do the following before running the program:
4105
4106 adb -w a.out
4107 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4108 control-d
4109
4110 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4111 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4112
4113 adb -w a.out
4114 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4115 control-d
4116
4117 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4118 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4119 external linkage.
4120
4121 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4122 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4123
4124 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4125
4126 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4127 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4128 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4129 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4130 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4131 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4132
4133 * New DOS host serial code
4134
4135 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4136 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4137 a PC's serial port.
4138
4139 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4140
4141 * New "complete" command
4142
4143 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4144 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4145
4146 * Trailing space optional in prompt
4147
4148 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4149 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4150
4151 * Breakpoint hit counts
4152
4153 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4154 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4155 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4156 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4157 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4158 that breakpoint.
4159
4160 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4161
4162 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4163 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4164 arrays actually contain only short strings.
4165
4166 * Shared library breakpoints
4167
4168 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4169 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4170
4171 * Hardware watchpoints
4172
4173 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4174 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4175
4176 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
4177
4178 * Annotations
4179
4180 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4181 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4182
4183 * Improved Irix 5 support
4184
4185 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4186
4187 * Improved HPPA support
4188
4189 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4190
4191 * New native configurations
4192
4193 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4194 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4195 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4196 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4197
4198 * New targets
4199
4200 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4201 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4202 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4203
4204 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4205
4206 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4207 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4208
4209 * Fixes
4210
4211 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4212 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4213
4214 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4215
4216 * Irix 5 is now supported
4217
4218 * HPPA support
4219
4220 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4221 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4222 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4223 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4224 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4225
4226
4227 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4228
4229 * User visible changes:
4230
4231 * Remote Debugging
4232
4233 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4234 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4235 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4236 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4237 debugging info for the mips target).
4238
4239 * DEC Alpha native support
4240
4241 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4242 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4243 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4244 Alpha-specific notes.
4245
4246 * Preliminary thread implementation
4247
4248 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4249
4250 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
4251
4252 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4253 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4254 for details).
4255
4256 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4257
4258 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4259 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4260 call methods, ...etc.
4261
4262 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4263
4264 * User visible changes:
4265
4266 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4267 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4268 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4269 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4270
4271 Filename completion now works.
4272
4273 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4274 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4275 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4276
4277 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4278 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4279 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4280 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4281 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4282
4283 * DEC alpha support
4284
4285 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4286 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4287
4288
4289 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4290
4291 * Testsuite
4292
4293 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4294 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4295 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4296
4297 * C++ demangling
4298
4299 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4300 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4301 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4302 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4303 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4304
4305 * Simulators
4306
4307 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4308 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4309 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4310
4311 * New targets supported
4312
4313 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4314 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4315 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4316 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4317 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4318
4319 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4320 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4321 GO32 memory extender.
4322
4323 * New remote protocols
4324
4325 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4326
4327 * New source languages supported
4328
4329 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4330 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4331 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4332
4333
4334 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4335
4336 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4337
4338 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4339 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4340 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4341 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4342 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4343 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4344
4345 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4346
4347 * Faster and better demangling
4348
4349 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4350 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4351 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4352 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4353 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4354 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4355 symbol lookups.
4356
4357 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4358 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4359 compiler does not actually implement.
4360
4361 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4362
4363 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4364 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4365 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4366 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4367 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4368 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4369 fix.
4370
4371 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4372 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4373
4374 * Improved configure script
4375
4376 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4377 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4378 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4379 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4380
4381 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4382 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4383 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4384 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4385 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4386 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4387
4388 * Documentation improvements
4389
4390 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4391 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4392 before submitting changes.
4393
4394 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4395 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4396 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4397 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4398 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4399
4400 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4401 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4402 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4403 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4404 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4405 around this problem.
4406
4407 * New features
4408
4409 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4410 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4411 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4412 the target program.
4413
4414 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4415 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4416
4417 * New native hosts supported
4418
4419 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4420 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4421
4422 * New targets supported
4423
4424 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4425
4426 * New file formats supported
4427
4428 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4429 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4430
4431 * Major bug fixes
4432
4433 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4434
4435 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4436 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4437
4438 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4439 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4440 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4441
4442 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4443 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4444
4445 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4446 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4447 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4448 libraries.
4449
4450 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4451 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4452 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4453 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4454 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4455
4456 * Internal improvements
4457
4458 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4459 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4460
4461 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4462 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4463 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4464 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4465 shared code that handles any of them.
