1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
9 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
10 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
12 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
13 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
14 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
16 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
17 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
19 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
21 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
22 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
24 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
25 list of section offsets.
27 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
28 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
31 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
33 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
34 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
40 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
45 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
47 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
49 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
50 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
51 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
53 set breakpoint always-inserted
54 show breakpoint always-inserted
55 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
56 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
57 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
59 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
60 show arm fallback-mode
61 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
63 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
64 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
65 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
66 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
68 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
70 * New native configurations
72 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
73 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
77 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
78 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
80 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
82 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
83 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
84 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
85 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
87 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
88 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
90 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
93 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
94 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
95 and in inlined functions.
97 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
98 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
99 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
101 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
103 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
104 registers on PowerPC targets.
106 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
107 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
109 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
110 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
112 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
113 extended-remote mode.
115 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
116 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
117 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
118 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
120 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
121 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
122 target architectures.
124 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
125 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
126 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
127 stored in two consecutive float registers.
129 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
132 * Improved support for debugging Ada
133 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
135 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
136 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
137 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
138 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
140 - Improved command completion in Ada
145 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
146 show print frame-arguments
147 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
148 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
153 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
160 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
169 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
171 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
175 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
179 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
181 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
183 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
184 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
185 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
187 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
188 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
189 -Bsymbolic linker option.
191 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
192 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
195 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
196 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
198 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
199 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
201 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
203 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
204 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
205 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
207 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
208 automatically displayed as character or string data.
210 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
211 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
214 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
215 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
216 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
218 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
221 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
222 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
223 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
225 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
227 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
229 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
230 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
231 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
233 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
234 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
236 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
237 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
238 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
239 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
240 Windows and SymbianOS).
242 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
243 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
245 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
246 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
252 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
253 when debugging using remote targets.
255 set mem inaccessible-by-default
256 show mem inaccessible-by-default
257 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
258 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
259 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
260 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
261 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
263 set breakpoint auto-hw
264 show breakpoint auto-hw
265 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
266 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
267 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
268 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
269 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
270 including "next" and "finish".
273 catch exception unhandled
274 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
277 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
281 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
282 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
283 an alias to "set sysroot".
286 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
287 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
290 * New native configurations
292 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
297 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
298 not query the target for its built-in description.
302 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
303 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
304 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
309 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
310 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
313 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
318 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
319 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
321 qXfer:libraries:read:
322 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
323 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
324 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
325 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
329 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
338 i[34567]86-*-netware*
339 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
340 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
342 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
345 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
346 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
355 * Other removed features
362 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
369 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
374 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
375 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
380 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
381 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
383 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
385 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
386 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
387 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
388 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
392 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
393 in debugging information.
397 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
398 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
400 set mips stack-arg-size
401 set mips saved-gpreg-size
403 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
405 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
410 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
412 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
413 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
414 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
416 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
417 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
420 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
421 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
423 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
424 stub provides the required support.
426 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
427 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
432 unset substitute-path
434 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
435 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
436 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
437 between compilation and debugging.
441 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
442 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
443 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
447 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
449 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
450 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
452 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
457 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
458 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
459 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
460 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
464 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
465 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
467 qXfer:memory-map:read:
468 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
469 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
474 Erase and program a flash memory device.
476 * Removed remote packets
479 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
480 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
482 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
486 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
488 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
492 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
493 only if it doesn't already have a value.
495 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
497 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
499 restart <n> Return the program state to a
500 previously saved state.
502 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
504 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
506 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
507 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
509 info forks List forks of the user program that
510 are available to be debugged.
512 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
513 forks of the user program that are
514 available to be debugged.
516 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
517 that are available to be debugged (and
518 kill the forked process).
520 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
521 that are available to be debugged (and
522 allow the process to continue).
526 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
528 * Improved Windows host support
530 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
531 native console support, and remote communications using either
532 network sockets or serial ports.
534 * Improved Modula-2 language support
536 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
537 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
538 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
539 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
540 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
541 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
545 The ARM rdi-share module.
547 The Netware NLM debug server.
549 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
551 * New native configurations
553 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
554 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
558 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
560 * New command line options
562 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
563 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
564 the child (debugged) program exited with.
565 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
566 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
567 specified multiple times and in conjunction
568 with the --command (-x) option.
