gdbserver/csky add csky gdbserver support
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 12
5
6 * GDB now supports dumping memory tag data for AArch64 MTE. It also supports
7 reading memory tag data for AArch64 MTE from core files generated by
8 the gcore command or the Linux kernel.
9
10 When a process uses memory-mapped pages protected by memory tags (for
11 example, AArch64 MTE), this additional information will be recorded in
12 the core file in the event of a crash or if GDB generates a core file
13 from the current process state. GDB will show this additional information
14 automatically, or through one of the memory-tag subcommands.
15
16 * "info breakpoints" now displays enabled breakpoint locations of
17 disabled breakpoints as in the "y-" state. For example:
18
19 (gdb) info breakpoints
20 Num Type Disp Enb Address What
21 1 breakpoint keep n <MULTIPLE>
22 1.1 y- 0x00000000000011b6 in ...
23 1.2 y- 0x00000000000011c2 in ...
24 1.3 n 0x00000000000011ce in ...
25
26 * Support for Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on FreeBSD arm and
27 aarch64 architectures.
28
29 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on FreeBSD/Aarch64.
30
31 * Remove support for building against Python 2, it is now only possible to
32 build GDB against Python 3.
33
34 * DBX mode has been removed.
35
36 * GDB now honours the DWARF prologue_end line-table entry flag the compiler can
37 emit to indicate where a breakpoint should be placed to break in a function
38 past its prologue.
39
40 * Completion now also offers "NUMBER" for "set" commands that accept
41 a numeric argument and the "unlimited" keyword. For example:
42
43 (gdb) set width <TAB>
44 NUMBER unlimited
45
46 and consequently:
47
48 (gdb) complete set width
49 set width NUMBER
50 set width unlimited
51
52 * Disassembler styling using libopcodes. GDB now supports
53 disassembler styling using libopcodes. This is only available for
54 some targets (currently x86 and RISC-V). For unsupported targets
55 Python Pygments is still used. For supported targets, libopcodes
56 styling is used by default.
57
58 * The Windows native target now supports target async.
59
60 * New commands
61
62 maintenance set ignore-prologue-end-flag on|off
63 maintenance show ignore-prologue-end-flag
64 This setting, which is off by default, controls whether GDB ignores the
65 PROLOGUE-END flag from the line-table when skipping prologue. This can be
66 used to force GDB to use prologue analyzers if the line-table is constructed
67 from erroneous debug information.
68
69 set print nibbles [on|off]
70 show print nibbles
71 This controls whether the 'print/t' command will display binary values
72 in groups of four bits, known as "nibbles". The default is 'off'.
73
74 maintenance set libopcodes-styling on|off
75 maintenance show libopcodes-styling
76 These can be used to force off libopcodes based styling, the Python
77 Pygments styling will then be used instead.
78
79 set style disassembler comment
80 show style disassembler comment
81 set style disassembler immediate
82 show style disassembler immediate
83 set style disassembler mnemonic
84 show style disassembler mnemonic
85 set style disassembler register
86 show style disassembler register
87 set style disassembler address
88 show style disassembler address
89 set style disassembler symbol
90 show style disassembler symbol
91 For targets that support libopcodes based styling, these settings
92 control how various aspects of the disassembler output are styled.
93 The 'disassembler address' and 'disassembler symbol' styles are
94 aliases for the 'address' and 'function' styles respectively.
95
96 maintenance print frame-id [ LEVEL ]
97 Print GDB's internal frame-id for the frame at LEVEL. If LEVEL is
98 not given, then print the frame-id for the currently selected frame.
99
100 * Changed commands
101
102 document user-defined
103 It is now possible to document user-defined aliases.
104 When a user-defined alias is documented, the help and apropos commands
105 use the provided documentation instead of the documentation of the
106 aliased command.
107 Documenting a user-defined alias is particularly useful when the alias
108 is a set of nested 'with' commands to avoid showing the help of
109 the with command for an alias that will in fact launch the
110 last command given in the nested commands.
111
112 maintenance info line-table
113 Add a PROLOGUE-END column to the output which indicates that an
114 entry corresponds to an address where a breakpoint should be placed
115 to be at the first instruction past a function's prologue.
116
117 * New targets
118
119 GNU/Linux/LoongArch (gdbserver) loongarch*-*-linux*
120
121 GNU/Linux/CSKY (gdbserver) csky*-*linux*
122
123 * Python API
124
125 ** GDB will now reformat the doc string for gdb.Command and
126 gdb.Parameter sub-classes to remove unnecessary leading
127 whitespace from each line before using the string as the help
128 output.
129
130 ** New function gdb.format_address(ADDRESS, PROGSPACE, ARCHITECTURE),
131 that formats ADDRESS as 'address <symbol+offset>', where symbol is
132 looked up in PROGSPACE, and ARCHITECTURE is used to format address.
133 This is the same format that GDB uses when printing address, symbol,
134 and offset information from the disassembler.
135
136 ** New function gdb.current_language that returns the name of the
137 current language. Unlike gdb.parameter('language'), this will
138 never return 'auto'.
139
140 ** New method gdb.Frame.language that returns the name of the
141 frame's language.
142
143 ** New Python API for wrapping GDB's disassembler:
144
145 - gdb.disassembler.register_disassembler(DISASSEMBLER, ARCH).
146 DISASSEMBLER is a sub-class of gdb.disassembler.Disassembler.
147 ARCH is either None or a string containing a bfd architecture
148 name. DISASSEMBLER is registered as a disassembler for
149 architecture ARCH, or for all architectures if ARCH is None.
150 The previous disassembler registered for ARCH is returned, this
151 can be None if no previous disassembler was registered.
152
153 - gdb.disassembler.Disassembler is the class from which all
154 disassemblers should inherit. Its constructor takes a string,
155 a name for the disassembler, which is currently only used in
156 some debug output. Sub-classes should override the __call__
157 method to perform disassembly, invoking __call__ on this base
158 class will raise an exception.
159
160 - gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo is the class used to describe
161 a single disassembly request from GDB. An instance of this
162 class is passed to the __call__ method of
163 gdb.disassembler.Disassembler and has the following read-only
164 attributes: 'address', and 'architecture', as well as the
165 following method: 'read_memory'.
166
167 - gdb.disassembler.builtin_disassemble(INFO, MEMORY_SOURCE),
168 calls GDB's builtin disassembler on INFO, which is a
169 gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo object. MEMORY_SOURCE is
170 optional, its default value is None. If MEMORY_SOURCE is not
171 None then it must be an object that has a 'read_memory' method.
172
173 - gdb.disassembler.DisassemblerResult is a class that can be used
174 to wrap the result of a call to a Disassembler. It has
175 read-only attributes 'length' and 'string'.
176
177 ** gdb.Objfile now has an attribute named "is_file". This is True
178 if the objfile comes from a file, and False otherwise.
179
180 ** New function gdb.print_options that returns a dictionary of the
181 prevailing print options, in the form accepted by
182 gdb.Value.format_string.
183
184 ** gdb.Value.format_string now uses the format provided by 'print',
185 if it is called during a 'print' or other similar operation.
186
187 ** gdb.Value.format_string now accepts the 'summary' keyword. This
188 can be used to request a shorter representation of a value, the
189 way that 'set print frame-arguments scalars' does.
190
191 ** New Python type gdb.BreakpointLocation.
192 The new attribute 'locations' of gdb.Breakpoint returns a list of
193 gdb.BreakpointLocation objects specifying the locations where the
194 breakpoint is inserted into the debuggee.
195
196 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
197
198 ** GDBserver is now supported on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
199
200 ** GDBserver is now supported on CSKY GNU/Linux.
201
202 * LoongArch floating-point support
203
204 GDB now supports floating-point on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
205
206 *** Changes in GDB 12
207
208 * DBX mode is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 13
209
210 * GDB 12 is the last release of GDB that will support building against
211 Python 2. From GDB 13, it will only be possible to build GDB itself
212 with Python 3 support.
213
214 * The disable-randomization setting now works on Windows.
215
216 * Improved C++ template support
217
218 GDB now treats functions/types involving C++ templates like it does function
219 overloads. Users may omit parameter lists to set breakpoints on families of
220 template functions, including types/functions composed of multiple template types:
221
222 (gdb) break template_func(template_1, int)
223
224 The above will set breakpoints at every function `template_func' where
225 the first function parameter is any template type named `template_1' and
226 the second function parameter is `int'.
227
228 TAB completion also gains similar improvements.
229
230 * The FreeBSD native target now supports async mode.
231
232 * Configure changes
233
234 --enable-threading
235
236 Enable or disable multithreaded symbol loading. This is enabled
237 by default, but passing --disable-threading or --enable-threading=no
238 to configure will disable it.
239
240 Disabling this can cause a performance penalty when there are a lot of
241 symbols to load, but is useful for debugging purposes.
242
243 * New commands
244
245 maint set backtrace-on-fatal-signal on|off
246 maint show backtrace-on-fatal-signal
247 This setting is 'on' by default. When 'on' GDB will print a limited
248 backtrace to stderr in the situation where GDB terminates with a
249 fatal signal. This only supported on some platforms where the
250 backtrace and backtrace_symbols_fd functions are available.
251
252 set source open on|off
253 show source open
254 This setting, which is on by default, controls whether GDB will try
255 to open source code files. Switching this off will stop GDB trying
256 to open and read source code files, which can be useful if the files
257 are located over a slow network connection.
258
259 set varsize-limit
260 show varsize-limit
261 These are now deprecated aliases for "set max-value-size" and
262 "show max-value-size".
263
264 task apply [all | TASK-IDS...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
265 Like "thread apply", but applies COMMAND to Ada tasks.
266
267 watch [...] task ID
268 Watchpoints can now be restricted to a specific Ada task.
269
270 maint set internal-error backtrace on|off
271 maint show internal-error backtrace
272 maint set internal-warning backtrace on|off
273 maint show internal-warning backtrace
274 GDB can now print a backtrace of itself when it encounters either an
275 internal-error, or an internal-warning. This is on by default for
276 internal-error and off by default for internal-warning.
277
278 set logging on|off
279 Deprecated and replaced by "set logging enabled on|off".
280
281 set logging enabled on|off
282 show logging enabled
283 These commands set or show whether logging is enabled or disabled.
284
285 exit
286 You can now exit GDB by using the new command "exit", in addition to
287 the existing "quit" command.
288
289 set debug threads on|off
290 show debug threads
291 Print additional debug messages about thread creation and deletion.
292
293 set debug linux-nat on|off
294 show debug linux-nat
295 These new commands replaced the old 'set debug lin-lwp' and 'show
296 debug lin-lwp' respectively. Turning this setting on prints debug
297 messages relating to GDB's handling of native Linux inferiors.
298
299 maint flush source-cache
300 Flush the contents of the source code cache.
301
302 maint set gnu-source-highlight enabled on|off
303 maint show gnu-source-highlight enabled
304 Whether GDB should use the GNU Source Highlight library for adding
305 styling to source code. When off, the library will not be used, even
306 when available. When GNU Source Highlight isn't used, or can't add
307 styling to a particular source file, then the Python Pygments
308 library will be used instead.
309
310 set suppress-cli-notifications (on|off)
311 show suppress-cli-notifications
312 This controls whether printing the notifications is suppressed for CLI.
313 CLI notifications occur when you change the selected context
314 (i.e., the current inferior, thread and/or the frame), or when
315 the program being debugged stops (e.g., because of hitting a
316 breakpoint, completing source-stepping, an interrupt, etc.).
317
318 set style disassembler enabled on|off
319 show style disassembler enabled
320 If GDB is compiled with Python support, and the Python Pygments
321 package is available, then, when this setting is on, disassembler
322 output will have styling applied.
323
324 set ada source-charset
325 show ada source-charset
326 Set the character set encoding that is assumed for Ada symbols. Valid
327 values for this follow the values that can be passed to the GNAT
328 compiler via the '-gnati' option. The default is ISO-8859-1.
329
330 tui layout
331 tui focus
332 tui refresh
333 tui window height
334 These are the new names for the old 'layout', 'focus', 'refresh',
335 and 'winheight' tui commands respectively. The old names still
336 exist as aliases to these new commands.
337
338 tui window width
339 winwidth
340 The new command 'tui window width', and the alias 'winwidth' allow
341 the width of a tui window to be adjusted when windows are laid out
342 in horizontal mode.
343
344 set debug tui on|off
345 show debug tui
346 Control the display of debug output about GDB's tui.
347
348 * Changed commands
349
350 print
351 Printing of floating-point values with base-modifying formats like
352 /x has been changed to display the underlying bytes of the value in
353 the desired base. This was GDB's documented behavior, but was never
354 implemented correctly.
355
356 maint packet
357 This command can now print a reply, if the reply includes
358 non-printable characters. Any non-printable characters are printed
359 as escaped hex, e.g. \x?? where '??' is replaces with the value of
360 the non-printable character.
361
362 clone-inferior
363 The clone-inferior command now ensures that the TTY, CMD and ARGS
364 settings are copied from the original inferior to the new one.
365 All modifications to the environment variables done using the 'set
366 environment' or 'unset environment' commands are also copied to the new
367 inferior.
368
369 set debug lin-lwp on|off
370 show debug lin-lwp
371 These commands have been removed from GDB. The new command 'set
372 debug linux-nat' and 'show debug linux-nat' should be used
373 instead.
374
375 info win
376 This command now includes information about the width of the tui
377 windows in its output.
378
379 layout
380 focus
381 refresh
382 winheight
383 These commands are now aliases for the 'tui layout', 'tui focus',
384 'tui refresh', and 'tui window height' commands respectively.
385
386 * GDB's Ada parser now supports an extension for specifying the exact
387 byte contents of a floating-point literal. This can be useful for
388 setting floating-point registers to a precise value without loss of
389 precision. The syntax is an extension of the based literal syntax.
390 Use, e.g., "16lf#0123abcd#" -- the number of "l"s controls the width
391 of the floating-point type, and the "f" is the marker for floating
392 point.
393
394 * MI changes
395
396 ** The '-add-inferior' with no option flags now inherits the
397 connection of the current inferior, this restores the behaviour of
398 GDB as it was prior to GDB 10.
399
400 ** The '-add-inferior' command now accepts a '--no-connection'
401 option, which causes the new inferior to start without a
402 connection.
403
404 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 4 (-i=mi4).
405
406 ** The "script" field in breakpoint output (which is syntactically
407 incorrect in MI 3 and below) has changed in MI 4 to become a list.
408 This affects the following commands and events:
409
410 - -break-insert
411 - -break-info
412 - =breakpoint-created
413 - =breakpoint-modified
414
415 The -fix-breakpoint-script-output command can be used to enable
416 this behavior with previous MI versions.
417
418 * New targets
419
420 GNU/Linux/LoongArch loongarch*-*-linux*
421
422 * Removed targets
423
424 S+core score-*-*
425
426 * Python API
427
428 ** New function gdb.add_history(), which takes a gdb.Value object
429 and adds the value it represents to GDB's history list. An
430 integer, the index of the new item in the history list, is
431 returned.
432
433 ** New function gdb.history_count(), which returns the number of
434 values in GDB's value history.
435
436 ** New gdb.events.gdb_exiting event. This event is called with a
437 gdb.GdbExitingEvent object which has the read-only attribute
438 'exit_code', which contains the value of the GDB exit code. This
439 event is triggered once GDB decides it is going to exit, but
440 before GDB starts to clean up its internal state.
441
442 ** New function gdb.architecture_names(), which returns a list
443 containing all of the possible Architecture.name() values. Each
444 entry is a string.
445
446 ** New function gdb.Architecture.integer_type(), which returns an
447 integer type given a size and a signed-ness.
448
449 ** New gdb.TargetConnection object type that represents a connection
450 (as displayed by the 'info connections' command). A sub-class,
451 gdb.RemoteTargetConnection, is used to represent 'remote' and
452 'extended-remote' connections.
453
454 ** The gdb.Inferior type now has a 'connection' property which is an
455 instance of gdb.TargetConnection, the connection used by this
456 inferior. This can be None if the inferior has no connection.
457
458 ** New 'gdb.events.connection_removed' event registry, which emits a
459 'gdb.ConnectionEvent' when a connection is removed from GDB.
460 This event has a 'connection' property, a gdb.TargetConnection
461 object for the connection being removed.
462
463 ** New gdb.connections() function that returns a list of all
464 currently active connections.
465
466 ** New gdb.RemoteTargetConnection.send_packet(PACKET) method. This
467 is equivalent to the existing 'maint packet' CLI command; it
468 allows a user specified packet to be sent to the remote target.
469
470 ** New function gdb.host_charset(), returns a string, which is the
471 name of the current host charset.
472
473 ** New gdb.set_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This sets the gdb parameter
474 NAME to VALUE.
475
476 ** New gdb.with_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This returns a context
477 manager that temporarily sets the gdb parameter NAME to VALUE,
478 then resets it when the context is exited.
479
480 ** The gdb.Value.format_string method now takes a 'styling'
481 argument, which is a boolean. When true, the returned string can
482 include escape sequences to apply styling. The styling will only
483 be present if styling is otherwise turned on in GDB (see 'help
484 set styling'). When false, which is the default if the argument
485 is not given, then no styling is applied to the returned string.