4466
4467 * New command line options
4468
4469 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4470
4471 * Mmalloc licensing
4472
4473 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4474 General Public License.
4475
4476 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4477
4478 * Host/native/target split
4479
4480 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4481 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4482 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4483 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4484 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4485
4486 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4487 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4488 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4489 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4490 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4491 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4492 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4493
4494 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4495 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4496 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4497
4498 * New hosts supported
4499
4500 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4501 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4502 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4503
4504 * New targets supported
4505
4506 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4507 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4508
4509 * New native hosts supported
4510
4511 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4512 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4513 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4514
4515 * New file formats supported
4516
4517 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4518 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4519 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4520
4521 * New commands
4522
4523 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4524 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4525 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4526
4527 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4528
4529 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4530 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4531 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4532 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4533
4534 * C++ improvements
4535
4536 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4537 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4538 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4539
4540 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4541
4542 * Major bug fixes
4543
4544 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4545 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4546 by the compiler.
4547
4548 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4549 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4550
4551 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4552 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4553 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4554 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4555 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4556 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4557
4558 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4559 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4560 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4561 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4562
4563 * AMD 29k support
4564
4565 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4566 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4567 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4568 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4569 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4570
4571 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4572 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4573 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4574 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4575
4576 * Remote interfaces
4577
4578 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4579 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4580 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4581 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4582 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4583 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4584 each instruction being stepped through.
4585
4586 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4587 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4588
4589 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4590 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4591 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4592 processor with a serial port.
4593
4594 * Configuration
4595
4596 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4597 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4598 supported, and what files each one uses.
4599
4600 * Library changes
4601
4602 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4603 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4604 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4605 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4606
4607 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4608 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4609 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4610 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4611
4612 * Documentation
4613
4614 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4615 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4616 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4617 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4618 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4619 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4620
4621 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4622
4623
4624 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4625
4626 * Better support for C++ function names
4627
4628 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4629 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4630 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4631 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4632 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4633
4634 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4635 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4636 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4637 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4638 for the list of formats.
4639
4640 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4641
4642 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4643 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4644 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4645 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4646 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4647 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4648 this problem.)
4649
4650 * New 'maintenance' command
4651
4652 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4653 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4654 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4655
4656 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4657 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4658 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4659 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4660 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4661 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4662
4663 The following commands are new:
4664
4665 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4666 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4667 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4668
4669 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4670
4671 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4672 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4673 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4674 read after argv processing.
4675
4676 * New hosts supported
4677
4678 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4679
4680 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4681
4682 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4683 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4684 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4685 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4686 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4687 It costs extra.
4688
4689 * New targets supported
4690
4691 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4692
4693 * More smarts about finding #include files
4694
4695 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4696 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4697 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4698 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4699 the one that contains your sources.
4700
4701 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4702 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4703 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4704
4705 * Interesting infernals change
4706
4707 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4708 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4709 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4710 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4711
4712 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4713
4714 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4715 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4716 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4717
4718 See the ChangeLog for details.
4719
4720 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4721
4722 * New machines supported (host and target)
4723
4724 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4725
4726 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4727
4728 * New malloc package
4729
4730 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4731 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4732 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4733 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4734 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4735 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4736
4737 * info proc
4738
4739 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4740 'help info proc' for details.
4741
4742 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4743
4744 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4745 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4746 possible.
4747
4748 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4749
4750 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4751 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4752 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4753 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4754 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4755 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4756
4757 * Cross byte order fixes
4758
4759 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4760 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4761
4762 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4763
4764 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4765 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4766 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4767 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4768 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4769 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4770 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4771 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4772 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4773 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4774
4775 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4776 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4777 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4778 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4779
4780 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4781 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4782 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4783 use is:
4784
4785 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4786
4787 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4788 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4789 shared across multiple host platforms.
4790
4791 * longjmp() handling
4792
4793 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4794 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4795 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4796 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4797
4798 * Solaris 2.0
4799
4800 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4801 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4802 reading symbols.
4803
4804 * Bug fixes
4805
4806 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4807 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4808 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4809
4810 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4811
4812 * New machines supported (host and target)
4813
4814 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4815 (except core files)
4816 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4817 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4818
4819 * New machines supported (target)
4820
4821 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4822
4823 * C++ support
4824
4825 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4826 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4827 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4828
4829 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4830 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4831 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4832 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4833 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4834 released.
4835
4836 * New features for SVR4
4837
4838 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4839 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4840 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4841
4842 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4843 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4844 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4845
4846 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4847 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4848
4849 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4850
4851 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4852 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4853 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4854 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4855 same code linked statically.