570 * Deprecated commands removed
572 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
576 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
577 othernames set arm disassembler
578 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
579 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
580 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
583 * New BSD user-level threads support
585 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
586 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
589 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
590 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
591 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
593 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
594 are not yet supported.
596 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
597 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
599 * REMOVED configurations and files
601 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
602 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
603 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
605 * New "set print array-indexes" command
607 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
608 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
611 * VAX floating point support
613 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
615 * User-defined command support
617 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
618 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
619 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
621 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
623 * New command line option
625 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
628 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
630 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
631 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
632 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
633 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
634 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
636 * Internationalization
638 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
639 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
640 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
644 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
645 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
646 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
648 * New native configurations
650 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
654 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
655 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
657 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
659 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
660 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
661 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
664 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
665 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
666 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
678 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
679 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
681 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
683 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
684 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
685 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
695 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
697 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
699 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
700 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
703 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
705 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
706 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
707 IRIX long double values).
711 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
712 command. This problem has been fixed.
714 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
716 * Fix for ``many threads''
718 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
719 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
722 ptrace: No such process.
723 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
725 This problem has been fixed.
727 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
729 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
732 * New ``start'' command.
734 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
736 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
738 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
739 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
740 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
742 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
743 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
744 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
745 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
746 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
747 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
748 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
749 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
750 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
752 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
754 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
755 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
756 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
757 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
758 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
760 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
761 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
762 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
764 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
766 * New native configurations
768 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
769 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
770 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
771 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
772 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
773 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
774 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
776 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
778 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
779 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
780 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
781 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
782 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
783 work, was also included.
785 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
786 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
796 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
797 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
799 * REMOVED configurations and files
801 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
802 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
803 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
804 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
805 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
806 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
807 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
808 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
809 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
811 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
813 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
815 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
817 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
818 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
819 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
820 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
823 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
825 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
826 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
827 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
828 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
829 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
830 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
833 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
835 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
837 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
838 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
839 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
841 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
843 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
844 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
846 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
848 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
849 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
850 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
852 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
854 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
855 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
857 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
859 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
860 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
861 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
863 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
865 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
866 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
867 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
869 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
871 * Removed --with-mmalloc
873 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
874 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
876 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
878 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
879 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
880 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
881 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
883 * Revised SPARC target
885 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
886 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
887 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
888 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
889 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
893 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
894 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
895 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
898 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
900 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
901 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
904 * C++ nested types and namespaces
906 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
907 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
908 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
909 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
910 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
911 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
912 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
913 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
914 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
916 * New native configurations
918 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
919 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
920 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
921 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
922 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
924 * New debugging protocols
926 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
928 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
930 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
931 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
932 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
934 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
936 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
937 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
938 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
941 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
942 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
943 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
944 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
945 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
946 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
947 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
948 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
949 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
951 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
953 * REMOVED configurations and files
955 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
956 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
957 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
958 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
959 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
960 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
961 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
962 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
963 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
964 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
965 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
966 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
967 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
968 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
969 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
970 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
971 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
973 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
977 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
980 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
982 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
983 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
984 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
987 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
988 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
993 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
994 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
995 remote protocol documentation for details.
997 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
999 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1000 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1001 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1004 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1006 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1007 per-thread variables.
1009 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1011 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1012 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1014 * Separate debug info.
1016 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1017 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1018 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1019 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1020 and optional debug files.
1022 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1024 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1025 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1028 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1029 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1033 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1034 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1035 considered "useable".
1037 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1039 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1040 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1043 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1045 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1046 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1048 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1050 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1051 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1054 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1056 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1057 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1061 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1062 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1063 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1064 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1065 data, for more informative profiling results.
1067 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1069 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1070 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1071 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1073 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1076 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1077 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1078 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1079 in a subsequent -var-update.
1081 * New native configurations.
1083 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1085 * Multi-arched targets.
1087 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1088 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1090 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1092 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1093 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1094 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1095 permanently REMOVED.
1097 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1098 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1099 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1100 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1101 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1102 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1103 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1104 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1105 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1106 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1107 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1108 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1110 * REMOVED configurations and files
1113 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1114 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1115 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1116 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1117 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1118 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1120 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1121 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1122 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1123 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1124 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1125 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1127 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1129 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1130 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1131 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1132 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1133 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1135 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1137 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1139 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1140 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1141 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1142 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1143 shared libs like mad''.