486
487 ** New read-only attribute gdb.InferiorThread.details, which is
488 either a string, containing additional, target specific thread
489 state information, or None, if there is no such additional
490 information.
491
492 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_scalar, which is True for
493 scalar types, and False for all other types.
494
495 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_signed. This attribute
496 should only be read when Type.is_scalar is True, and will be True
497 for signed types, and False for all other types. Attempting to
498 read this attribute for non-scalar types will raise a ValueError.
499
500 ** It is now possible to add GDB/MI commands implemented in Python.
501
502 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
503
504 ** GDBserver is now supported on OpenRISC GNU/Linux.
505
506 * New native configurations
507
508 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
509
510 *** Changes in GDB 11
511
512 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
513 for the ARC target.
514
515 * GDB now supports general memory tagging functionality if the underlying
516 architecture supports the proper primitives and hooks. Currently this is
517 enabled only for AArch64 MTE.
518
519 This includes:
520
521 - Additional information when the inferior crashes with a SIGSEGV caused by
522 a memory tag violation.
523
524 - A new modifier 'm' for the "x" command, which displays allocation tags for a
525 particular memory range.
526
527 - Display of memory tag mismatches by "print", for addresses and
528 pointers, if memory tagging is supported by the architecture.
529
530 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
531 Library).
532
533 * MI changes
534
535 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
536
537 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
538 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
539 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
540 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
541 -qualified".
542
543 ** '-break-insert --force-condition' and '-dprintf-insert --force-condition'
544
545 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
546 '--force-condition' flag to forcibly define a condition even when
547 the condition is invalid at all locations of the breakpoint. This
548 is equivalent to the '-force-condition' flag of the CLI's "break"
549 command.
550
551 ** '-break-condition --force'
552
553 The MI -break-condition command now supports a '--force' flag to
554 forcibly define a condition even when the condition is invalid at
555 all locations of the selected breakpoint. This is equivalent to
556 the '-force' flag of the CLI's "cond" command.
557
558 ** '-file-list-exec-source-files [--group-by-objfile]
559 [--basename | --dirname]
560 [--] [REGEXP]'
561
562 The existing -file-list-exec-source-files command now takes an
563 optional REGEXP which is used to filter the source files that are
564 included in the results.
565
566 By default REGEXP is matched against the full filename of the
567 source file. When one of --basename or --dirname is given then
568 REGEXP is only matched against the specified part of the full
569 source filename.
570
571 When the optional --group-by-objfile flag is used the output
572 format is changed, the results are now a list of object files
573 (executable and libraries) with the source files that are
574 associated with each object file.
575
576 The results from -file-list-exec-source-files now include a
577 'debug-fully-read' field which takes the value 'true' or 'false'.
578 A 'true' value indicates the source file is from a compilation
579 unit that has had its debug information fully read in by GDB, a
580 value of 'false' indicates GDB has only performed a partial scan
581 of the debug information so far.
582
583 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
584
585 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
586 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
587 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
588 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
589 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
590
591 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
592 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
593 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
594 been added.
595
596 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
597 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
598 name following a GNAT-specific format).
599
600 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
601 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
602 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
603 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
604 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
605 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
606
607 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
608 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
609 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
610 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
611
612 * For RISC-V targets, the target feature "org.gnu.gdb.riscv.vector" is
613 now understood by GDB, and can be used to describe the vector
614 registers of a target. The precise requirements of this register
615 feature are documented in the GDB manual.
616
617 * For ARM targets, the "org.gnu.gdb.arm.m-profile-mve" feature is now
618 supported by GDB and describes a new VPR register from the ARM MVE
619 (Helium) extension. See the GDB manual for more information.
620
621 * TUI improvements
622
623 ** TUI windows now support mouse actions. The mouse wheel scrolls
624 the appropriate window.
625
626 ** Key combinations that do not have a specific action on the
627 focused window are passed to GDB. For example, you now can use
628 Ctrl-Left/Ctrl-Right to move between words in the command window
629 regardless of which window is in focus. Previously you would
630 need to focus on the command window for such key combinations to
631 work.
632
633 * New commands
634
635 set debug event-loop
636 show debug event-loop
637 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
638
639 set print memory-tag-violations
640 show print memory-tag-violations
641 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
642 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
643 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
644
645 maintenance flush symbol-cache
646 maintenance flush register-cache
647 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
648 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
649
650 maintenance flush dcache
651 A new command to flush the dcache.
652
653 maintenance info target-sections
654 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
655
656 maintenance info jit
657 Print the JIT code objects in the inferior known to GDB.
658
659 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
660 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
661 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
662 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
663 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
664 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
665 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
666 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
667 memory-tag check POINTER
668 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
669
670 set startup-quietly on|off
671 show startup-quietly
672 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
673 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
674 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
675 affect GDB.
676
677 set print type hex on|off
678 show print type hex
679 When 'on', the 'ptype' command uses hexadecimal notation to print sizes
680 and offsets of struct members. When 'off', decimal notation is used.
681
682 set python ignore-environment on|off
683 show python ignore-environment
684 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to ignore any
685 environment variables that would otherwise affect how Python
686 behaves. This command needs to be added to an early initialization
687 file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to affect GDB.
688
689 set python dont-write-bytecode auto|on|off
690 show python dont-write-bytecode
691 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to not write any
692 byte-code (.pyc files) to disk. This command needs to be added to
693 an early initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in
694 order to affect GDB. When 'off' byte-code will always be written.
695 When set to 'auto' (the default) Python will check the
696 PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable.
697
698 * Changed commands
699
700 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
701 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
702 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
703 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
704 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
705 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
706 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
707 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
708 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
709 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
710 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
711 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
712 load.
713
714 condition [-force] N COND
715 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
716 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
717 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
718 current locations of breakpoint N.
719
720 flushregs
721 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
722 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
723 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
724 symbol-cache' respectively.
725
726 set style version foreground COLOR
727 set style version background COLOR
728 set style version intensity VALUE
729 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
730
731 inferior [ID]
732 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
733 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
734 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
735 the current inferior.
736
737 maintenance info sections
738 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
739 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
740 even when -all-objects is passed.
741
742 ptype[/FLAGS] TYPE | EXPRESSION
743 The 'ptype' command has two new flags. When '/x' is set, hexadecimal
744 notation is used when printing sizes and offsets of struct members.
745 When '/d' is set, decimal notation is used when printing sizes and
746 offsets of struct members. Default behavior is given by 'show print
747 type hex'.
748
749 info sources
750 The info sources command output has been restructured. The results
751 are now based around a list of objfiles (executable and libraries),
752 and for each objfile the source files that are part of that objfile
753 are listed.
754
755 * Removed targets and native configurations
756
757 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
758
759 * New remote packets
760
761 qMemTags
762 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
763 QMemTags
764 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
765 memory range.
766
767 * Guile API
768
769 ** Improved support for rvalue reference values:
770 TYPE_CODE_RVALUE_REF is now exported as part of the API and the
771 value-referenced-value procedure now handles rvalue reference
772 values.
773
774 ** New procedures for obtaining value variants:
775 value-reference-value, value-rvalue-reference-value and
776 value-const-value.
777
778 ** Temporary breakpoints can now be created with make-breakpoint and
779 tested for using breakpoint-temporary?.
780
781 * Python API
782
783 ** Inferior objects now contain a read-only 'connection_num' attribute that
784 gives the connection number as seen in 'info connections' and
785 'info inferiors'.
786
787 ** New method gdb.Frame.level() which returns the stack level of the
788 frame object.
789
790 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.level() which returns the stack level
791 of the frame object.
792
793 ** When hitting a catchpoint, the Python API will now emit a
794 gdb.BreakpointEvent rather than a gdb.StopEvent. The
795 gdb.Breakpoint attached to the event will have type BP_CATCHPOINT.
796
797 ** Python TUI windows can now receive mouse click events. If the
798 Window object implements the click method, it is called for each
799 mouse click event in this window.
800
801 *** Changes in GDB 10
802
803 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
804 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
805 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
806 grace period.
807
808 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
809 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
810 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
811 and finally the description of the command.
812
813 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
814 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
815
816 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
817 debugging information as well as source code.
818
819 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
820 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
821 being debugged.
822
823 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
824 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
825
826 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
827
828 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
829
830 * Multi-target debugging support
831
832 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
833 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
834 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
835 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
836 debugging a core dump, etc.
837
838 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
839 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
840 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
841 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
842 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
843 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
844
845 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
846
847 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
848
849 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
850
851 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
852
853 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
854 powerpc-*-lynxos*
855 i[34567]86-*-nto*
856 bfin-*-*linux*
857 crisv32-*-linux*
858 cris-*-linux*
859 m32r*-*-linux*
860 tilegx-*-linux*
861 arm*-*-mingw32ce*
862 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
863
864 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
865 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
866
867 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
868 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
869 performance for programs with many symbols.
870
871 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
872 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
873
874 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
875
876 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
877 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
878 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
879 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
880 history.
881
882 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
883 64-bit GDB.
884
885 * New commands
886
887 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
888 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
889 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
890 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
891 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
892 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
893 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
894 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
895 attempt to detect a mismatch.
896
897 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
898 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
899 will be displayed.
900
901 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
902 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
903 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
904 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
905 reprinted.
906
907 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
908 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
909 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
910
911 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
912 show debug fortran-array-slicing
913 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
914
915 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
916 show fortran repack-array-slices
917 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
918 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
919 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
920 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
921 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
922 original parent value.
923
924 * Changed commands
925
926 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
927 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
928 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
929 provided explicitly by the user.
930 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
931 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
932 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
933 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
934 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
935 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
936 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
937 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
938
939 * New targets
940
941 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
942 BPF bpf-unknown-none
943 Z80 z80-unknown-*
944
945 * Python API
946
947 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
948 in Python.
949
950 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
951 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
952 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
953 as well.
954
955 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
956 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
957
958 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
959 architecture of the pending frame.
960
961 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
962 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
963 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
964 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
965
966 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
967 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
968 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
969 discover the available register groups.
970
971 * Guile API
972
973 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
974
975 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
976 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
977 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
978 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
979 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
980
981 *** Changes in GDB 9
982
983 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
984
985 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
986 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
987 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
988 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
989 such as in system-wide init files.
990
991 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
992 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
993 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
994 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
995 current GDB settings.
996
997 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
998 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
999 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
1000 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
1001
1002 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
1003 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
1004 postfix [PAC].
1005
1006 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
1007 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
1008
1009 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
1010 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
1011 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
1012
1013 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
1014 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
1015 commands.
1016
1017 * Command names can now use the . character.
1018
1019 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
1020
1021 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
1022 messages.
1023
1024 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
1025
1026 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
1027 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
1028
1029 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
1030 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
1031 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
1032
1033 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
1034
1035 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
1036 not visible in the current scope.
1037
1038 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
1039 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
1040 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
1041 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
1042 compiled with support for that language.
1043
1044 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
1045 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
1046 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
1047
1048 * Python API
1049
1050 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
1051 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
1052 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
1053 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
1054 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
1055
1056 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
1057 type was defined in.
1058
1059 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
1060 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
1061 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
1062 is given.
1063
1064 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
1065 symbols with static linkage.
1066
1067 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
1068 all static symbols with static linkage.
1069
1070 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
1071 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
1072
1073 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
1074 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
1075
1076 * New commands
1077
1078 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
1079 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
1080 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
1081 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
1082 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
1083 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
1084 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
1085
1086 define-prefix COMMAND
1087 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
1088
1089 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1090 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1091 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
1092 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
1093 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
1094 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
1095 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
1096 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
1097 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
1098 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
1099 of array elements to print.
1100
1101 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1102 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
1103
1104 set may-call-functions [on|off]
1105 show may-call-functions
1106 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
1107 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
1108 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
1109 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
1110 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
1111 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
1112 in the program.
1113
1114 set print finish [on|off]
1115 show print finish
1116 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
1117 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
1118 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
1119 default is `on'.
1120
1121 set print max-depth
1122 show print max-depth
1123 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
1124 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
1125 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
1126 the old behavior back.
1127
1128 set print raw-values [on|off]
1129 show print raw-values
1130 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
1131 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
1132 of commands. The default is 'off'.
1133
1134 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
1135 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
1136 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
1137
1138 set style title foreground COLOR
1139 set style title background COLOR
1140 set style title intensity VALUE
1141 Control the styling of titles.
1142
1143 set style highlight foreground COLOR
1144 set style highlight background COLOR
1145 set style highlight intensity VALUE
1146 Control the styling of highlightings.
1147
1148 maint set worker-threads
1149 maint show worker-threads
1150 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
1151 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
1152 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
1153 the names of linker symbols.
1154
1155 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
1156 set style tui-border background COLOR
1157 Control the styling of TUI borders.
1158
1159 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
1160 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
1161 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
1162
1163 maint set test-settings KIND
1164 maint show test-settings KIND
1165 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
1166 infrastructure.
1167
1168 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
1169 maint show tui-resize-message
1170 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
1171 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
1172 TUI.
1173
1174 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
1175 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
1176 show print frame-info
1177 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
1178 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
1179 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
1180 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
1181
1182 set tui compact-source
1183 show tui compact-source
1184
1185 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
1186 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
1187 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
1188 line numbers from the source.
1189
1190 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
1191 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
1192 no REGEXP is given.
1193
1194 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1195 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
1196 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
1197 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1198 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
1199 matches against the function name.
1200
1201 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1202 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
1203 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
1204 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1205 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
1206 against the variable name.
1207
1208 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
1209 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
1210 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
1211 "set debug remote".
1212 The default is 512 bytes.
1213
1214 info connections
1215 Lists the target connections currently in use.
1216
1217 * Changed commands
1218
1219 help
1220 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
1221 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
1222 command names.
1223
1224 apropos [-v] REGEXP
1225 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
1226 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
1227 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
1228 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
1229 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
1230
1231 printf
1232 eval
1233 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
1234 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
1235 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
1236 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
1237
1238 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
1239 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
1240 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
1241 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
1242 parts of the files.
1243
1244 show style
1245 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
1246 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
1247 the user visualize the different styles.
1248
1249 set print frame-arguments
1250 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
1251 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
1252
1253 set print raw-frame-arguments
1254 show print raw-frame-arguments
1255
1256 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
1257 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
1258 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
1259 release.
1260
1261 add-inferior [-no-connection]
1262 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
1263 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
1264 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
1265 current inferior. See also "info connections".
1266
1267 info inferior
1268 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
1269 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
1270 "info connections" above.
1271
1272 maint test-options require-delimiter
1273 maint test-options unknown-is-error
1274 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
1275 maint show test-options-completion-result
1276 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
1277 framework.
1278
1279 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
1280 These commands are now case-sensitive.
1281
1282 * New command options, command completion
1283
1284 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
1285 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
1286 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
1287 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
1288 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
1289 number of commands got support for new command options in this
1290 release:
1291
1292 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
1293 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
1294 set by "set print" subcommands:
1295
1296 -address [on|off]
1297 -array [on|off]
1298 -array-indexes [on|off]
1299 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
1300 -null-stop [on|off]
1301 -object [on|off]
1302 -pretty [on|off]
1303 -raw-values [on|off]
1304 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
1305 -static-members [on|off]
1306 -symbol [on|off]
1307 -union [on|off]
1308 -vtbl [on|off]
1309
1310 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
1311 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
1312 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
1313 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
1314
1315 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
1316 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
1317 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
1318
1319 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
1320 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
1321 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
1322 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
1323 |location-and-address|short-location
1324 -past-main [on|off]
1325 -past-entry [on|off]
1326
1327 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
1328 exposed as command options too:
1329
1330 -full
1331 -no-filters
1332 -hide
1333
1334 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
1335 support the following options:
1336
1337 -past-main [on|off]
1338 -past-entry [on|off]
1339
1340 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
1341 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
1342
1343 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
1344 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
1345 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
1346 like for example:
1347
1348 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
1349
1350 The above is equivalent to:
1351
1352 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
1353
1354 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
1355 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
1356 variables" and "info functions".
1357
1358 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
1359 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
1360 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
1361 from the results.
1362
1363 * Completion improvements
1364
1365 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
1366 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
1367 abbreviated.
1368
1369 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
1370 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
1371 commands.
1372
1373 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
1374 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
1375 completes on filenames.
1376
1377 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
1378 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
1379
1380 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
1381
1382 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
1383 elements unlimited".
1384
1385 * New MI commands
1386
1387 -complete
1388 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1389 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
1390 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
1391
1392 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
1393 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
1394 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
1395
1396 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
1397 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
1398 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
1399
1400 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
1401 modules' command.
1402
1403 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
1404 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
1405 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
1406
1407 * Other MI changes
1408
1409 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
1410
1411 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
1412 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
1413 the following commands and events:
1414
1415 - -break-insert
1416 - -break-info
1417 - =breakpoint-created
1418 - =breakpoint-modified
1419
1420 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
1421 this behavior with previous MI versions.
1422
1423 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
1424 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
1425 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
1426 present.
1427
1428 * Testsuite
1429
1430 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
1431 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
1432 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
1433 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
1434
1435 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
1436
1437 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
1438 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
1439
1440 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
1441
1442 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
1443 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
1444
1445 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
1446 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
1447 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
1448
1449 * Removed targets and native configurations
1450
1451 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
1452 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
1453 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
1454
1455 * New Simulators
1456
1457 TI PRU pru-*-elf
1458
1459 * Removed targets and native configurations
1460
1461 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
1462 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
1463
1464 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
1465
1466 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
1467 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
1468 HTM registers.
1469
1470 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
1471 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
1472 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
1473 and operators.