4856
4857 * New Getopt
4858
4859 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4860 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4861 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4862 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4863 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4864 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4865
4866 * Bugs fixed
4867
4868 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4869 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4870 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4871
4872
4873 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4874
4875 * New machines supported (host and target)
4876
4877 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4878 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4879 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4880
4881 * Almost SCO Unix support
4882
4883 We had hoped to support:
4884 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4885 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4886 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4887 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4888
4889 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4890
4891 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4892 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4893 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4894 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4895 reqired (if any).
4896
4897 * New Readline
4898
4899 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4900 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4901 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4902
4903 * Bugs fixed
4904
4905 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4906 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4907 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4908
4909 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4910
4911 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4912 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4913 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4914
4915 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4916 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4917 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4918 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4919 version 2.
4920
4921 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4922 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4923 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4924 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4925 situation somewhat.
4926
4927 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4928 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4929 methods.
4930
4931 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4932 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4933 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4934
4935
4936 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4937
4938 * Improved configuration
4939
4940 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4941 Porting BFD is simpler.
4942
4943 * Stepping improved
4944
4945 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4946 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4947 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4948 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4949
4950 * Bug fixing
4951
4952 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4953
4954 * New host supported (not target)
4955
4956 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4957
4958
4959 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4960
4961 * Multiple source language support
4962
4963 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4964 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4965 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4966 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4967 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4968 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4969
4970 * GDB and Modula-2
4971
4972 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4973 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4974 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4975 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4976
4977 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4978 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4979 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4980
4981 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4982 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4983
4984 * set write on/off
4985
4986 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4987 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4988 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4989 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4990 effect immediately.
4991
4992 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4993
4994 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4995 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4996 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4997 examining core files.
4998
4999 * set listsize
5000
5001 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5002 The default is 10.
5003
5004 * New machines supported (host and target)
5005
5006 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5007 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5008 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5009
5010 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5011
5012 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5013
5014 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5015
5016 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5017 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5018 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5019
5020 * New remote interfaces
5021
5022 AMD 29000 Adapt
5023 AMD 29000 Minimon
5024
5025
5026 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5027
5028 * New Facilities
5029
5030 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5031
5032 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5033 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5034 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5035 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5036 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5037 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5038 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5039 stub on the target system.
5040
5041 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5042
5043 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5044 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5045 object file types such as a.out and coff.
5046
5047 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5048 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5049
5050
5051 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5052
5053 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5054 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5055
5056 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5057 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5058 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5059
5060 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5061 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5062 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5063 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5064
5065 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5066 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5067 it is already running. Default is ON.
5068
5069 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5070 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5071 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5072 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5073 Default is ON.
5074
5075 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5076 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5077 or the value of the environment variable
5078 GDBHISTFILE.
5079
5080 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5081 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5082 HISTSIZE.
5083
5084 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5085 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5086 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5087
5088 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5089 history expansion will be performed on
5090 command line input. The default is OFF.
5091
5092 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5093 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5094 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5095
5096 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5097 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5098 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5099 variable TERM.
5100
5101 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5102 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5103 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5104 variable TERM.
5105
5106 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5107 ``set width'' instead.
5108
5109 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5110 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5111 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5112 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5113
5114 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5115 is OFF.
5116
5117 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5118 "raw" form if off.
5119
5120 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5121 like instructions.
5122
5123 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5124
5125
5126 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5127
5128 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5129 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5130 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5131 window.
5132
5133
5134 * Support for Shared Libraries
5135
5136 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5137 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5138 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5139 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5140 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5141 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5142 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5143 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5144
5145 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5146 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5147 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5148
5149 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5150
5151
5152 * Watchpoints
5153
5154 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5155 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5156 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5157 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5158 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5159 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5160
5161 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5162
5163 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5164
5165 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5166 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5167 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5168
5169
5170 * C++ multiple inheritance
5171
5172 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5173 for C++ programs.
5174
5175 * C++ exception handling
5176
5177 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5178 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5179 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5180 handler's context).
5181
5182 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5183 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5184 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5185
5186 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5187 current stack frame.
5188
5189
5190 * Minor command changes
5191
5192 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5193 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5194 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5195
5196 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5197 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5198 frames without printing.
5199
5200 * New directory command
5201
5202 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5203 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5204 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5205 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5206 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5207
5208 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5209
5210 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5211 for more details.
5212
5213 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5214 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5215 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5216 where the program that you are debugging will run.