1145 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1147 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1148 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1149 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1150 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1152 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1154 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1155 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1158 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1159 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1161 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1162 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1164 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1165 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1166 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1167 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1169 * Multi-arched targets.
1171 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1172 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1174 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1175 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1176 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1180 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1183 * New native configurations
1185 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1186 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1187 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1188 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1190 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1192 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1193 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1194 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1195 permanently REMOVED.
1197 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1198 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1199 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1200 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1201 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1202 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1203 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1204 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1205 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1206 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1208 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1209 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1211 * OBSOLETE languages
1213 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1215 * REMOVED configurations and files
1217 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1218 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1219 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1220 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1221 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1223 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1225 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1227 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1228 commands. The default is 1024.
1230 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1232 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1234 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1236 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1237 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1238 from a file into memory (restore).
1240 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1242 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1243 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1244 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1246 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1254 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1255 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1256 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1258 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1259 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1260 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1262 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1263 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1264 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1266 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1267 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1268 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1270 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1272 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1274 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1275 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1276 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1277 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1278 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1279 (notably embedded) targets.
1281 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1283 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1284 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1285 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1286 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1288 * New command line option
1290 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1292 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1294 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1295 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1296 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1297 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1298 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1299 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1300 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1301 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1302 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1303 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1305 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1307 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1308 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1310 * New native configurations
1312 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1313 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1314 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1315 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1319 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1321 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1323 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1324 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1325 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1326 permanently REMOVED.
1328 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1329 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1330 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1331 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1332 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1334 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1336 * REMOVED configurations and files
1338 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1340 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1341 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1342 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1343 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1344 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1345 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1346 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1347 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1348 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1349 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1350 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1352 * Changes to command line processing
1354 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1355 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1357 * Changes to key bindings
1359 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1361 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1363 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1365 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1368 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1370 Numerous documentation fixes.
1372 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1374 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1376 * New native configurations
1378 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1379 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1380 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1381 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1382 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1383 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1387 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1389 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1391 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1393 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1394 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1395 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1396 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1397 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1399 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1400 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1401 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1402 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1403 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1404 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1405 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1406 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1408 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1409 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1411 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1412 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1413 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1414 permanently REMOVED.
1416 * REMOVED configurations and files
1418 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1419 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1421 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1425 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1427 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1428 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1433 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1435 * The MI enabled by default.
1437 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1438 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1439 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1440 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1441 which is now deprecated.
1443 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1445 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1446 main features are supported:
1448 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1450 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1453 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1455 - a Pascal expression parser.
1457 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1459 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1461 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1463 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1464 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1466 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1468 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1470 * Changes in completion.
1472 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1473 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1474 users expect at the shell prompt.
1476 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1477 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1478 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1479 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1480 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1481 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1482 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1484 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1486 * New platform-independent commands:
1488 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1489 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1490 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1492 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1494 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1495 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1496 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1498 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1500 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1501 multi-threaded programs though.
1503 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1505 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1507 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1508 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1511 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1513 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1514 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1515 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1516 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1517 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1520 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1521 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1522 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1524 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1526 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1527 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1529 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1530 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1533 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1534 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1535 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1536 a given linear address.
1538 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1539 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1540 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1542 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1544 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1546 * Changes in documentation.
1548 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1549 Documentation License.
1551 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1554 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1556 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1559 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1560 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1561 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1563 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1565 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1566 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1567 contents of this file.
1571 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1573 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1575 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1577 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1578 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1579 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1580 greater level of detail.
1582 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1584 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1585 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1586 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1589 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1591 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1592 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1593 machines ``out of the box''.
1595 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1596 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1597 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1598 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1599 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1601 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1602 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1603 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1604 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1605 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1607 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1608 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1611 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1614 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1615 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1616 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1617 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1619 * New native configurations
1621 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1622 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1626 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1627 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1628 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1629 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1631 * OBSOLETE configurations
1633 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1634 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1636 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1639 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1640 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1641 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1642 be permanently REMOVED.
1644 * Gould support removed
1646 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1648 * New features for SVR4
1650 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1651 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1652 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1654 * Many C++ enhancements
1656 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1657 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1659 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1661 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1662 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1663 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1664 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1666 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1667 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1669 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1671 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1672 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1673 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1675 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1676 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1678 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1680 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1681 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1682 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1684 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1686 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1687 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1688 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1690 * ``apropos'' command added.