1474
1475 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
1476 (the C++ plug-in).
1477
1478 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
1479 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
1480 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
1481
1482 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
1483 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
1484
1485 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
1486 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1487 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1488 in the GDB user manual.
1489
1490 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
1491 executed failed.
1492
1493 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
1494
1495 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
1496 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
1497 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
1498 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
1499 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
1500 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
1501 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
1502 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
1503 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
1504 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
1505 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
1506 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
1507
1508 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
1509 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
1510 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
1511 information.
1512
1513 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
1514 lucid.
1515
1516 * New commands
1517
1518 set debug compile-cplus-types
1519 show debug compile-cplus-types
1520 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
1521 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
1522 for other languages.
1523
1524 set debug skip
1525 show debug skip
1526 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
1527 displayed.
1528
1529 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1530 Apply a command to some frames.
1531 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
1532 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
1533
1534 taas COMMAND
1535 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
1536 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
1537
1538 faas COMMAND
1539 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
1540 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
1541
1542 tfaas COMMAND
1543 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
1544 output).
1545 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
1546
1547 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
1548 maint show dwarf unwinders
1549 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
1550
1551 info proc files
1552 Display a list of open files for a process.
1553
1554 * Changed commands
1555
1556 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
1557 These commands all now take a frame specification which
1558 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
1559 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
1560 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
1561 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
1562 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
1563
1564 target remote FILENAME
1565 target extended-remote FILENAME
1566 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
1567 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
1568
1569 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1570 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1571 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1572 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1573 These commands can now print only the searched entities
1574 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
1575 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
1576 printing headers or informations messages.
1577
1578 info functions
1579 info types
1580 info variables
1581 rbreak
1582 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
1583 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
1584 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
1585 the shown entities.
1586
1587 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1588 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
1589 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
1590 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
1591
1592 set tui tab-width NCHARS
1593 show tui tab-width NCHARS
1594 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
1595
1596 set style enabled [on|off]
1597 show style enabled
1598 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
1599 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
1600
1601 set style sources [on|off]
1602 show style sources
1603 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
1604 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
1605 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
1606
1607 set style filename foreground COLOR
1608 set style filename background COLOR
1609 set style filename intensity VALUE
1610 Control the styling of file names.
1611
1612 set style function foreground COLOR
1613 set style function background COLOR
1614 set style function intensity VALUE
1615 Control the styling of function names.
1616
1617 set style variable foreground COLOR
1618 set style variable background COLOR
1619 set style variable intensity VALUE
1620 Control the styling of variable names.
1621
1622 set style address foreground COLOR
1623 set style address background COLOR
1624 set style address intensity VALUE
1625 Control the styling of addresses.
1626
1627 * MI changes
1628
1629 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
1630 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
1631 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
1632 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
1633 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
1634
1635 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
1636 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
1637
1638 * New native configurations
1639
1640 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1641 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1642
1643 * New targets
1644
1645 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1646 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
1647 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
1648 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1649 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
1650 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1651
1652 * Removed targets
1653
1654 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
1655 before Windows XP.
1656
1657 * Python API
1658
1659 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
1660
1661 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
1662 space associated to that inferior.
1663
1664 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
1665 of objfiles associated to that program space.
1666
1667 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
1668 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
1669 the gdb core.
1670
1671 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
1672 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
1673 correct and did not work properly.
1674
1675 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
1676 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
1677
1678 * Configure changes
1679
1680 --enable-ubsan
1681
1682 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
1683 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
1684 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
1685 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
1686 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
1687
1688 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
1689
1690 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1691 for the MIPS target.
1692
1693 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
1694 offset to all sections.
1695
1696 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
1697 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
1698 address of individual sections using '-s'.
1699
1700 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
1701 (address of the text section).
1702
1703 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
1704 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
1705 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
1706 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
1707 default.
1708
1709 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
1710 for the rest of the current command.
1711
1712 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
1713 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
1714
1715 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
1716 files created on FreeBSD systems.
1717
1718 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
1719 alignof.
1720
1721 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
1722 the vector length while the process is running.
1723
1724 * New commands
1725
1726 set debug fbsd-nat
1727 show debug fbsd-nat
1728 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
1729
1730 set|show varsize-limit
1731 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
1732 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
1733 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
1734
1735 set|show record btrace cpu
1736 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
1737 branch trace decode.
1738
1739 maint check libthread-db
1740 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
1741 library
1742
1743 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
1744 maint show check-libthread-db
1745 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
1746 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
1747 perform such checks.
1748
1749 * Python API
1750
1751 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
1752
1753 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
1754 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
1755
1756 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
1757
1758 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
1759 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
1760 of convenience variables.
1761
1762 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
1763 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
1764 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
1765
1766 * New targets
1767
1768 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
1769
1770 * Removed targets and native configurations
1771
1772 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
1773 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
1774 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
1775 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
1776
1777 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
1778
1779 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
1780 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
1781 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
1782 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
1783 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
1784 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
1785 reported.
1786
1787 * Configure changes
1788
1789 --enable-codesign=CERT
1790 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
1791 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
1792 gdb to work properly.
1793
1794 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
1795 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
1796
1797 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
1798
1799 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
1800 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
1801 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
1802
1803 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
1804 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
1805
1806 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
1807 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
1808 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
1809 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
1810 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
1811
1812 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
1813 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
1814 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
1815 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
1816
1817 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
1818 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
1819
1820 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
1821 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
1822 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
1823
1824 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
1825 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
1826 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
1827
1828 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
1829 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
1830 environment" command.
1831
1832 * Completion improvements
1833
1834 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
1835 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
1836 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
1837 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
1838 correctly:
1839
1840 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
1841 (gdb) b function(int)
1842
1843 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
1844 C++ anonymous namespaces:
1845
1846 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
1847 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
1848 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
1849 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
1850
1851 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
1852 completion support, that better understands what you're
1853 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
1854 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
1855 setting a breakpoint.
1856
1857 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
1858
1859 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
1860
1861 * New command line options (gcore)
1862
1863 -a
1864 Dump all memory mappings.
1865
1866 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
1867
1868 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
1869 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
1870 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
1871
1872 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
1873
1874 A::B::func()
1875 B::func()
1876
1877 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
1878 on both symbols.
1879
1880 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
1881 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
1882 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
1883 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
1884 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
1885 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
1886 a breakpoint from Python.
1887
1888 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1889
1890 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1891 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
1892 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
1893
1894 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
1895
1896 function[abi:cxx11](int)
1897 ^^^^^^^^^^^
1898
1899 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
1900 no tag, like:
1901
1902 (gdb) b function(int)
1903
1904 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
1905
1906 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
1907
1908 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
1909
1910 * Python Scripting
1911
1912 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
1913 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
1914 description of these.
1915
1916 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
1917 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
1918 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
1919
1920 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
1921 manual for a further description of this feature.
1922
1923
1924 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1925
1926 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
1927 specified initial working directory.
1928
1929 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
1930 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
1931
1932 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
1933 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
1934
1935 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
1936 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
1937
1938 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
1939 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1940 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1941 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1942 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1943
1944 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1945 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1946 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1947
1948 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1949 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1950 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1951 in the *stopped notification.
1952
1953 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1954 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1955
1956 * New remote packets
1957
1958 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1959 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1960 the inferior when starting it.
1961
1962 QEnvironmentUnset
1963 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1964 before starting the remote inferior.
1965
1966 QEnvironmentReset
1967 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1968 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1969
1970 QStartupWithShell
1971 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1972
1973 QSetWorkingDir
1974 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1975 working directory.
1976
1977 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1978 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1979
1980 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1981 filter the tests to be run.
1982
1983 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1984 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1985
1986 * New commands
1987
1988 set|show cwd
1989 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1990
1991 set|show compile-gcc
1992 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1993 with the 'compile' commands.
1994
1995 set debug separate-debug-file
1996 show debug separate-debug-file
1997 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1998
1999 set dump-excluded-mappings
2000 show dump-excluded-mappings
2001 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
2002 dumped when generating a core file.
2003
2004 maint info selftests
2005 List the registered selftests.
2006
2007 starti
2008 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
2009
2010 set|show debug or1k
2011 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
2012
2013 set|show print type nested-type-limit
2014 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
2015 type printer will show.
2016
2017 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
2018 `o' for nexti.
2019
2020 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
2021
2022 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
2023 'int'.
2024
2025 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
2026 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
2027 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
2028 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
2029
2030 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
2031 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
2032 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
2033 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
2034 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
2035 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
2036
2037 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
2038 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
2039 unless you tell it the variable's type:
2040
2041 (gdb) p var
2042 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
2043 (gdb) p (float) var
2044 $3 = 3.14
2045
2046 * New native configurations
2047
2048 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
2049 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
2050
2051 * New targets
2052
2053 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
2054 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
2055 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
2056
2057 * Removed targets and native configurations
2058
2059 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
2060
2061 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
2062
2063 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
2064 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
2065 available in future Intel CPUs.
2066
2067 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
2068
2069 * Python Scripting
2070
2071 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
2072 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
2073
2074 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
2075 instructions.
2076
2077 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
2078
2079 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
2080
2081 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
2082 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
2083 removed.
2084
2085 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
2086
2087 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
2088 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
2089
2090 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
2091
2092 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
2093 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
2094 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
2095 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
2096 features.
2097
2098 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
2099
2100 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
2101 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
2102 debugger.
2103
2104 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
2105
2106 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
2107 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
2108
2109 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
2110
2111 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
2112
2113 define mycommand
2114 set $i = 0
2115 while $i < $argc
2116 eval "print $arg%d", $i
2117 set $i = $i + 1
2118 end
2119 end
2120
2121 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
2122
2123 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
2124 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
2125
2126 * New native configurations
2127
2128 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
2129
2130 * New targets
2131
2132 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
2133 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
2134
2135 * Removed targets and native configurations
2136
2137 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2138 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
2139
2140 * New commands
2141
2142 flash-erase
2143 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
2144
2145 maint print arc arc-instruction address
2146 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
2147
2148 * New options
2149
2150 set disassembler-options
2151 show disassembler-options
2152 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
2153 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
2154 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
2155 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
2156 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
2157
2158 * New MI commands
2159
2160 -target-flash-erase
2161 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
2162 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
2163
2164 -file-list-shared-libraries
2165 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
2166 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
2167
2168 -catch-handlers
2169 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
2170 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
2171
2172 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
2173
2174 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
2175
2176 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
2177 default. One must now explicitly configure with
2178 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
2179 option will be removed in a future release.
2180
2181 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
2182 GDB connection.
2183
2184 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
2185 memory backward from the given address. For example:
2186
2187 (gdb) bt
2188 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
2189 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
2190 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
2191 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
2192 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
2193 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
2194 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
2195 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
2196 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
2197
2198 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
2199 arrays of dynamic types.
2200
2201 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
2202 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2203 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2204 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2205 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2206 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
2207
2208 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
2209 descriptions.
2210
2211 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
2212 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
2213 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
2214
2215 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
2216
2217 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
2218 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
2219 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
2220 signal received and code location.
2221
2222 For example:
2223
2224 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
2225 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
2226 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
2227 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
2228
2229 * Rust language support.
2230 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
2231 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
2232 Rust.
2233
2234 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
2235
2236 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
2237 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
2238 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
2239 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
2240 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
2241 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
2242 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
2243 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
2244 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
2245 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
2246 line.
2247
2248 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
2249
2250 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
2251 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
2252
2253 * New commands
2254
2255 skip -file file
2256 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
2257 skip -function function
2258 skip -rfunction regular-expression
2259 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
2260 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
2261 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
2262
2263 maint info line-table REGEXP
2264 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
2265
2266 maint selftest
2267 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
2268
2269 new-ui INTERP TTY
2270 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
2271 using the TTY file for input/output.
2272
2273 * Python Scripting
2274
2275 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
2276 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
2277 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
2278 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
2279 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
2280
2281 signal-event EVENTID
2282 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
2283 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
2284 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
2285 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
2286 signalling an event.
2287
2288 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
2289 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
2290 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
2291
2292 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
2293 been removed:
2294
2295 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
2296 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
2297 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
2298 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
2299 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
2300 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
2301
2302 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
2303 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
2304 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
2305 bytecode into native code.
2306
2307 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
2308 recording. For example:
2309
2310 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
2311
2312 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
2313
2314 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
2315
2316 * New targets
2317
2318 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
2319
2320 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
2321
2322 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
2323
2324 * Per-inferior thread numbers
2325
2326 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
2327 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
2328 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
2329
2330 (gdb) info threads
2331 Id Target Id Frame
2332 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
2333 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
2334 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
2335 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
2336
2337 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
2338 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
2339 are no longer unique between inferiors.
2340
2341 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
2342 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
2343 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
2344
2345 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
2346 IDs.
2347
2348 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
2349 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
2350
2351 (gdb) thread 2.1
2352 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
2353 (gdb)
2354
2355 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
2356 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
2357 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
2358 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
2359 threads 2.*".
2360
2361 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
2362 all threads.
2363
2364 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
2365 the current thread.
2366
2367 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
2368 current inferior.
2369
2370 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
2371 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
2372 example:
2373
2374 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
2375 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
2376
2377 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
2378
2379 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
2380
2381 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
2382 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
2383
2384 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
2385 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
2386 clients.
2387
2388 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2389 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
2390 at the same time.
2391
2392 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
2393 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
2394 into native code.
2395
2396 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2397
2398 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
2399 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
2400 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
2401
2402 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
2403 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
2404
2405 * New commands
2406
2407 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
2408 maint show target-non-stop
2409 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
2410 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
2411 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
2412
2413 maint set bfd-sharing
2414 maint show bfd-sharing
2415 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
2416
2417 set debug bfd-cache
2418 show debug bfd-cache
2419 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
2420
2421 set debug fbsd-lwp
2422 show debug fbsd-lwp
2423 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
2424
2425 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
2426 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
2427 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
2428
2429 set remote thread-events
2430 show remote thread-events
2431 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
2432
2433 set ada print-signatures on|off
2434 show ada print-signatures"
2435 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
2436 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
2437
2438 set max-value-size
2439 show max-value-size
2440 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
2441 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
2442 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
2443
2444 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
2445 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
2446 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
2447 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
2448 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
2449 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
2450
2451 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
2452 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
2453
2454 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
2455 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
2456
2457 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
2458
2459 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
2460 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
2461 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
2462 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
2463 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
2464 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
2465
2466 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
2467 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
2468
2469 catch handlers
2470 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
2471
2472 * New remote packets
2473
2474 exec stop reason
2475 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
2476
2477 exec-events feature in qSupported
2478 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
2479 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
2480 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
2481 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
2482
2483 vCtrlC
2484 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
2485 non-stop mode.
2486
2487 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
2488 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
2489
2490 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
2491 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
2492
2493 QThreadEvents
2494 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
2495 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
2496 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
2497 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
2498 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
2499 stop for that same thread.
2500
2501 N stop reply
2502 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
2503 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
2504 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
2505
2506 QCatchSyscalls
2507 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
2508 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
2509
2510 syscall_entry stop reason
2511 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
2512
2513 syscall_return stop reason
2514 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
2515
2516 * Extended-remote exec events
2517
2518 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
2519 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
2520 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
2521
2522 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
2523 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
2524 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
2525
2526 * Thread names in remote protocol
2527
2528 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
2529 thread.
2530
2531 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
2532
2533 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
2534 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
2535 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
2536 fork and exec catchpoints.
2537
2538 * Remote syscall events
2539
2540 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
2541 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
2542
2543 set remote catch-syscall-packet
2544 show remote catch-syscall-packet
2545 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
2546
2547 * MI changes
2548
2549 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
2550 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
2551 left.
2552
2553 * Python Scripting
2554
2555 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
2556 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
2557 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
2558 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
2559 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
2560 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
2561
2562 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
2563
2564 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
2565 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
2566 including advance SIMD instructions.
2567
2568 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
2569
2570 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
2571 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
2572 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
2573 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
2574 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
2575 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
2576 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
2577
2578 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2579 cpu information :
2580 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
2581
2582 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
2583 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
2584 remote serial I/O.
2585
2586 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
2587 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
2588 and may include things like its command line arguments.
2589
2590 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
2591 is now available on all platforms.
2592
2593 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
2594 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
2595 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
2596 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
2597 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
2598 backward compatibility.
2599
2600 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
2601 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
2602 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
2603 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
2604
2605 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
2606 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
2607 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
2608 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
2609 packets" below.
2610
2611 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
2612
2613 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
2614
2615 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
2616 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
2617 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
2618 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
2619 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
2620 See "New remote packets" below.
2621
2622 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
2623 available register groups, including target specific groups.
2624
2625 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
2626 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
2627 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
2628 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
2629 are ignored.
2630
2631 * Guile Scripting
2632
2633 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
2634
2635 * Python Scripting
2636
2637 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
2638 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
2639 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
2640 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
2641 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
2642 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
2643 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
2644 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
2645 "const" version of the value respectively.
2646
2647 * New commands
2648
2649 maint print symbol-cache
2650 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
2651
2652 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
2653 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
2654
2655 maint flush-symbol-cache
2656 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
2657
2658 record btrace bts
2659 record bts
2660 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
2661
2662 compile print
2663 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
2664
2665 tui enable
2666 tui disable
2667 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
2668
2669 show mpx bound
2670 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
2671 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
2672
2673 record btrace pt
2674 record pt
2675 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
2676
2677 maint info btrace
2678 Print information about branch tracing internals.
2679
2680 maint btrace packet-history
2681 Print the raw branch tracing data.
2682
2683 maint btrace clear-packet-history
2684 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
2685
2686 maint btrace clear
2687 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
2688 anew by the next "record" command.
2689
2690 * New options
2691
2692 set debug dwarf-die
2693 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
2694 show debug dwarf-die
2695 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
2696
2697 set debug dwarf-read
2698 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
2699 show debug dwarf-read
2700 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
2701
2702 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
2703 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2704 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
2705 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2706
2707 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
2708 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2709 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
2710 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2711
2712 set debug dwarf-line
2713 show debug dwarf-line
2714 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
2715
2716 set max-completions
2717 show max-completions
2718 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
2719 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
2720 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
2721 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
2722
2723 set history remove-duplicates
2724 show history remove-duplicates
2725 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
2726
2727 maint set symbol-cache-size
2728 maint show symbol-cache-size
2729 Control the size of the symbol cache.
2730
2731 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
2732 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2733 BTS format.
2734 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2735 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2736
2737 set debug linux-namespaces
2738 show debug linux-namespaces
2739 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
2740
2741 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
2742 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2743 Intel Processor Trace format.
2744 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2745 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2746
2747 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
2748 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
2749 packet history.
2750
2751 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
2752 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
2753
2754 * Python/Guile scripting
2755
2756 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
2757 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
2758
2759 * New remote packets
2760
2761 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
2762 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
2763
2764 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
2765 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
2766
2767 Qbtrace:pt
2768 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
2769 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
2770 qSupported query.
2771
2772 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
2773 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
2774 Trace format.
2775
2776 swbreak stop reason
2777 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
2778 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
2779 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
2780 mode operation.
2781
2782 hwbreak stop reason
2783 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
2784 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
2785
2786 vFile:fstat:
2787 Return information about files on the remote system.
2788
2789 qXfer:exec-file:read
2790 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
2791 create a process running on the remote system.
2792
2793 vFile:setfs:
2794 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
2795 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
2796 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
2797 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
2798
2799 fork stop reason
2800 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
2801
2802 vfork stop reason
2803 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
2804
2805 vforkdone stop reason
2806 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
2807 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
2808
2809 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
2810 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
2811 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
2812 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
2813 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
2814 whether these features are enabled.
2815
2816 * Extended-remote fork events
2817
2818 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
2819 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
2820 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
2821 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
2822
2823 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
2824 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
2825 the btrace record target.
2826 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
2827
2828 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
2829 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
2830
2831 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
2832 targets.
2833
2834 * Removed command line options
2835
2836 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
2837
2838 * Removed targets and native configurations
2839
2840 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
2841 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2842
2843 * New configure options
2844
2845 --with-intel-pt
2846 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
2847 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
2848
2849 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
2850 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
2851 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
2852 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
2853
2854 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
2855
2856 * Python Scripting
2857
2858 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
2859
2860 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
2861
2862 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
2863
2864 * Python Scripting
2865
2866 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
2867 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
2868 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
2869 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
2870 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
2871 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
2872 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
2873 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
2874 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
2875 selecting a new file to debug.
2876 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
2877 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
2878
2879 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
2880 inferior.
2881
2882 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
2883 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
2884 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
2885 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
2886
2887 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2888
2889 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2890 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2891 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2892 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2893
2894 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
2895 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
2896 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
2897 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
2898 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
2899 interface with this new feature are:
2900
2901 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
2902 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
2903
2904 * New commands
2905
2906 demangle [-l language] [--] name
2907 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
2908 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
2909 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
2910 as "maint demangler-warning".
2911
2912 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
2913 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
2914
2915 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
2916 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
2917 scripts.
2918
2919 maint print user-registers
2920 List all currently available "user" registers.
2921
2922 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
2923 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
2924 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
2925
2926 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
2927 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
2928 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
2929 provided.
2930
2931 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
2932 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
2933 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
2934 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
2935 at resume time.
2936
2937 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
2938 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
2939 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2940 switched threads meanwhile.
2941
2942 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2943
2944 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2945 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2946 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2947 is now the default mode.
2948
2949 * New options
2950
2951 set debug symbol-lookup
2952 show debug symbol-lookup
2953 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2954
2955 * MI changes
2956
2957 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2958 inferiors that have exited.
2959
2960 * New targets
2961
2962 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2963
2964 * Removed targets
2965
2966 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2967
2968 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2969 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2970 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2971 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2972 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2973
2974 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2975 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2976 its alias "share", instead.
2977
2978 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
2979
2980 * New command line options
2981
2982 -D data-directory
2983 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2984
2985 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2986 as specified in ISO C99.
2987
2988 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2989 with or without disassembly.
2990
2991 * Guile scripting
2992
2993 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2994 available is determined at configure time.
2995 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2996 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2997
2998 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2999
3000 guile [code]
3001 gu [code]
3002 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
3003
3004 guile-repl
3005 gr
3006 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
3007
3008 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
3009 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
3010
3011 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
3012 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
3013
3014 * New options
3015
3016 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
3017 show print symbol-loading
3018 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
3019 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
3020 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
3021 becomes less useful.
3022
3023 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
3024 show guile print-stack
3025 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
3026
3027 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
3028 show auto-load guile-scripts
3029 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
3030
3031 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
3032 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
3033 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
3034 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
3035 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
3036 usage of this option.
3037
3038 set auto-connect-native-target
3039
3040 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
3041 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
3042 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
3043
3044 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
3045 show record btrace replay-memory-access
3046 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
3047
3048 maint set target-async (on|off)
3049 maint show target-async
3050 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
3051 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
3052 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
3053 occurring only in synchronous mode.
3054
3055 set mi-async (on|off)
3056 show mi-async
3057 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
3058 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
3059
3060 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
3061 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
3062
3063 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
3064 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
3065 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
3066 "set target-async on" command.
3067
3068 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3069
3070 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
3071 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
3072 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
3073 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
3074 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
3075
3076 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
3077 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
3078 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
3079
3080 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
3081 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
3082 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
3083 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
3084 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
3085 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
3086 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
3087
3088 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
3089 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
3090
3091 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
3092 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
3093 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
3094
3095 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
3096 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
3097 memory or registers.
3098
3099 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
3100
3101 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
3102 remote. It now works with all targets.
3103
3104 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
3105 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
3106 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
3107 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
3108 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
3109 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
3110 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
3111 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
3112 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
3113 target-stack".
3114
3115 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
3116 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
3117 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
3118
3119 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
3120
3121 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
3122 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
3123 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
3124
3125 * New remote packets
3126
3127 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
3128 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
3129 branch trace incrementally.
3130
3131 * Python Scripting
3132
3133 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
3134 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
3135 available.
3136 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
3137 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
3138 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
3139 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
3140 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
3141
3142 * New targets
3143 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
3144
3145 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
3146 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
3147 its alias "share", instead.
3148
3149 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
3150 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
3151 instead.
3152
3153 * MI changes
3154
3155 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
3156 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
3157 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
3158 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
3159 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
3160 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
3161 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
3162 commands and CLI execution commands.
3163
3164 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
3165
3166 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
3167 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
3168 recording has been added.
3169
3170 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3171
3172 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
3173 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
3174
3175 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
3176 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
3177 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
3178 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
3179 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
3180 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
3181 "void".
3182
3183 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
3184
3185 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
3186
3187 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
3188 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
3189 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
3190 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
3191
3192 (gdb) p $rax
3193 $1 = <not saved>
3194
3195 (gdb) info registers rax
3196 rax <not saved>
3197
3198 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
3199 "*value not available*".
3200
3201 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
3202 to binaries.
3203
3204 * Python scripting
3205
3206 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
3207 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
3208 ** Line tables representation has been added.
3209 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
3210 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
3211 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
3212
3213 * New targets
3214
3215 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
3216 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
3217 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
3218
3219 * Removed native configurations
3220
3221 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
3222 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
3223
3224 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3225 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3226 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
3227 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
3228 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3229 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3230 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3231
3232 * New commands:
3233 catch rethrow
3234 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
3235 maint check-psymtabs
3236 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
3237 maint check-symtabs
3238 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
3239 maint expand-symtabs
3240 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
3241
3242 show configuration
3243 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3244
3245 maint set|show per-command
3246 maint set|show per-command space
3247 maint set|show per-command time
3248 maint set|show per-command symtab
3249 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
3250
3251 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
3252 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
3253 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
3254 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
3255 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
3256
3257 info exceptions
3258 info exceptions REGEXP
3259 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
3260 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
3261 are listed.
3262
3263 * New options
3264
3265 set debug symfile off|on
3266 show debug symfile
3267 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
3268 symbol tables within those files
3269
3270 set print raw frame-arguments
3271 show print raw frame-arguments
3272 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
3273 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
3274
3275 set remote trace-status-packet
3276 show remote trace-status-packet
3277 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
3278
3279 set debug nios2
3280 show debug nios2
3281 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
3282
3283 set range-stepping
3284 show range-stepping
3285 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
3286
3287 set startup-with-shell
3288 show startup-with-shell
3289 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
3290 directly.
3291
3292 set code-cache
3293 show code-cache
3294 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
3295 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
3296
3297 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
3298 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
3299 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
3300 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
3301 "set height 0".
3302
3303 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
3304 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
3305 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
3306
3307 * New command-line options
3308 --configuration
3309 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3310
3311 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
3312 buffer in Common Trace Format.
3313
3314 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
3315 GDB command gcore.
3316
3317 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
3318
3319 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
3320 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
3321
3322 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
3323 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
3324
3325 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
3326 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
3327 due to an uncaught signal.
3328
3329 * MI changes
3330
3331 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
3332 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
3333 command, which should contain "language-option".
3334
3335 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
3336 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
3337
3338 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
3339 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
3340 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
3341 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
3342 "undefined-command-error-code".
3343
3344 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
3345 Trace Format now.
3346
3347 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
3348
3349 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
3350 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
3351 are displayed.
3352
3353 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
3354 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
3355
3356 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
3357 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
3358 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
3359
3360 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
3361 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
3362 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
3363 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
3364 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
3365 "exec-run-start-option".
3366
3367 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
3368 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
3369
3370 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
3371 the new "info exceptions" command.
3372
3373 * New system-wide configuration scripts
3374 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
3375 configuration scripts for the following systems:
3376 ** ElinOS
3377 ** Wind River Linux
3378
3379 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
3380 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
3381 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
3382 below.
3383
3384 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
3385 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
3386
3387 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
3388 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
3389 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
3390
3391 * New remote packets
3392
3393 vCont;r
3394
3395 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
3396 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
3397 involvemement at each single-step.
3398
3399 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
3400 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
3401 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
3402 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
3403 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
3404 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
3405 speedup.
3406
3407 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3408
3409 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
3410 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
3411
3412 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
3413 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
3414 trace state variables.
3415
3416 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
3417 target.
3418
3419 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
3420 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
3421
3422 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
3423
3424 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
3425 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
3426 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
3427 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3428
3429 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
3430
3431 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
3432 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
3433 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
3434 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
3435
3436 set|show record full insn-number-max
3437 set|show record full stop-at-limit
3438 set|show record full memory-query
3439
3440 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
3441 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
3442 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
3443 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
3444 This new recording method can be enabled using:
3445
3446 record btrace
3447
3448 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
3449 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
3450
3451 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
3452 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
3453 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
3454
3455 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
3456 instruction granularity
3457
3458 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
3459 function granularity
3460
3461 * New native configurations
3462
3463 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
3464 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
3465 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
3466 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
3467
3468 * New targets
3469
3470 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
3471 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
3472 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3473 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
3474 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
3475
3476 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
3477 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
3478 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
3479 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
3480 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
3481 --data-directory command-line option.
3482
3483 * New command line options:
3484
3485 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
3486 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
3487
3488 * Removed command line options
3489
3490 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
3491 Emacs.
3492
3493 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
3494 type formatting.
3495
3496 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
3497
3498 * Python scripting
3499
3500 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
3501
3502 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
3503
3504 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
3505
3506 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
3507
3508 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
3509 of architecture in the Python API.
3510
3511 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
3512 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
3513
3514 * New Python-based convenience functions:
3515
3516 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
3517 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
3518 ** $_strlen(str)
3519 ** $_regex(str, regex)
3520
3521 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
3522 given an argument.
3523
3524 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
3525 default for GCC since November 2000.
3526
3527 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
3528
3529 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
3530 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
3531
3532 * New configure options
3533
3534 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
3535 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
3536 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
3537 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
3538 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
3539 options allow the user to override that default.
3540 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
3541 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
3542 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
3543
3544 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3545
3546 catch signal
3547 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
3548 conditions to be attached.
3549
3550 maint info bfds
3551 List the BFDs known to GDB.
3552
3553 python-interactive [command]
3554 pi [command]
3555 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
3556 and print the result of expressions.
3557
3558 py [command]
3559 "py" is a new alias for "python".
3560
3561 enable type-printer [name]...
3562 disable type-printer [name]...
3563 Enable or disable type printers.
3564
3565 * Removed commands
3566
3567 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
3568 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
3569 instead.
3570
3571 * New options
3572
3573 set print type methods (on|off)
3574 show print type methods
3575 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
3576 The default is to show them.
3577
3578 set print type typedefs (on|off)
3579 show print type typedefs
3580 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
3581 The default is to show them.
3582
3583 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
3584 show filename-display
3585 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
3586 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
3587
3588 set trace-buffer-size
3589 show trace-buffer-size
3590 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
3591
3592 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
3593 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
3594 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
3595
3596 set debug aarch64
3597 show debug aarch64
3598 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
3599 The default is off.
3600
3601 set debug coff-pe-read
3602 show debug coff-pe-read
3603 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
3604 exported symbols.
3605
3606 set debug mach-o
3607 show debug mach-o
3608 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
3609 processing.
3610
3611 set debug notification
3612 show debug notification
3613 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
3614
3615 * MI changes
3616
3617 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
3618 "=cmd-param-changed".
3619 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
3620 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
3621 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
3622 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
3623 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
3624 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
3625 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
3626 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
3627 "=memory-changed".
3628 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
3629 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
3630 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
3631 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3632 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
3633 library load/unload events.
3634 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
3635 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
3636 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
3637 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
3638 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
3639 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
3640 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
3641 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
3642
3643 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
3644 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
3645 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
3646 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
3647
3648 * New remote packets
3649
3650 QTBuffer:size
3651 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
3652 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3653
3654 Qbtrace:bts
3655 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
3656 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
3657 qSupported query.
3658
3659 Qbtrace:off
3660 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
3661 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3662
3663 qXfer:btrace:read
3664 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
3665 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3666
3667 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
3668
3669 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
3670 for more x32 ABI info.
3671
3672 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
3673
3674 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
3675
3676 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3677 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
3678 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
3679 "info os files" lists file descriptors
3680 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
3681 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
3682 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
3683 "info os msg" lists message queues
3684 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
3685
3686 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
3687 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
3688 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
3689 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
3690 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
3691 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
3692
3693 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
3694 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
3695 record/replay support.
3696
3697 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
3698
3699 * Python scripting
3700
3701 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
3702 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
3703
3704 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
3705
3706 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
3707 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
3708
3709 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
3710
3711 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
3712 the source at which the symbol was defined.
3713
3714 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
3715 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
3716 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
3717 symbol's value.
3718
3719 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
3720 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
3721
3722 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
3723 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
3724 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
3725
3726 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
3727 object associated with a PC value.
3728
3729 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
3730 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
3731
3732 * Go language support.
3733 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
3734 language.
3735
3736 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
3737 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
3738
3739 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
3740 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
3741
3742 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
3743 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
3744 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
3745 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
3746 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
3747 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
3748
3749 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
3750 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
3751 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
3752 build/libcpp/expr.c.
3753
3754 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
3755 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
3756
3757 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
3758 since December 2007.
3759
3760 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
3761 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
3762 command does. For instance:
3763
3764 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
3765
3766 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
3767 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
3768 created, using the "condition" command.
3769
3770 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
3771 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
3772
3773 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
3774
3775 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
3776 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
3777 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
3778 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
3779 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
3780 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
3781 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
3782 files with older .gdb_index sections.
3783
3784 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
3785 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
3786 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
3787 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
3788 the .gdb_index section.
3789
3790 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
3791
3792 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
3793 target.
3794
3795 * MI changes
3796
3797 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
3798
3799 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
3800
3801 * New commands
3802
3803 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3804 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3805 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
3806
3807 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
3808 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
3809
3810 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
3811 several hits.
3812
3813 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
3814 C++ and Java objects.
3815
3816 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
3817 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
3818 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
3819 configured with '--with-python'.
3820
3821 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
3822 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
3823 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
3824 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
3825 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
3826 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
3827 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
3828
3829 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
3830 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
3831 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
3832 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
3833
3834 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
3835 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
3836 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
3837 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
3838
3839 ** "set print symbol"
3840 "show print symbol"
3841 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
3842 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
3843 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
3844
3845 * Deprecated commands
3846
3847 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
3848 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
3849
3850 * New targets
3851
3852 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3853 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
3854
3855 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
3856 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
3857 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
3858 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
3859 evaluates to true.