1692 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1693 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1694 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1698 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1699 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1700 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1701 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1702 enabled by configuring with:
1704 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1706 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1708 * New native configurations
1710 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1711 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1712 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1716 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1717 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1718 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1720 * OBSOLETE configurations
1722 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1724 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1725 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1726 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1727 be permanently REMOVED.
1731 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1732 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1733 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1734 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1735 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1736 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1737 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1742 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1744 * set extension-language
1746 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1747 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1748 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1749 set extension-language .c c++
1750 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1751 and their associated languages.
1753 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1755 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1756 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1757 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1761 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1762 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1764 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1765 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1767 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1768 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1769 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1770 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1771 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1772 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1773 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1774 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1776 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1777 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1778 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1779 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1783 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1784 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1785 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1786 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1787 for xdb and dbx commands.
1791 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1792 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1793 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1795 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1796 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1797 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1799 * Debugging across forks
1801 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1806 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1807 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1808 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1810 * GDB remote protocol additions
1812 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1813 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1814 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1815 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1817 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1818 full 64-bit address. The command
1820 set remoteaddresssize 32
1822 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1823 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1826 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1827 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1829 maint packet heythere
1831 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1832 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1835 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1836 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1837 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1839 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1841 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1842 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1843 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1845 * mask-address variable for Mips
1847 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1848 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1849 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1851 * Higher serial baud rates
1853 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1854 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1855 to achieve all of these rates.)
1859 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1860 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1863 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1865 * New native configurations
1867 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1868 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1869 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1870 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1871 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1872 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1873 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1877 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1878 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1879 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1880 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1881 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1882 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1883 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1884 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1885 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1886 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1887 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1889 * New debugging protocols
1891 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1892 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1893 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1894 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1895 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1896 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1900 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1901 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1906 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1907 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1909 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1911 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1912 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1913 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1915 * Live range splitting
1917 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1918 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1919 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1923 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1924 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1928 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1929 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1930 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1935 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1940 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1941 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1942 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1943 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1944 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1945 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1949 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1950 the symbol at the specified address.
1954 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1955 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1956 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1957 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1958 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1962 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1963 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1964 of most MIPS variants.
1968 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1969 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1970 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1974 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1975 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1976 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1977 the possible architectures.
1979 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1981 * New native configurations
1983 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1984 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1985 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1986 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1987 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1988 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1992 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1993 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1994 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1995 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1996 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1998 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2002 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2003 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2004 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2005 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2006 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2010 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2012 * Windows 95/NT native
2014 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2015 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2016 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2017 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2018 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2020 * dont-repeat command
2022 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2023 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2024 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2025 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2027 * Send break instead of ^C
2029 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2030 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2031 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2033 * Remote protocol timeout
2035 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2036 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2037 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2039 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2041 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2042 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2043 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2044 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2045 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2047 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2048 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2049 automatically on hpux10.
2051 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2053 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2055 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2057 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2058 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2059 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2060 every character. The default value is 1050.
2062 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2064 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2065 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2066 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2067 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2068 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2069 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2071 * Speedups for remote debugging
2073 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2074 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2075 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2077 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2079 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2080 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2082 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2084 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2086 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2087 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2089 * Remote targets use caching
2091 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2092 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2093 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2094 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2095 off' turns the the data cache off.
2097 * Remote targets may have threads
2099 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2100 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2101 gdb/remote.c for details.
2105 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2106 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2107 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2108 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2109 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2110 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2111 sequence is something like
2113 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2115 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2119 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2120 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2121 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2122 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2123 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2124 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2125 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2126 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2130 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2131 but does simplify configuration and building.
2135 GDB now supports hpux10.
2137 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2139 * New native configurations
2141 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2142 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2143 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2144 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2148 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2149 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2150 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2151 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2154 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2156 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2157 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2158 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2159 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2160 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2162 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2164 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2165 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2168 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2170 To execute the command use:
2173 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2174 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2175 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2177 * New `if' and `while' commands
2179 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2180 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2181 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2182 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2183 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2184 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2185 if the expression is zero.