3860
3861 * New options
3862
3863 set mips compression
3864 show mips compression
3865 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
3866 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
3867 mips16
3868 micromips
3869 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
3870
3871 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
3872 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
3873 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
3874 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
3875 available mode.
3876 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
3877 target.
3878
3879 set auto-load off
3880 Disable auto-loading globally.
3881
3882 show auto-load
3883 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
3884
3885 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
3886 show auto-load gdb-scripts
3887 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
3888
3889 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
3890 show auto-load python-scripts
3891 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
3892
3893 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
3894 show auto-load local-gdbinit
3895 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
3896
3897 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
3898 show auto-load libthread-db
3899 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
3900
3901 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3902 show auto-load scripts-directory
3903 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
3904 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
3905 of the directories listed by this option.
3906 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3907
3908 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3909 show auto-load safe-path
3910 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
3911 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3912
3913 set debug auto-load on|off
3914 show debug auto-load
3915 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
3916
3917 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
3918 show dprintf-style
3919 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
3920 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
3921 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
3922 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
3923
3924 set dprintf-function <expr>
3925 show dprintf-function
3926 set dprintf-channel <expr>
3927 show dprintf-channel
3928 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
3929 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
3930
3931 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
3932 show disconnected-dprintf
3933 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
3934 after GDB disconnects.
3935
3936 * New configure options
3937
3938 --with-auto-load-dir
3939 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3940 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3941 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3942 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3943 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3944
3945 --with-auto-load-safe-path
3946 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3947 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3948
3949 --without-auto-load-safe-path
3950 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3951 security feature.
3952
3953 * New remote packets
3954
3955 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3956
3957 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3958 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3959 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3960 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3961
3962 QProgramSignals:
3963
3964 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3965 program without GDB involvement.
3966
3967 * New command line options
3968
3969 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3970 before loading inferior.
3971 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3972 execute it before loading inferior.
3973
3974 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
3975
3976 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3977 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3978 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3979 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3980 inferior changes.
3981
3982 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3983 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3984
3985 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3986 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3987 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3988 target hardware watchpoint.
3989
3990 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3991 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3992 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3993 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3994
3995 * Python scripting
3996
3997 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3998 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3999 existing one.
4000
4001 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4002 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
4003 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
4004 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
4005 now "message", which just prints the error message without
4006 the stack trace.
4007
4008 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
4009 Python API.
4010
4011 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
4012 modules library. This module provides functionality for
4013 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
4014 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
4015 corresponding value.
4016
4017 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
4018 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
4019 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
4020 on GDB start-up.
4021
4022 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
4023 static_block will return the global and static blocks
4024 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
4025 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
4026
4027 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
4028
4029 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
4030 "gdb.breakpoints".
4031
4032 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
4033 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
4034 available in the CLI.
4035
4036 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
4037 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
4038 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
4039 "some_type.items()".
4040
4041 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
4042 new object file.
4043
4044 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
4045 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
4046 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
4047 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
4048 any anonymous fields.
4049
4050 * MI changes
4051
4052 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
4053 "solib-event".
4054
4055 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
4056 "=breakpoint-modified".
4057
4058 ** New command -ada-task-info.
4059
4060 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
4061 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
4062 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
4063 lives.
4064
4065 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
4066 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
4067 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
4068 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
4069 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
4070
4071 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
4072 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
4073
4074 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
4075 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
4076 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
4077 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
4078 use this option to specify where to find it.
4079
4080 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
4081 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
4082 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
4083 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
4084 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
4085 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
4086 section in the user manual for more details.
4087
4088 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
4089 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
4090 become available after that.
4091
4092 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
4093
4094 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
4095 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
4096 gcc version 4.7.
4097
4098 * New commands
4099
4100 !SHELL COMMAND
4101 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
4102 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
4103
4104 * Changed commands
4105
4106 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
4107 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
4108 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
4109
4110 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
4111 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
4112 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
4113
4114 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
4115 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
4116 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
4117 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
4118 name starts with a hyphen.
4119
4120 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
4121 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
4122 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
4123 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
4124 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
4125 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
4126 number of bytes that will be collected.
4127
4128 tstart [NOTES]
4129 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
4130 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
4131 setting the variable trace-notes.
4132
4133 tstop [NOTES]
4134 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
4135 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
4136 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
4137 trace-stop-notes.
4138
4139 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
4140 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
4141 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
4142 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
4143 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
4144 is running.
4145
4146 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
4147 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
4148 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
4149
4150 * New options
4151
4152 set debug dwarf2-read
4153 show debug dwarf2-read
4154 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
4155 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
4156
4157 set debug symtab-create
4158 show debug symtab-create
4159 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
4160 creation. The default is off.
4161
4162 set extended-prompt
4163 show extended-prompt
4164 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
4165 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
4166 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
4167 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
4168 prompt is displayed.
4169
4170 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
4171 show print entry-values
4172 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
4173 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
4174 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
4175
4176 set debug entry-values
4177 show debug entry-values
4178 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
4179 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
4180
4181 set basenames-may-differ
4182 show basenames-may-differ
4183 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
4184 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
4185 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
4186 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
4187 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
4188 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
4189 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
4190 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
4191
4192 set trace-user
4193 show trace-user
4194 set trace-notes
4195 show trace-notes
4196 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
4197 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
4198 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
4199 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
4200
4201 set trace-stop-notes
4202 show trace-stop-notes
4203 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
4204 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
4205 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
4206 started by someone else.
4207
4208 * New remote packets
4209
4210 QTEnable
4211
4212 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4213
4214 QTDisable
4215
4216 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4217
4218 QTNotes
4219
4220 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
4221
4222 qTP
4223
4224 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
4225
4226 qTMinFTPILen
4227
4228 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
4229 be placed.
4230
4231 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
4232 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
4233
4234 * New targets
4235
4236 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
4237
4238 * New Simulators
4239
4240 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
4241
4242 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
4243
4244 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
4245
4246 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
4247
4248 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
4249 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
4250 matches the given regular expression.
4251
4252 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
4253
4254 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
4255 dumping the instruction opcodes.
4256
4257 * New command line options
4258
4259 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
4260 This is mostly for testing purposes.
4261
4262 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
4263 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
4264
4265 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
4266 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
4267 source path list instead of augmenting it.
4268
4269 * GDB now understands thread names.
4270
4271 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
4272 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
4273
4274 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
4275 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
4276
4277 * OpenCL C
4278 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
4279 has been integrated into GDB.
4280
4281 * Python scripting
4282
4283 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
4284 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
4285 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
4286
4287 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4288 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
4289 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
4290 and allows for more dynamic content.
4291
4292 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
4293 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
4294 have an is_valid method.
4295
4296 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4297 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
4298 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
4299
4300 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
4301
4302 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
4303 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
4304 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
4305 that function like so:
4306
4307 result = some_value (10,20)
4308
4309 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
4310 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
4311 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
4312
4313 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
4314 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
4315 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
4316 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
4317 New function: register_pretty_printer.
4318
4319 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
4320 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
4321
4322 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
4323
4324 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
4325 selected thread.
4326
4327 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
4328 holds the thread's name.
4329
4330 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
4331 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
4332 occurring in the process being debugged.
4333 The following events are currently supported:
4334 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
4335 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
4336 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
4337
4338 * C++ Improvements:
4339
4340 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
4341 instantiation. For example, if you have:
4342
4343 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
4344
4345 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
4346 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
4347 was added to GCC 4.5.
4348
4349 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
4350 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
4351 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
4352 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
4353 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
4354 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
4355
4356 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
4357 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
4358 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
4359 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
4360 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
4361
4362 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
4363 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
4364 execution to a label.
4365
4366 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
4367 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
4368 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
4369 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
4370
4371 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
4372 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
4373 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
4374 of scope.
4375
4376 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
4377
4378 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
4379 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
4380 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
4381 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
4382 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
4383 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
4384
4385 (gdb) info threads
4386 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
4387
4388 While now you see this:
4389
4390 (gdb) info threads
4391 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
4392
4393 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
4394 dumps.
4395
4396 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
4397 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
4398 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
4399 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
4400
4401 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
4402 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
4403 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
4404 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
4405 section in the user manual for more details.
4406
4407 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4408
4409 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
4410 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
4411
4412 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
4413
4414 * New native configurations
4415
4416 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
4417
4418 * New targets:
4419
4420 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
4421
4422 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
4423 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
4424 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
4425 in the GDB user manual.
4426
4427 * Guile support was removed.
4428
4429 * New features in the GNU simulator
4430
4431 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
4432
4433 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
4434
4435 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
4436
4437 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
4438
4439 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
4440 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
4441 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
4442 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
4443 was always disabled for such configurations.
4444
4445 * C++ Improvements:
4446
4447 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
4448
4449 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
4450 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
4451 For example:
4452 namespace A
4453 {
4454 class B { };
4455 void foo (B) { }
4456 }
4457 ...
4458 A::B b
4459 foo(b)
4460 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
4461 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
4462 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
4463
4464 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
4465
4466 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
4467 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
4468 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
4469 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
4470 entry.
4471 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
4472 mentioned flavors of operators.
4473
4474 ** static const class members
4475
4476 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
4477 class definition has been fixed.
4478
4479 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
4480
4481 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
4482 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
4483 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
4484 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
4485 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
4486 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
4487
4488 * Static tracepoints
4489
4490 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
4491 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
4492 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
4493 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
4494 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
4495 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
4496 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
4497 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
4498 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
4499 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
4500 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
4501 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
4502 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
4503 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
4504 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
4505 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
4506 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
4507 the "New remote packets" section below.
4508
4509 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
4510
4511 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
4512 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
4513 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
4514 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
4515
4516 * Observer mode
4517
4518 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
4519 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
4520 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
4521 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
4522 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
4523 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
4524 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
4525
4526 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
4527 current thread.
4528
4529 * New remote packets
4530
4531 qGetTIBAddr
4532
4533 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
4534
4535 qRelocInsn
4536
4537 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
4538 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
4539 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
4540 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
4541 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
4542 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
4543
4544 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
4545
4546 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
4547
4548 qTSTMat
4549
4550 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
4551 program.
4552
4553 qXfer:statictrace:read
4554
4555 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
4556 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
4557 to gdb's qSupported query.
4558
4559 QAllow
4560
4561 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
4562
4563 QTDPsrc
4564
4565 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
4566 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
4567
4568 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
4569 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
4570 a directory.
4571
4572 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4573
4574 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
4575 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
4576 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
4577 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
4578
4579 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
4580 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
4581 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
4582 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
4583 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
4584 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
4585 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
4586
4587 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
4588 for static tracepoints support.
4589
4590 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
4591
4592 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
4593 it understands register description.
4594
4595 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
4596
4597 * X86 general purpose registers
4598
4599 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
4600 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
4601 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
4602 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
4603 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
4604
4605 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
4606 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
4607 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
4608 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
4609 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
4610 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
4611
4612 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
4613 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
4614 in the specified file.
4615
4616 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
4617 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
4618 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
4619 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
4620 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
4621 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
4622 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
4623 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
4624 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
4625 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
4626
4627 * New commands
4628
4629 eval template, expressions...
4630 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
4631 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
4632
4633 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
4634 show target-file-system-kind
4635 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
4636 names.
4637
4638 save breakpoints <filename>
4639 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
4640 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
4641 definitions, use the `source' command.
4642
4643 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
4644 is now deprecated.
4645
4646 info static-tracepoint-markers
4647 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
4648
4649 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
4650 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
4651 function, line, address, or marker ID.
4652
4653 set observer on|off
4654 show observer
4655 Enable and disable observer mode.
4656
4657 set may-write-registers on|off
4658 set may-write-memory on|off
4659 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
4660 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
4661 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
4662 set may-interrupt on|off
4663 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
4664 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
4665 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
4666 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
4667 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
4668 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
4669 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
4670
4671 set record memory-query on|off
4672 show record memory-query
4673 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
4674 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
4675
4676 * Changed commands
4677
4678 disassemble
4679 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
4680
4681 * Python scripting
4682
4683 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
4684 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
4685 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
4686 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
4687 GDB using Python' in the manual.
4688
4689 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
4690 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
4691 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
4692 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
4693
4694 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
4695 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
4696
4697 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
4698
4699 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
4700
4701 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
4702
4703 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
4704 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
4705 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
4706
4707 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
4708 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
4709 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
4710 regular breakpoints.
4711
4712 * New targets
4713
4714 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
4715
4716 * D language support.
4717 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
4718 language.
4719
4720 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
4721 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
4722 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
4723 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
4724 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
4725
4726 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
4727 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
4728 conditions of the form:
4729
4730 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
4731
4732 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
4733 interface mentioned above.
4734
4735 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
4736
4737 * C++ Improvements
4738
4739 ** Namespace Support
4740
4741 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
4742 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
4743 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
4744 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
4745 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
4746
4747 ** Bug Fixes
4748
4749 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
4750 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
4751 qualified name.
4752
4753 ** Cast Operators
4754
4755 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
4756 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
4757
4758 * New targets
4759
4760 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
4761 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
4762
4763 * New Simulators
4764
4765 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
4766 Renesas RX rx
4767
4768 * Multi-program debugging.
4769
4770 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
4771 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
4772 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
4773 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
4774 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
4775 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
4776 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
4777 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
4778
4779 * New tracing features
4780
4781 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
4782
4783 ** Trace state variables
4784
4785 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
4786 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
4787 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
4788 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
4789 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
4790 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
4791 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
4792 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
4793 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
4794 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
4795
4796 ** Fast tracepoints
4797
4798 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
4799 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
4800 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
4801 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
4802 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
4803 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
4804 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
4805 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
4806 the regular trace command.
4807
4808 ** Disconnected tracing
4809
4810 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
4811 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
4812 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
4813 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
4814 connection is lost unexpectedly.
4815
4816 ** Trace files
4817
4818 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
4819 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
4820 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
4821 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
4822 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
4823 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
4824 <name>".
4825
4826 ** Circular trace buffer
4827
4828 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
4829 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
4830 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
4831 not be available for all target agents.
4832
4833 * Changed commands
4834
4835 disassemble
4836 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
4837 the arguments to be comma-separated.
4838
4839 info variables
4840 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
4841 which only declare a variable are not shown.
4842
4843 source
4844 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
4845 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
4846 support.
4847
4848 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
4849 "set script-extension" (see below).
4850
4851 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4852
4853 record save [<FILENAME>]
4854 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
4855 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
4856
4857 record restore <FILENAME>
4858 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
4859 earlier time, for replay debugging.
4860
4861 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
4862 Add a new inferior.
4863
4864 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
4865 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
4866 inferior has loaded.
4867
4868 remove-inferior ID
4869 Remove an inferior.
4870
4871 maint info program-spaces
4872 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
4873
4874 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
4875 show remote interrupt-sequence
4876 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
4877 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
4878 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
4879 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
4880 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
4881
4882 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
4883 show remote interrupt-on-connect
4884 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
4885 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
4886 Linux kernel.
4887
4888 set remotebreak [on | off]
4889 show remotebreak
4890 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
4891
4892 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
4893 Create or modify a trace state variable.
4894
4895 info tvariables
4896 List trace state variables and their values.
4897
4898 delete tvariable $NAME ...
4899 Delete one or more trace state variables.
4900
4901 teval EXPR, ...
4902 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
4903 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
4904
4905 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
4906 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
4907
4908 * New expression syntax
4909
4910 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
4911 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
4912
4913 * New options
4914
4915 set follow-exec-mode new|same
4916 show follow-exec-mode
4917 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
4918 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
4919 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
4920
4921 set default-collect EXPR, ...
4922 show default-collect
4923 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
4924 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
4925 such as registers or a critical global variable.
4926
4927 set disconnected-tracing
4928 show disconnected-tracing
4929 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
4930 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
4931 upon disconnection.
4932
4933 set circular-trace-buffer
4934 show circular-trace-buffer
4935 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
4936 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
4937 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
4938 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
4939
4940 set script-extension off|soft|strict
4941 show script-extension
4942 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4943 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4944 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4945 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4946 evaluation failed.
4947 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4948
4949 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4950 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4951 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4952 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4953 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4954 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4955 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4956 is on.
4957
4958 * Python API Improvements
4959
4960 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4961 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4962 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4963
4964 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4965 `is_base_class' attribute.
4966
4967 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4968
4969 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4970 evaluate an expression.
4971
4972 * New remote packets
4973
4974 QTDV
4975 Define a trace state variable.
4976
4977 qTV
4978 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4979
4980 QTDisconnected
4981 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4982
4983 QTBuffer:circular
4984 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4985
4986 qTfP, qTsP
4987 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4988
4989 * Bug fixes
4990
4991 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4992
4993 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4994 much more reliable. In particular:
4995 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4996 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4997 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4998 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4999 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
5000 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
5001 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
5002 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
5003 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
5004 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
5005 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
5006 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
5007 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
5008 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
5009 non-threaded programs.
5010
5011 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
5012 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
5013 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
5014 executable program.
5015
5016 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
5017
5018 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
5019 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
5020 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
5021 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
5022 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
5023
5024 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
5025 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
5026 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
5027 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
5028 for tracepoint actions.
5029
5030 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
5031 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
5032 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
5033
5034 * Process record and replay
5035
5036 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
5037 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
5038 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
5039 execute commands.
5040
5041 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
5042 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
5043 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
5044 reverse execution.
5045
5046 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
5047 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
5048 2.6.28 or later.
5049
5050 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
5051 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
5052 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
5053 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
5054 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
5055 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
5056 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
5057 the installation instructions for more information.
5058
5059 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
5060 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
5061 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
5062 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
5063
5064 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
5065 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
5066
5067 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
5068 now complete on file names.
5069
5070 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
5071 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
5072 For instance, consider:
5073
5074 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
5075 # struct example variable;
5076 (gdb) p variable.
5077
5078 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
5079 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
5080
5081 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
5082 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
5083
5084 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
5085 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
5086 macros.
5087
5088 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
5089 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
5090 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
5091
5092 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
5093 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
5094 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
5095 and simulator targets may also provide them.
5096
5097 * New remote packets
5098
5099 qSearch:memory:
5100 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
5101
5102 QStartNoAckMode
5103 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
5104 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
5105 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
5106
5107 vKill
5108 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
5109 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
5110
5111 qXfer:osdata:read
5112 Obtains additional operating system information
5113
5114 qXfer:siginfo:read
5115 qXfer:siginfo:write
5116 Read or write additional signal information.
5117
5118 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
5119
5120 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
5121 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
5122 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
5123
5124 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
5125 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
5126
5127 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
5128 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
5129 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
5130
5131 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
5132 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
5133
5134 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
5135
5136 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
5137
5138 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
5139 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
5140
5141 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
5142 list of section offsets.
5143
5144 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
5145 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
5146 have also been fixed.
5147
5148 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
5149 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
5150 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
5151
5152 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
5153 example, given:
5154
5155 template<typename T> class C { };
5156 C<char const *> c;
5157
5158 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
5159
5160 ptype C<char const *>
5161 ptype C<char const*>
5162 ptype C<const char *>
5163 ptype C<const char*>
5164
5165 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
5166
5167 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
5168 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
5169
5170 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
5171 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
5172 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
5173
5174 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
5175 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
5176
5177 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
5178 gdbserver.
5179
5180 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
5181 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
5182
5183 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
5184 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
5185 as appropriate.
5186
5187 * Python scripting
5188
5189 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
5190 available is determined at configure time.
5191
5192 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
5193
5194 * Ada tasking support
5195
5196 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
5197 been introduced:
5198
5199 info tasks
5200 Print the list of Ada tasks.
5201 info task N
5202 Print detailed information about task number N.
5203 task
5204 Print the task number of the current task.
5205 task N
5206 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
5207
5208 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
5209 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
5210
5211 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
5212
5213 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
5214 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
5215 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
5216 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
5217 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
5218 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
5219 below.
5220
5221 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
5222 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
5223 information.
5224
5225 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
5226 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
5227 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
5228 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
5229 more information.
5230
5231 * Multi-architecture debugging.
5232
5233 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
5234 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
5235 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
5236 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
5237 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
5238
5239 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
5240 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
5241 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
5242 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
5243 --enable-targets configure option.
5244
5245 * Non-stop mode debugging.
5246
5247 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
5248 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
5249 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
5250 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
5251 section in the user manual for more information.
5252
5253 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
5254 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
5255 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
5256 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
5257 extensions on linux targets.
5258
5259 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
5260
5261 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
5262 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
5263 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
5264 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
5265 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
5266 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
5267 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
5268 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
5269 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
5270
5271 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
5272 val1 [, val2, ...]
5273 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
5274
5275 maint set python print-stack
5276 maint show python print-stack
5277 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
5278
5279 python [CODE]
5280 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
5281
5282 macro define
5283 macro list
5284 macro undef
5285 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
5286 interactively.
5287
5288 info os processes
5289 Show operating system information about processes.
5290
5291 info inferiors
5292 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
5293
5294 inferior NUM
5295 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
5296
5297 detach inferior NUM
5298 Detach from inferior number NUM.
5299
5300 kill inferior NUM
5301 Kill inferior number NUM.
5302
5303 * New options
5304
5305 set spu stop-on-load
5306 show spu stop-on-load
5307 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
5308
5309 set spu auto-flush-cache
5310 show spu auto-flush-cache
5311 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
5312 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
5313
5314 set sh calling-convention
5315 show sh calling-convention
5316 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
5317
5318 set debug timestamp
5319 show debug timestamp
5320 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
5321
5322 set disassemble-next-line
5323 show disassemble-next-line
5324 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
5325 the debuggee stops.
5326
5327 set remote noack-packet
5328 show remote noack-packet
5329 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
5330 under "New remote packets."
5331
5332 set remote query-attached-packet
5333 show remote query-attached-packet
5334 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
5335
5336 set remote read-siginfo-object
5337 show remote read-siginfo-object
5338 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
5339 packet.
5340
5341 set remote write-siginfo-object
5342 show remote write-siginfo-object
5343 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
5344 packet.
5345
5346 set remote reverse-continue
5347 show remote reverse-continue
5348 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
5349
5350 set remote reverse-step
5351 show remote reverse-step
5352 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
5353
5354 set displaced-stepping
5355 show displaced-stepping
5356 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
5357 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
5358 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
5359
5360 set debug displaced
5361 show debug displaced
5362 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
5363
5364 maint set internal-error
5365 maint show internal-error
5366 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
5367
5368 maint set internal-warning
5369 maint show internal-warning
5370 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
5371
5372 set exec-wrapper
5373 show exec-wrapper
5374 unset exec-wrapper
5375 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
5376
5377 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
5378 show multiple-symbols
5379 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
5380 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
5381 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
5382
5383 set breakpoint always-inserted
5384 show breakpoint always-inserted
5385 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
5386 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
5387 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
5388
5389 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
5390 show arm fallback-mode
5391 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
5392 show arm force-mode
5393 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
5394 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
5395 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
5396 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
5397
5398 set arm unwind-secure-frames
5399 Enable unwinding from Non-secure to Secure mode on Cortex-M with
5400 Security extension.
5401 This can trigger security exceptions when unwinding exception stacks.
5402
5403 set disable-randomization
5404 show disable-randomization
5405 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
5406 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
5407 multiple debugging sessions.
5408
5409 set non-stop
5410 show non-stop
5411 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
5412 a breakpoint.
5413
5414 set target-async
5415 show target-async
5416 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
5417 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
5418 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
5419 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
5420
5421 set target-wide-charset
5422 show target-wide-charset
5423 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
5424 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
5425
5426 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
5427 show tcp auto-retry
5428 set tcp connect-timeout
5429 show tcp connect-timeout
5430 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
5431 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
5432 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
5433
5434 set libthread-db-search-path
5435 show libthread-db-search-path
5436 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
5437 libthread_db.
5438
5439 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
5440 show schedule-multiple
5441 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
5442 the current process.
5443
5444 set stack-cache
5445 show stack-cache
5446 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
5447 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
5448 affecting correctness.
5449
5450 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
5451 show interactive-mode
5452 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
5453 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
5454 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
5455 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
5456 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
5457
5458 * Removed commands
5459
5460 info forks
5461 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
5462 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
5463 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
5464 command.
5465
5466 fork NUM
5467 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
5468 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
5469 alias for the `fork' command.
5470
5471 process PID
5472 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
5473 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
5474 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
5475
5476 delete fork NUM
5477 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
5478 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
5479 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
5480 fork' command.
5481
5482 detach fork NUM
5483 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
5484 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
5485 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
5486 fork' command.
5487
5488 * New native configurations
5489
5490 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
5491
5492 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
5493
5494 * New targets
5495
5496 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
5497 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
5498 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5499 S+core 3 score-*-*
5500
5501 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
5502 (mingw32ce) debugging.
5503
5504 * Removed commands
5505
5506 catch load
5507 catch unload
5508 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
5509
5510 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
5511
5512 * New native configurations
5513
5514 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
5515 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
5516
5517 * New targets
5518
5519 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
5520 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
5521
5522 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5523
5524 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
5525 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
5526 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
5527 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
5528
5529 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
5530 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
5531
5532 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
5533 is resolved.
5534
5535 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
5536 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
5537 and in inlined functions.
5538
5539 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
5540 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
5541 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
5542
5543 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
5544
5545 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
5546 registers on PowerPC targets.
5547
5548 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
5549 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
5550
5551 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
5552 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
5553
5554 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
5555 extended-remote mode.
5556
5557 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
5558 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
5559 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
5560 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
5561
5562 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
5563 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
5564 target architectures.
5565
5566 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
5567 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
5568 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
5569 stored in two consecutive float registers.
5570
5571 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
5572 breakpoints now.
5573
5574 * Improved support for debugging Ada
5575 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
5576 include:
5577 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
5578 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
5579 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
5580 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
5581 of an assignment
5582 - Improved command completion in Ada
5583 - Several bug fixes
5584
5585 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
5586 process.
5587
5588 * New commands
5589
5590 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
5591 show print frame-arguments
5592 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
5593 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
5594
5595 remote put
5596 remote get
5597 remote delete
5598 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5599
5600 * New MI commands
5601
5602 -target-file-put
5603 -target-file-get
5604 -target-file-delete
5605 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5606
5607 * New remote packets
5608
5609 vFile:open:
5610 vFile:close:
5611 vFile:pread:
5612 vFile:pwrite:
5613 vFile:unlink:
5614 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
5615
5616 vAttach
5617 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
5618 mode.
5619
5620 vRun
5621 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
5622
5623 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
5624
5625 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
5626 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
5627 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
5628
5629 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
5630 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
5631 -Bsymbolic linker option.
5632
5633 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
5634 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
5635 is not supported.
5636
5637 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
5638 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
5639
5640 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
5641 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
5642
5643 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
5644
5645 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
5646 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
5647 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
5648
5649 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
5650 automatically displayed as character or string data.
5651
5652 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
5653 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
5654 as strings.
5655
5656 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
5657 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
5658 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
5659
5660 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
5661 iWMMXt coprocessor.
5662
5663 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
5664 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
5665 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
5666
5667 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
5668
5669 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
5670
5671 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
5672 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
5673 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
5674
5675 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
5676 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
5677
5678 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
5679 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
5680 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
5681 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
5682 Windows and SymbianOS).
5683
5684 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
5685 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
5686
5687 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
5688 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
5689
5690 * New commands
5691
5692 set remoteflow
5693 show remoteflow
5694 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
5695 when debugging using remote targets.
5696
5697 set mem inaccessible-by-default
5698 show mem inaccessible-by-default
5699 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5700 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5701 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
5702 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
5703 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
5704
5705 set breakpoint auto-hw
5706 show breakpoint auto-hw
5707 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5708 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5709 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
5710 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
5711 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
5712 including "next" and "finish".
5713
5714 catch exception
5715 catch exception unhandled
5716 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
5717
5718 catch assert
5719 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
5720
5721 set sysroot
5722 show sysroot
5723 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
5724 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
5725 an alias to "set sysroot".
5726
5727 info spu
5728 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
5729 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
5730 architecture.
5731
5732 * New native configurations
5733
5734 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
5735
5736 set tdesc filename
5737 unset tdesc filename
5738 show tdesc filename
5739 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
5740 not query the target for its built-in description.
5741
5742 * New targets
5743
5744 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
5745 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
5746 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
5747
5748 * New remote packets
5749
5750 QPassSignals:
5751 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
5752 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
5753
5754 qXfer:features:read:
5755 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
5756 features.
5757
5758 qXfer:spu:read:
5759 qXfer:spu:write:
5760 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
5761 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
5762
5763 qXfer:libraries:read:
5764 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
5765 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
5766 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
5767 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
5768
5769 * Removed targets
5770
5771 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
5772
5773 alpha*-*-osf1*
5774 alpha*-*-osf2*
5775 d10v-*-*
5776 hppa*-*-hiux*
5777 i[34567]86-ncr-*
5778 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
5779 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
5780 i[34567]86-*-netware*
5781 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
5782 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
5783 i[34567]86-*-sco*
5784 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
5785 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
5786 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
5787 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
5788 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
5789 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
5790 i[34567]86-*-isc*
5791 m68*-cisco*-*
5792 m68*-tandem-*
5793 mips*-*-pe
5794 rs6000-*-lynxos*
5795 sh*-*-pe
5796
5797 * Other removed features
5798
5799 target abug
5800 target cpu32bug
5801 target est
5802 target rom68k
5803
5804 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
5805
5806 target hms
5807 target e7000
5808 target sh3
5809 target sh3e
5810
5811 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
5812 H8/300.
5813
5814 target ocd
5815
5816 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
5817 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
5818 interfaces.
5819
5820 DWARF 1 support
5821
5822 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
5823 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
5824
5825 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
5826
5827 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
5828 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
5829 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
5830 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
5831
5832 MIPS ".pdr" sections
5833
5834 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
5835 in debugging information.
5836
5837 Scheme support
5838
5839 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
5840 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
5841
5842 set mips stack-arg-size
5843 set mips saved-gpreg-size
5844
5845 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
5846
5847 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
5848
5849 * New targets
5850
5851 Xtensa xtensa-elf
5852 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
5853
5854 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
5855 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
5856 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
5857
5858 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
5859 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
5860 supported.
5861
5862 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
5863 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
5864
5865 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
5866 stub provides the required support.
5867
5868 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
5869 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
5870
5871 * New commands
5872
5873 set substitute-path
5874 unset substitute-path
5875 show substitute-path
5876 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
5877 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
5878 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
5879 between compilation and debugging.
5880
5881 set trace-commands
5882 show trace-commands
5883 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
5884 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
5885 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
5886
5887 * REMOVED features
5888
5889 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
5890
5891 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
5892 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
5893
5894 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
5895
5896 * New remote packets
5897
5898 qSupported:
5899 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
5900 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
5901 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
5902 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
5903 target.
5904
5905 qXfer:auxv:read:
5906 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
5907 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
5908
5909 qXfer:memory-map:read:
5910 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
5911 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
5912
5913 vFlashErase:
5914 vFlashWrite:
5915 vFlashDone:
5916 Erase and program a flash memory device.
5917
5918 * Removed remote packets
5919
5920 qPart:auxv:read:
5921 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
5922 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
5923
5924 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
5925
5926 * New targets
5927
5928 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
5929
5930 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5931
5932 * New commands
5933
5934 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
5935 only if it doesn't already have a value.
5936
5937 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
5938
5939 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
5940
5941 restart <n> Return the program state to a
5942 previously saved state.
5943
5944 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5945
5946 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5947
5948 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5949 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5950
5951 info forks List forks of the user program that
5952 are available to be debugged.
5953
5954 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5955 forks of the user program that are
5956 available to be debugged.
5957
5958 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5959 that are available to be debugged (and
5960 kill the forked process).
5961
5962 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5963 that are available to be debugged (and
5964 allow the process to continue).
5965
5966 * New architecture
5967
5968 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5969
5970 * Improved Windows host support
5971
5972 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5973 native console support, and remote communications using either
5974 network sockets or serial ports.
5975
5976 * Improved Modula-2 language support
5977
5978 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5979 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5980 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5981 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5982 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5983 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5984
5985 * REMOVED features
5986
5987 The ARM rdi-share module.
5988
5989 The Netware NLM debug server.
5990
5991 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5992
5993 * New native configurations
5994
5995 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5996 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5997
5998 * New targets
5999
6000 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
6001
6002 * New command line options
6003
6004 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
6005 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
6006 the child (debugged) program exited with.
6007 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
6008 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
6009 specified multiple times and in conjunction
6010 with the --command (-x) option.
6011
6012 * Deprecated commands removed
6013
6014 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
6015 removed:
6016
6017 Command Replacement
6018 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
6019 othernames set arm disassembler
6020 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
6021 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
6022 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
6023 regs info registers
6024
6025 * New BSD user-level threads support
6026
6027 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
6028 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
6029 configurations are:
6030
6031 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6032 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
6033 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
6034
6035 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
6036 are not yet supported.
6037
6038 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
6039 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
6040
6041 * REMOVED configurations and files
6042
6043 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
6044 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
6045 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
6046
6047 * New "set print array-indexes" command
6048
6049 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
6050 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
6051 behavior.
6052
6053 * VAX floating point support
6054
6055 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
6056
6057 * User-defined command support
6058
6059 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
6060 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
6061 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
6062
6063 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
6064
6065 * New command line option
6066
6067 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
6068 debugging.
6069
6070 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
6071
6072 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
6073 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
6074 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
6075 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
6076 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
6077
6078 * Internationalization
6079
6080 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
6081 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
6082 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
6083
6084 * Ada
6085
6086 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
6087 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
6088 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
6089
6090 * New native configurations
6091
6092 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
6093
6094 * Remote 'p' packet
6095
6096 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
6097 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
6098
6099 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
6100
6101 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
6102 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
6103 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
6104 i386 application).
6105
6106 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
6107 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
6108 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
6109 configurations:
6110
6111 hppa-*-hpux
6112 ia64-*-aix
6113 mips-*-irix*
6114 *-*-lynx
6115 mips-*-linux-gnu
6116 sds protocol
6117 xdr protocol
6118 powerpc bdm protocol
6119
6120 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
6121 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
6122
6123 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6124
6125 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6126 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6127 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6128 permanently REMOVED.