2187 * Fortran source language mode
2189 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2190 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2191 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2192 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2195 * Better HPUX support
2197 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2198 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2199 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2200 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2201 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2207 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2208 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2214 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2215 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2218 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2219 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2221 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2223 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2224 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2225 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2226 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2227 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2228 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2230 * New DOS host serial code
2232 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2233 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2236 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2238 * New "complete" command
2240 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2241 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2243 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2245 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2246 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2248 * Breakpoint hit counts
2250 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2251 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2252 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2253 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2254 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2257 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2259 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2260 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2261 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2263 * Shared library breakpoints
2265 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2266 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2268 * Hardware watchpoints
2270 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2271 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2273 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2277 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2278 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2280 * Improved Irix 5 support
2282 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2284 * Improved HPPA support
2286 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2288 * New native configurations
2290 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2291 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2292 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2293 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2297 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2298 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2301 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2303 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2304 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2308 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2309 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2311 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2313 * Irix 5 is now supported
2317 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2318 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2319 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2320 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2321 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2324 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2326 * User visible changes:
2330 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2331 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2332 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2333 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2334 debugging info for the mips target).
2336 * DEC Alpha native support
2338 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2339 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2340 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2341 Alpha-specific notes.
2343 * Preliminary thread implementation
2345 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2347 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2349 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2350 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2353 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2355 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2356 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2357 call methods, ...etc.
2359 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2361 * User visible changes:
2363 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2364 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2365 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2366 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2368 Filename completion now works.
2370 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2371 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2372 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2374 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2375 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2376 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2377 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2378 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2382 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2383 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2386 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2390 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2391 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2392 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2396 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2397 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2398 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2399 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2400 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2404 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2405 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2406 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2408 * New targets supported
2410 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2411 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2412 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2413 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2414 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2416 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2417 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2418 GO32 memory extender.
2420 * New remote protocols
2422 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2424 * New source languages supported
2426 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2427 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2428 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2431 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2433 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2435 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2436 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2437 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2438 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2439 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2440 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2442 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2444 * Faster and better demangling
2446 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2447 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2448 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2449 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2450 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2451 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2454 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2455 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2456 compiler does not actually implement.
2458 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2460 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2461 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2462 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2463 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2464 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2465 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2468 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2469 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2471 * Improved configure script
2473 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2474 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2475 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2476 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2478 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2479 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2480 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2481 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2482 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2483 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2485 * Documentation improvements
2487 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2488 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2489 before submitting changes.
2491 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2492 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2493 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2494 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2495 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2497 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2498 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2499 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2500 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2501 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2502 around this problem.
2506 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2507 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2508 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2511 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2512 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2514 * New native hosts supported
2516 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2517 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2519 * New targets supported
2521 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2523 * New file formats supported
2525 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2526 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2530 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2532 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2533 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2535 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2536 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2537 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2539 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2540 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2542 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2543 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2544 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2547 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2548 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2549 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2550 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2551 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2553 * Internal improvements
2555 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2556 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2558 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2559 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2560 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2561 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2562 shared code that handles any of them.
2564 * New command line options
2566 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2570 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2571 General Public License.
2573 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2575 * Host/native/target split
2577 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2578 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2579 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2580 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2581 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2583 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2584 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2585 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2586 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2587 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2588 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2589 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2591 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2592 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2593 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2595 * New hosts supported
2597 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2598 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2599 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2601 * New targets supported
2603 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2604 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2606 * New native hosts supported
2608 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2609 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2610 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2612 * New file formats supported
2614 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2615 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2616 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2620 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2621 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2622 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2624 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2626 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2627 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2628 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2629 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2633 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2634 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2635 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2637 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2641 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2642 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2645 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2646 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2648 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2649 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2650 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2651 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2652 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2653 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2655 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2656 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2657 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2658 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2662 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2663 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2664 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2665 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2666 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2668 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2669 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2670 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2671 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2675 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2676 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2677 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2678 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2679 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2680 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2681 each instruction being stepped through.
2683 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2684 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2686 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2687 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2688 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2689 processor with a serial port.
2693 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2694 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2695 supported, and what files each one uses.
2699 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2700 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2701 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2702 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2704 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2705 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2706 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2707 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2711 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2712 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2713 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2714 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2715 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2716 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2718 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2721 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2723 * Better support for C++ function names
2725 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2726 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2727 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2728 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2729 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2731 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2732 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2733 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2734 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2735 for the list of formats.
2737 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2739 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2740 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2741 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2742 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2743 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2744 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2747 * New 'maintenance' command
2749 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2750 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2751 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2753 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2754 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2755 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2756 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2757 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2758 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2760 The following commands are new:
2762 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2763 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2764 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2766 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2768 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2769 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2770 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2771 read after argv processing.