6129
6130 h8300-*-*
6131 mcore-*-*
6132 mn10300-*-*
6133 ns32k-*-*
6134 sh64-*-*
6135 v850-*-*
6136
6137 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
6138
6139 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
6140
6141 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
6142 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
6143 been fixed.
6144
6145 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
6146
6147 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
6148 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
6149 IRIX long double values).
6150
6151 * VAX and "next"
6152
6153 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
6154 command. This problem has been fixed.
6155
6156 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
6157
6158 * Fix for ``many threads''
6159
6160 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
6161 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
6162 error message:
6163
6164 ptrace: No such process.
6165 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
6166
6167 This problem has been fixed.
6168
6169 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
6170
6171 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
6172 GDB to dump core).
6173
6174 * New ``start'' command.
6175
6176 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
6177
6178 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
6179
6180 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
6181 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
6182 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
6183
6184 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6185 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
6186 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
6187 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
6188 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
6189 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
6190 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
6191 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
6192 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
6193
6194 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
6195
6196 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
6197 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
6198 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
6199 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
6200 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
6201
6202 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
6203 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
6204 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
6205
6206 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
6207
6208 * New native configurations
6209
6210 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
6211 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
6212 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
6213 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
6214 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6215 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
6216 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6217
6218 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
6219
6220 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
6221 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
6222 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
6223 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
6224 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
6225 work, was also included.
6226
6227 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
6228 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
6229
6230 h8300-*-*
6231 mcore-*-*
6232 mn10300-*-*
6233 ns32k-*-*
6234 sh64-*-*
6235 v850-*-*
6236 xstormy16-*-*
6237
6238 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
6239 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
6240
6241 * REMOVED configurations and files
6242
6243 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6244 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6245 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6246 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6247 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6248 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6249 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6250 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6251 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6252 sonymips mips-sony-*
6253 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6254
6255 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
6256
6257 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
6258
6259 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
6260 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
6261 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
6262 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
6263 with GDB".
6264
6265 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
6266
6267 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
6268 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
6269 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
6270 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
6271 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
6272 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
6273 are created.
6274
6275 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
6276
6277 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
6278
6279 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
6280 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
6281 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
6282
6283 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
6284
6285 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
6286 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
6287
6288 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
6289
6290 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
6291 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
6292 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
6293
6294 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
6295
6296 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
6297 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
6298
6299 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
6300
6301 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
6302 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
6303 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
6304
6305 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
6306
6307 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
6308 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
6309 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
6310
6311 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
6312
6313 * Removed --with-mmalloc
6314
6315 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
6316 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
6317
6318 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
6319
6320 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
6321 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
6322 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
6323 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
6324
6325 * Revised SPARC target
6326
6327 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
6328 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
6329 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
6330 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
6331 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
6332
6333 * New C++ demangler
6334
6335 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
6336 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
6337 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
6338 programs.
6339
6340 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
6341
6342 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
6343 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
6344 encountered these.
6345
6346 * C++ nested types and namespaces
6347
6348 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
6349 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
6350 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
6351 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
6352 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
6353 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
6354 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
6355 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
6356 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
6357
6358 * New native configurations
6359
6360 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
6361 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
6362 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
6363 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
6364 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
6365
6366 * New debugging protocols
6367
6368 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
6369
6370 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
6371
6372 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
6373 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
6374 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
6375
6376 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6377
6378 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6379 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6380 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6381 permanently REMOVED.
6382
6383 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6384 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6385 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6386 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6387 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6388 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6389 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6390 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6391 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6392 sonymips mips-sony-*
6393 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6394
6395 * REMOVED configurations and files
6396
6397 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6398 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6399 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6400 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6401 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6402 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
6403 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6404 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
6405 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
6406 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
6407 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
6408 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
6409 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
6410 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
6411 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
6412 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6413 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6414
6415 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
6416
6417 * Objective-C
6418
6419 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
6420 integrated into GDB.
6421
6422 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
6423
6424 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
6425 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
6426 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
6427 backtraces.
6428
6429 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
6430 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
6431 DWARF 2 CFI support.
6432
6433 * Hosted file I/O.
6434
6435 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
6436 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
6437 remote protocol documentation for details.
6438
6439 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
6440
6441 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
6442 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
6443 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
6444 ppc32 on ppc64).
6445
6446 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
6447
6448 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
6449 per-thread variables.
6450
6451 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
6452
6453 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
6454 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
6455
6456 * Separate debug info.
6457
6458 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
6459 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
6460 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
6461 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
6462 and optional debug files.
6463
6464 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
6465
6466 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
6467 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
6468 debugger.
6469
6470 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
6471 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
6472
6473 * Java
6474
6475 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
6476 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
6477 considered "useable".
6478
6479 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
6480
6481 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
6482 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
6483 kernel.
6484
6485 * GDB supports logging output to a file
6486
6487 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
6488 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
6489
6490 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
6491
6492 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
6493 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
6494 command.
6495
6496 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
6497
6498 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
6499 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
6500
6501 * Profiling support
6502
6503 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
6504 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
6505 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
6506 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
6507 data, for more informative profiling results.
6508
6509 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
6510
6511 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
6512 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
6513 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
6514
6515 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
6516 removed.
6517
6518 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
6519 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
6520 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
6521 in a subsequent -var-update.
6522
6523 * New native configurations.
6524
6525 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6526
6527 * Multi-arched targets.
6528
6529 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
6530 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6531
6532 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6533
6534 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6535 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6536 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6537 permanently REMOVED.
6538
6539 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6540 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6541 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6542 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
6543 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6544 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
6545 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
6546 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
6547 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
6548 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
6549 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6550 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6551
6552 * REMOVED configurations and files
6553
6554 V850EA ISA
6555 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6556 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6557 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6558 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6559 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6560 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6561 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
6562 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6563 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6564 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6565 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6566 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6567 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6568
6569 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
6570
6571 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
6572 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
6573 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
6574 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
6575 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
6576
6577 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
6578
6579 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
6580
6581 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
6582 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
6583 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
6584 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
6585 shared libs like mad''.
6586
6587 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6588
6589 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
6590 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
6591 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
6592 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6593
6594 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
6595
6596 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
6597 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
6598 they expand.
6599
6600 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
6601 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
6602
6603 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
6604 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
6605
6606 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
6607 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
6608 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
6609 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
6610
6611 * Multi-arched targets.
6612
6613 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
6614 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
6615 NEC V850 v850-*-*
6616 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
6617 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
6618 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
6619
6620 * New targets.
6621
6622 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
6623
6624
6625 * New native configurations
6626
6627 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
6628 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
6629 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
6630 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
6631
6632 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6633
6634 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6635 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6636 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6637 permanently REMOVED.
6638
6639 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6640 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6641 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6642 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6643 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6644 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6645 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6646 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6647 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6648 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6649 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
6650 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6651 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6652
6653 * OBSOLETE languages
6654
6655 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
6656
6657 * REMOVED configurations and files
6658
6659 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6660 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6661 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6662 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6663 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6664
6665 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6666
6667 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
6668
6669 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
6670 commands. The default is 1024.
6671
6672 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
6673
6674 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
6675
6676 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
6677
6678 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
6679 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
6680 from a file into memory (restore).
6681
6682 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
6683
6684 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
6685 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
6686 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
6687
6688 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
6689
6690 * New targets.
6691
6692 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
6693
6694 * Bug fixes
6695
6696 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
6697 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
6698 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
6699
6700 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
6701 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
6702 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
6703
6704 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
6705 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
6706 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
6707
6708 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
6709 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
6710 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
6711
6712 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
6713
6714 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
6715
6716 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
6717 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
6718 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
6719 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
6720 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
6721 (notably embedded) targets.
6722
6723 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
6724
6725 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
6726 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
6727 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
6728 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
6729
6730 * New command line option
6731
6732 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
6733
6734 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6735
6736 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
6737 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
6738 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
6739 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
6740 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
6741 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
6742 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
6743 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
6744 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
6745 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
6746
6747 * Changes in ARM configurations.
6748
6749 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
6750 configuration is fully multi-arch.
6751
6752 * New native configurations
6753
6754 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
6755 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
6756 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
6757 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
6758
6759 * New targets
6760
6761 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
6762
6763 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6764
6765 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6766 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6767 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6768 permanently REMOVED.
6769
6770 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6771 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6772 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6773 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6774 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6775
6776 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6777
6778 * REMOVED configurations and files
6779
6780 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6781 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6782 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6783 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6784 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6785 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6786 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6787 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6788 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6789 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6790 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6791 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6792 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
6793
6794 * Changes to command line processing
6795
6796 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
6797 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
6798
6799 * Changes to key bindings
6800
6801 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
6802
6803 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
6804
6805 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
6806
6807 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
6808 corrupted.
6809
6810 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
6811
6812 Numerous documentation fixes.
6813
6814 Numerous testsuite fixes.
6815
6816 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
6817
6818 * New native configurations
6819
6820 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
6821 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
6822 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
6823 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6824 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
6825 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
6826
6827 * New targets
6828
6829 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
6830 CRIS cris-axis
6831 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
6832
6833 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6834
6835 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
6836 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6837 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6838 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6839 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6840 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6841 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6842 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6843 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6844 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6845 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6846 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6847 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6848 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
6849
6850 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
6851 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
6852
6853 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6854 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6855 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6856 permanently REMOVED.
6857
6858 * REMOVED configurations and files
6859
6860 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6861 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6862 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6863 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6864 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6865 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
6866
6867 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
6868
6869 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
6870 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
6871 present.
6872
6873 * Other news:
6874
6875 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
6876
6877 * The MI enabled by default.
6878
6879 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
6880 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
6881 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
6882 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
6883 which is now deprecated.
6884
6885 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
6886
6887 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
6888 main features are supported:
6889
6890 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
6891
6892 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
6893 extension;
6894
6895 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
6896
6897 - a Pascal expression parser.
6898
6899 However, some important features are not yet supported.
6900
6901 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
6902
6903 - there are some problems with boolean types;
6904
6905 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
6906 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
6907
6908 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
6909
6910 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
6911
6912 * Changes in completion.
6913
6914 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
6915 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
6916 users expect at the shell prompt.
6917
6918 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
6919 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
6920 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
6921 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
6922 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
6923 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
6924 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
6925
6926 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
6927
6928 * New platform-independent commands:
6929
6930 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
6931 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
6932 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
6933
6934 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
6935
6936 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
6937 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
6938 many threads as your system allows you to have.
6939
6940 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
6941
6942 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
6943 multi-threaded programs though.
6944
6945 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
6946
6947 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6948
6949 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6950 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6951 supported.)
6952
6953 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6954
6955 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6956 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6957 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6958 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6959 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6960 registers.
6961
6962 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6963 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6964 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6965
6966 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6967
6968 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6969 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6970
6971 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6972 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6973 IDT.
6974
6975 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6976 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6977 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6978 a given linear address.
6979
6980 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6981 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6982 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6983
6984 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6985
6986 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6987
6988 * Changes in documentation.
6989
6990 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6991 Documentation License.
6992
6993 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6994 manual.
6995
6996 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6997
6998 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6999 manual.
7000
7001 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
7002 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
7003 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
7004
7005 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
7006
7007 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
7008 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
7009 contents of this file.
7010
7011 * gdba.el deleted
7012
7013 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
7014
7015 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7016
7017 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
7018
7019 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
7020 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
7021 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
7022 greater level of detail.
7023
7024 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
7025
7026 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
7027 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
7028 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
7029 written.
7030
7031 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
7032
7033 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
7034 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
7035 machines ``out of the box''.
7036
7037 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
7038 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
7039 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
7040 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
7041 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
7042
7043 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
7044 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
7045 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
7046 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
7047 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
7048
7049 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
7050 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
7051 also works.
7052
7053 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
7054 GDB.
7055
7056 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
7057 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
7058 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
7059 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
7060
7061 * New native configurations
7062
7063 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
7064 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
7065
7066 * New targets
7067
7068 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
7069 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
7070 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7071 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7072
7073 * OBSOLETE configurations
7074
7075 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
7076 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
7077 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
7078 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
7079 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7080
7081 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
7082 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
7083 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
7084 be permanently REMOVED.
7085
7086 * Gould support removed
7087
7088 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
7089
7090 * New features for SVR4
7091
7092 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
7093 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
7094 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
7095
7096 * Many C++ enhancements
7097
7098 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
7099 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
7100
7101 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
7102
7103 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
7104 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
7105 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
7106 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
7107
7108 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
7109 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
7110
7111 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
7112
7113 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
7114 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
7115 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
7116
7117 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
7118 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
7119
7120 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
7121
7122 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
7123 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
7124 include ``set remote P-packet''.
7125
7126 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
7127
7128 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
7129 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
7130 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
7131
7132 * ``apropos'' command added.
7133
7134 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
7135 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
7136 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
7137
7138 * New MI interface
7139
7140 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
7141 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7142 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
7143 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
7144 enabled by configuring with:
7145
7146 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
7147
7148 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
7149
7150 * New native configurations
7151
7152 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
7153 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
7154 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
7155
7156 * New targets
7157
7158 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7159 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
7160 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7161
7162 * OBSOLETE configurations
7163
7164 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
7165
7166 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
7167 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
7168 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
7169 be permanently REMOVED.
7170
7171 * ANSI/ISO C
7172
7173 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
7174 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
7175 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
7176 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
7177 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
7178 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
7179 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
7180 already.
7181
7182 * Readline 2.2
7183
7184 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
7185
7186 * set extension-language
7187
7188 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
7189 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
7190 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
7191 set extension-language .c c++
7192 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
7193 and their associated languages.
7194
7195 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
7196
7197 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
7198 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
7199 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
7200
7201 set processor NAME
7202
7203 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
7204 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
7205
7206 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
7207 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
7208 403 IBM PowerPC 403
7209 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
7210 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
7211 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
7212 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
7213 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
7214 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
7215 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
7216 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
7217
7218 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
7219 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
7220 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
7221 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
7222
7223 * HP-UX support
7224
7225 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
7226 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
7227 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
7228 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
7229 for xdb and dbx commands.
7230
7231 * Catchpoints
7232
7233 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
7234 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
7235 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
7236
7237 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
7238 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
7239 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
7240
7241 * Debugging across forks
7242
7243 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
7244 in the inferior.
7245
7246 * TUI
7247
7248 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
7249 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
7250 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
7251
7252 * GDB remote protocol additions
7253
7254 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
7255 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
7256 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
7257 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
7258
7259 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
7260 full 64-bit address. The command
7261
7262 set remoteaddresssize 32
7263
7264 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
7265 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
7266 will be discarded.
7267
7268 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
7269 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
7270
7271 maint packet heythere
7272
7273 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
7274 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
7275 time.
7276
7277 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
7278 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
7279 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
7280
7281 * Tracing can collect general expressions
7282
7283 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
7284 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
7285 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
7286
7287 * mask-address variable for Mips
7288
7289 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
7290 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
7291 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
7292
7293 * Higher serial baud rates
7294
7295 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
7296 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
7297 to achieve all of these rates.)
7298
7299 * i960 simulator
7300
7301 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
7302 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
7303
7304
7305 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
7306
7307 * New native configurations
7308
7309 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
7310 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
7311 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
7312 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
7313 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
7314 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
7315 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
7316
7317 * New targets
7318
7319 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7320 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
7321 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7322 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
7323 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
7324 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
7325 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
7326 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
7327 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
7328 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7329 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
7330
7331 * New debugging protocols
7332
7333 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
7334 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
7335 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
7336 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7337 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7338 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7339
7340 * DWARF 2
7341
7342 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
7343 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
7344 information.
7345
7346 * Java frontend
7347
7348 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
7349 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
7350
7351 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
7352
7353 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
7354 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
7355 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
7356
7357 * Live range splitting
7358
7359 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
7360 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
7361 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
7362
7363 * Hurd support
7364
7365 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
7366 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
7367
7368 * ARM Thumb support
7369
7370 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
7371 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
7372 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
7373 accordingly.
7374
7375 * MIPS16 support
7376
7377 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
7378 instruction set.
7379
7380 * Overlay support
7381
7382 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
7383 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
7384 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
7385 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
7386 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
7387 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
7388
7389 * info symbol
7390
7391 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
7392 the symbol at the specified address.
7393
7394 * Trace support
7395
7396 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
7397 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
7398 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
7399 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
7400 file tracepoint.c for more details.
7401
7402 * MIPS simulator
7403
7404 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
7405 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
7406 of most MIPS variants.
7407
7408 * Sparc simulator
7409
7410 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
7411 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
7412 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
7413
7414 * set architecture
7415
7416 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
7417 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
7418 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
7419 the possible architectures.
7420
7421 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
7422
7423 * New native configurations
7424
7425 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
7426 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
7427 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
7428 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
7429 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
7430 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
7431
7432 * New targets
7433
7434 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
7435 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7436 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
7437 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
7438 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
7439 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
7440 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7441
7442 * PowerPC simulator
7443
7444 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
7445 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
7446 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
7447 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
7448 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
7449
7450 * Solaris 2.5
7451
7452 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
7453
7454 * Windows 95/NT native
7455
7456 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
7457 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
7458 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
7459 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
7460 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
7461
7462 * dont-repeat command
7463
7464 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
7465 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
7466 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
7467 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
7468
7469 * Send break instead of ^C
7470
7471 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
7472 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
7473 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
7474
7475 * Remote protocol timeout
7476
7477 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
7478 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
7479 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
7480
7481 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
7482
7483 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
7484 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
7485 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
7486 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
7487 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
7488
7489 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
7490 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
7491 automatically on hpux10.
7492
7493 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
7494
7495 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
7496
7497 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
7498
7499 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
7500 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
7501 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
7502 every character. The default value is 1050.
7503
7504 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
7505
7506 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
7507 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
7508 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
7509 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
7510 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
7511 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
7512
7513 * Speedups for remote debugging
7514
7515 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
7516 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
7517 and more efficient S-record downloading.
7518
7519 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
7520
7521 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
7522 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
7523
7524 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
7525
7526 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
7527
7528 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
7529 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
7530
7531 * Remote targets use caching
7532
7533 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
7534 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
7535 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
7536 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
7537 off' turns the data cache off.
7538
7539 * Remote targets may have threads
7540
7541 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
7542 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
7543 gdb/remote.c for details.
7544
7545 * NetROM support
7546
7547 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
7548 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
7549 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
7550 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
7551 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
7552 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
7553 sequence is something like
7554
7555 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
7556 load <prog>
7557 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
7558
7559 * Macintosh host
7560
7561 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
7562 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
7563 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
7564 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
7565 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
7566 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
7567 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
7568 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
7569
7570 * Autoconf
7571
7572 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
7573 but does simplify configuration and building.
7574
7575 * hpux10
7576
7577 GDB now supports hpux10.
7578
7579 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
7580
7581 * New native configurations
7582
7583 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
7584 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
7585 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
7586 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
7587
7588 * New targets
7589
7590 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7591 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
7592 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
7593 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
7594 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7595
7596 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
7597
7598 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
7599 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
7600 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
7601 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
7602 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
7603
7604 * Arguments to user-defined commands
7605
7606 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
7607 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
7608 trivial example:
7609 define adder
7610 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
7611
7612 To execute the command use:
7613 adder 1 2 3
7614
7615 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
7616 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
7617 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
7618
7619 * New `if' and `while' commands
7620
7621 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
7622 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
7623 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
7624 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
7625 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
7626 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
7627 if the expression is zero.
7628
7629 * Fortran source language mode
7630
7631 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
7632 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
7633 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
7634 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
7635 Fortran compilers.
7636
7637 * Better HPUX support
7638
7639 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
7640 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
7641 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
7642 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
7643 that behavior do the following before running the program:
7644
7645 adb -w a.out
7646 __dld_flags?W 0x5
7647 control-d
7648
7649 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
7650 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
7651
7652 adb -w a.out
7653 __dld_flags?W 0x4
7654 control-d
7655
7656 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
7657 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
7658 external linkage.
7659
7660 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
7661 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
7662
7663 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
7664
7665 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
7666 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
7667 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
7668 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
7669 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
7670 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
7671
7672 * New DOS host serial code
7673
7674 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
7675 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
7676 a PC's serial port.
7677
7678 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
7679
7680 * New "complete" command
7681
7682 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
7683 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
7684
7685 * Trailing space optional in prompt
7686
7687 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
7688 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
7689
7690 * Breakpoint hit counts
7691
7692 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
7693 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
7694 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
7695 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
7696 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
7697 that breakpoint.
7698
7699 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
7700
7701 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
7702 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
7703 arrays actually contain only short strings.
7704
7705 * Shared library breakpoints
7706
7707 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
7708 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
7709
7710 * Hardware watchpoints
7711
7712 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
7713 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
7714
7715 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
7716
7717 * Annotations
7718
7719 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
7720 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
7721
7722 * Improved Irix 5 support
7723
7724 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
7725
7726 * Improved HPPA support
7727
7728 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
7729
7730 * New native configurations
7731
7732 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
7733 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7734 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
7735 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
7736
7737 * New targets
7738
7739 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7740 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
7741 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
7742
7743 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
7744
7745 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
7746 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
7747
7748 * Fixes
7749
7750 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
7751 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
7752
7753 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
7754
7755 * Irix 5 is now supported
7756
7757 * HPPA support
7758
7759 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
7760 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
7761 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
7762 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
7763 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
7764
7765
7766 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
7767
7768 * User visible changes:
7769
7770 * Remote Debugging
7771
7772 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
7773 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
7774 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
7775 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
7776 debugging info for the mips target).
7777
7778 * DEC Alpha native support
7779
7780 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
7781 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
7782 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
7783 Alpha-specific notes.
7784
7785 * Preliminary thread implementation
7786
7787 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
7788
7789 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
7790
7791 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
7792 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
7793 for details).
7794
7795 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
7796
7797 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
7798 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
7799 call methods, ...etc.
7800
7801 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
7802
7803 * User visible changes:
7804
7805 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
7806 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
7807 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
7808 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
7809
7810 Filename completion now works.
7811
7812 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
7813 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
7814 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
7815
7816 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
7817 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
7818 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
7819 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
7820 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
7821
7822 * DEC alpha support
7823
7824 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
7825 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
7826
7827
7828 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
7829
7830 * Testsuite
7831
7832 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
7833 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
7834 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
7835
7836 * C++ demangling
7837
7838 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
7839 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
7840 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
7841 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
7842 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
7843
7844 * Simulators
7845
7846 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
7847 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
7848 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
7849
7850 * New targets supported
7851
7852 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7853 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7854 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
7855 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7856 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
7857
7858 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
7859 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
7860 GO32 memory extender.
7861
7862 * New remote protocols
7863
7864 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
7865
7866 * New source languages supported
7867
7868 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
7869 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
7870 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
7871
7872
7873 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
7874
7875 * HP Precision Architecture supported
7876
7877 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
7878 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
7879 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
7880 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
7881 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
7882 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
7883
7884 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
7885
7886 * Faster and better demangling
7887
7888 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
7889 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
7890 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
7891 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
7892 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
7893 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
7894 symbol lookups.
7895
7896 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
7897 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
7898 compiler does not actually implement.
7899
7900 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
7901
7902 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
7903 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
7904 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
7905 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
7906 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
7907 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
7908 fix.
7909
7910 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
7911 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
7912
7913 * Improved configure script
7914
7915 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
7916 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
7917 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
7918 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
7919
7920 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
7921 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
7922 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
7923 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
7924 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
7925 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
7926
7927 * Documentation improvements
7928
7929 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
7930 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
7931 before submitting changes.
7932
7933 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
7934 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
7935 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
7936 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
7937 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
7938
7939 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
7940 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
7941 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
7942 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
7943 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
7944 around this problem.
7945
7946 * New features
7947
7948 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7949 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7950 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7951 the target program.
7952
7953 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7954 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7955
7956 * New native hosts supported
7957
7958 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7959 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7960
7961 * New targets supported
7962
7963 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7964
7965 * New file formats supported
7966
7967 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7968 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7969
7970 * Major bug fixes
7971
7972 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7973
7974 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7975 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7976
7977 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7978 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7979 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7980
7981 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7982 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7983
7984 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7985 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7986 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7987 libraries.
7988
7989 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7990 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7991 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7992 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7993 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7994
7995 * Internal improvements
7996
7997 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7998 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7999
8000 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
8001 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
8002 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
8003 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
8004 shared code that handles any of them.
8005
8006 * New command line options
8007
8008 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
8009
8010 * Mmalloc licensing
8011
8012 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
8013 General Public License.
8014
8015 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
8016
8017 * Host/native/target split
8018
8019 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
8020 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
8021 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
8022 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
8023 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
8024
8025 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
8026 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
8027 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
8028 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
8029 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
8030 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
8031 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
8032
8033 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
8034 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
8035 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
8036
8037 * New hosts supported
8038
8039 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
8040 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
8041 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
8042
8043 * New targets supported
8044
8045 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
8046 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
8047
8048 * New native hosts supported
8049
8050 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
8051 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
8052 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
8053
8054 * New file formats supported
8055
8056 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
8057 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
8058 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
8059
8060 * New commands
8061
8062 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
8063 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
8064 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
8065
8066 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
8067
8068 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
8069 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
8070 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
8071 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
8072
8073 * C++ improvements
8074
8075 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
8076 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
8077 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
8078
8079 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
8080
8081 * Major bug fixes
8082
8083 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
8084 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
8085 by the compiler.
8086
8087 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
8088 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
8089
8090 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
8091 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
8092 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
8093 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
8094 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
8095 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
8096
8097 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
8098 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
8099 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
8100 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
8101
8102 * AMD 29k support
8103
8104 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
8105 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
8106 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
8107 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
8108 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
8109
8110 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
8111 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
8112 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
8113 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
8114
8115 * Remote interfaces
8116
8117 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
8118 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
8119 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
8120 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
8121 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
8122 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
8123 each instruction being stepped through.
8124
8125 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
8126 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
8127
8128 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
8129 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
8130 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
8131 processor with a serial port.
8132
8133 * Configuration
8134
8135 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
8136 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
8137 supported, and what files each one uses.
8138
8139 * Library changes
8140
8141 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
8142 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
8143 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
8144 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
8145
8146 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
8147 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
8148 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
8149 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
8150
8151 * Documentation
8152
8153 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
8154 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
8155 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
8156 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
8157 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
8158 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
8159
8160 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
8161
8162
8163 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
8164
8165 * Better support for C++ function names
8166
8167 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
8168 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
8169 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
8170 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
8171 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
8172
8173 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
8174 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
8175 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
8176 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
8177 for the list of formats.
8178
8179 * G++ symbol mangling problem
8180
8181 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
8182 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
8183 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
8184 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
8185 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
8186 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
8187 this problem.)
8188
8189 * New 'maintenance' command
8190
8191 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
8192 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
8193 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
8194
8195 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
8196 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
8197 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
8198 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
8199 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
8200 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
8201
8202 The following commands are new:
8203
8204 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
8205 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
8206 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
8207
8208 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
8209
8210 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
8211 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
8212 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
8213 read after argv processing.
8214
8215 * New hosts supported
8216
8217 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
8218
8219 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
8220
8221 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
8222 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
8223 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
8224 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
8225 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
8226 It costs extra.
8227
8228 * New targets supported
8229
8230 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
8231
8232 * More smarts about finding #include files
8233
8234 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
8235 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
8236 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
8237 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
8238 the one that contains your sources.
8239
8240 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
8241 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
8242 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
8243
8244 * Interesting infernals change
8245
8246 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
8247 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
8248 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
8249 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
8250
8251 * Bug fixes (of course!)
8252
8253 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
8254 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
8255 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
8256
8257 See the ChangeLog for details.
8258
8259 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
8260
8261 * New machines supported (host and target)
8262
8263 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
8264
8265 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
8266
8267 * New malloc package
8268
8269 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
8270 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
8271 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
8272 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
8273 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
8274 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
8275
8276 * info proc
8277
8278 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
8279 'help info proc' for details.
8280
8281 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
8282
8283 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
8284 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
8285 possible.
8286
8287 * File name changes for MS-DOS
8288
8289 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
8290 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
8291 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
8292 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
8293 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
8294 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
8295
8296 * Cross byte order fixes
8297
8298 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
8299 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
8300
8301 * New -mapped and -readnow options
8302
8303 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
8304 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
8305 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
8306 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
8307 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
8308 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
8309 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
8310 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
8311 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
8312 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
8313
8314 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
8315 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
8316 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
8317 slower, but makes future operations faster.
8318
8319 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
8320 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
8321 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
8322 use is:
8323
8324 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
8325
8326 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
8327 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
8328 shared across multiple host platforms.
8329
8330 * longjmp() handling
8331
8332 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
8333 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
8334 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
8335 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
8336
8337 * Solaris 2.0
8338
8339 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
8340 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
8341 reading symbols.
8342
8343 * Bug fixes
8344
8345 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
8346 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
8347 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
8348
8349 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
8350
8351 * New machines supported (host and target)
8352
8353 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
8354 (except core files)
8355 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
8356 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
8357
8358 * New machines supported (target)
8359
8360 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
8361
8362 * C++ support
8363
8364 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
8365 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
8366 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
8367
8368 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
8369 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
8370 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
8371 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
8372 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
8373 released.
8374
8375 * New features for SVR4
8376
8377 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
8378 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
8379 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
8380
8381 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
8382 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
8383 it prints the address mappings of the process.
8384
8385 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
8386 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
8387
8388 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
8389
8390 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
8391 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
8392 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
8393 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
8394 same code linked statically.
8395
8396 * New Getopt
8397
8398 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
8399 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
8400 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
8401 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
8402 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
8403 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
8404
8405 * Bugs fixed
8406
8407 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
8408 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
8409 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
8410
8411
8412 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
8413
8414 * New machines supported (host and target)
8415
8416 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
8417 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
8418 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
8419
8420 * Almost SCO Unix support
8421
8422 We had hoped to support:
8423 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
8424 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
8425 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
8426 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
8427
8428 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
8429
8430 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
8431 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
8432 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
8433 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
8434 reqired (if any).
8435
8436 * New Readline
8437
8438 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
8439 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
8440 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
8441
8442 * Bugs fixed
8443
8444 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
8445 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
8446 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
8447
8448 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
8449
8450 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
8451 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
8452 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
8453
8454 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
8455 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
8456 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
8457 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
8458 version 2.
8459
8460 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
8461 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
8462 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
8463 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
8464 situation somewhat.
8465
8466 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
8467 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
8468 methods.
8469
8470 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
8471 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
8472 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
8473
8474
8475 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
8476
8477 * Improved configuration
8478
8479 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
8480 Porting BFD is simpler.
8481
8482 * Stepping improved
8483
8484 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
8485 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
8486 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
8487 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
8488
8489 * Bug fixing
8490
8491 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
8492
8493 * New host supported (not target)
8494
8495 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
8496
8497
8498 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
8499
8500 * Multiple source language support
8501
8502 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
8503 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
8504 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
8505 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
8506 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
8507 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
8508
8509 * GDB and Modula-2
8510
8511 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
8512 currently under development at the State University of New York at
8513 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
8514 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
8515
8516 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
8517 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
8518 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
8519
8520 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
8521 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
8522
8523 * set write on/off
8524
8525 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
8526 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
8527 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
8528 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
8529 effect immediately.
8530
8531 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
8532
8533 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
8534 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
8535 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
8536 examining core files.
8537
8538 * set listsize
8539
8540 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
8541 The default is 10.
8542
8543 * New machines supported (host and target)
8544
8545 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
8546 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
8547 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
8548
8549 * New hosts supported (not targets)
8550
8551 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
8552
8553 * New targets supported (not hosts)
8554
8555 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
8556 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
8557 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
8558
8559 * New remote interfaces
8560
8561 AMD 29000 Adapt
8562 AMD 29000 Minimon
8563
8564
8565 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
8566
8567 * New Facilities
8568
8569 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
8570
8571 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
8572 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
8573 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
8574 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
8575 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
8576 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
8577 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
8578 stub on the target system.
8579
8580 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
8581
8582 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
8583 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
8584 object file types such as a.out and coff.
8585
8586 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
8587 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
8588
8589
8590 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
8591
8592 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
8593 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
8594
8595 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
8596 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
8597 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
8598
8599 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
8600 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
8601 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
8602 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
8603
8604 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
8605 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
8606 it is already running. Default is ON.
8607
8608 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
8609 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
8610 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
8611 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
8612 Default is ON.
8613
8614 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
8615 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
8616 or the value of the environment variable
8617 GDBHISTFILE.
8618
8619 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
8620 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
8621 HISTSIZE.
8622
8623 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
8624 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
8625 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
8626
8627 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
8628 history expansion will be performed on
8629 command line input. The default is OFF.
8630
8631 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
8632 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
8633 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
8634
8635 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
8636 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
8637 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8638 variable TERM.
8639
8640 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
8641 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
8642 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8643 variable TERM.
8644
8645 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
8646 ``set width'' instead.
8647
8648 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
8649 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
8650 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
8651 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
8652
8653 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
8654 is OFF.
8655
8656 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
8657 "raw" form if off.
8658
8659 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
8660 like instructions.
8661
8662 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
8663
8664
8665 * Support for Epoch Environment.
8666
8667 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
8668 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
8669 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
8670 window.
8671
8672
8673 * Support for Shared Libraries
8674
8675 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
8676 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
8677 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
8678 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
8679 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
8680 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
8681 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
8682 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
8683
8684 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
8685 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
8686 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
8687
8688 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
8689
8690
8691 * Watchpoints
8692
8693 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
8694 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
8695 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
8696 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
8697 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
8698 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
8699
8700 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
8701
8702 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
8703
8704 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8705 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8706 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8707
8708
8709 * C++ multiple inheritance
8710
8711 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
8712 for C++ programs.
8713
8714 * C++ exception handling
8715
8716 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
8717 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
8718 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
8719 handler's context).
8720
8721 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
8722 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
8723 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
8724
8725 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
8726 current stack frame.
8727
8728
8729 * Minor command changes
8730
8731 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
8732 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
8733 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
8734
8735 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
8736 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
8737 frames without printing.
8738
8739 * New directory command
8740
8741 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
8742 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
8743 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
8744 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
8745 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
8746
8747 * Configuring GDB for compilation
8748
8749 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
8750 for more details.
8751
8752 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
8753 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
8754 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
8755 where the program that you are debugging will run.