2773 * New hosts supported
2775 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2777 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2779 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2780 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2781 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2782 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2783 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2786 * New targets supported
2788 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2790 * More smarts about finding #include files
2792 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2793 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2794 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2795 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2796 the one that contains your sources.
2798 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2799 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2800 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2802 * Interesting infernals change
2804 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2805 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2806 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2807 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2809 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2811 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2812 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2813 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2815 See the ChangeLog for details.
2817 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2819 * New machines supported (host and target)
2821 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2823 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2825 * New malloc package
2827 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2828 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2829 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2830 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2831 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2832 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2836 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2837 'help info proc' for details.
2839 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2841 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2842 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2845 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2847 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2848 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2849 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2850 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2851 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2852 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2854 * Cross byte order fixes
2856 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2857 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2859 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2861 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2862 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2863 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2864 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2865 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2866 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2867 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2868 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2869 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2870 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2872 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2873 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2874 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2875 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2877 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2878 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2879 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2882 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2884 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2885 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2886 shared across multiple host platforms.
2888 * longjmp() handling
2890 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2891 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2892 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2893 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2897 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2898 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2903 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2904 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2905 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2907 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2909 * New machines supported (host and target)
2911 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2913 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2914 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2916 * New machines supported (target)
2918 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2922 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2923 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2924 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2926 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2927 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2928 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2929 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2930 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2933 * New features for SVR4
2935 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2936 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2937 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2939 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2940 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2941 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2943 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2944 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2946 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2948 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2949 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2950 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2951 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2952 same code linked statically.
2956 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2957 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2958 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2959 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2960 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2961 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2965 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2966 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2967 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2970 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2972 * New machines supported (host and target)
2974 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2975 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2976 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2978 * Almost SCO Unix support
2980 We had hoped to support:
2981 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2982 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2983 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2984 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2986 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2988 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2989 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2990 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2991 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2996 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2997 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2998 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3002 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3003 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3004 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3006 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3008 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3009 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3010 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3012 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3013 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3014 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3015 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3018 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3019 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3020 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3021 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3024 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3025 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3028 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3029 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3030 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3033 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3035 * Improved configuration
3037 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3038 Porting BFD is simpler.
3042 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3043 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3044 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3045 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3049 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3051 * New host supported (not target)
3053 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3056 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3058 * Multiple source language support
3060 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3061 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3062 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3063 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3064 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3065 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3069 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3070 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3071 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3072 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3074 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3075 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3076 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3078 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3079 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3083 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3084 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3085 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3086 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3089 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3091 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3092 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3093 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3094 examining core files.
3098 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3101 * New machines supported (host and target)
3103 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3104 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3105 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3107 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3109 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3111 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3113 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3114 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3115 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3117 * New remote interfaces
3123 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3127 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3129 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3130 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3131 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3132 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3133 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3134 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3135 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3136 stub on the target system.
3138 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3140 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3141 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3142 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3144 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3145 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3148 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3150 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3151 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3153 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3154 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3155 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3157 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3158 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3159 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3160 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3162 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3163 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3164 it is already running. Default is ON.
3166 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3167 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3168 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3169 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3172 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3173 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3174 or the value of the environment variable
3177 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3178 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3181 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3182 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3183 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3185 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3186 history expansion will be performed on
3187 command line input. The default is OFF.
3189 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3190 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3191 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3193 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3194 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3195 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3198 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3199 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3200 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3203 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3204 ``set width'' instead.
3206 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3207 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3208 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3209 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3211 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3214 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3217 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3220 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3223 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3225 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3226 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3227 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3231 * Support for Shared Libraries
3233 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3234 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3235 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3236 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3237 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3238 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3239 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3240 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3242 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3243 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3244 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3246 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3251 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3252 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3253 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3254 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3255 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3256 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3258 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3260 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3262 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3263 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3264 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3267 * C++ multiple inheritance
3269 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3272 * C++ exception handling
3274 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3275 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3276 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3279 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3280 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3281 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3283 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3284 current stack frame.
3287 * Minor command changes
3289 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3290 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3291 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3293 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3294 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3295 frames without printing.
3297 * New directory command
3299 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3300 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3301 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3302 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3303 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3305 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3307 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3310 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3311 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3312 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3313 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob