1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.0:
6 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
8 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
9 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
10 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
12 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
14 * GDB supports logging output to a file
16 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
17 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
19 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
21 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
22 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
25 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
27 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
28 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
32 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
33 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
34 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
35 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
36 data, for more informative profiling results.
38 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
40 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
41 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
42 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
44 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
47 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
48 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
49 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
50 in a subsequent -var-update.
52 * Multi-arched targets.
54 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
55 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
57 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
59 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
60 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
61 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
64 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
65 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
66 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
67 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
68 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
69 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
70 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
71 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
72 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
73 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
74 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
75 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
77 * REMOVED configurations and files
80 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
81 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
82 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
83 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
84 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
85 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
87 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
88 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
89 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
90 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
91 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
92 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
94 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
96 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
97 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
98 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
99 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
100 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
102 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
104 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
106 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
107 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
108 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
109 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
110 shared libs like mad''.
112 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
114 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
115 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
116 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
117 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
119 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
121 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
122 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
125 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
126 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
128 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
129 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
131 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
132 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
133 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
134 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
136 * Multi-arched targets.
138 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
139 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
141 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
142 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
143 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
147 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
150 * New native configurations
152 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
153 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
154 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
155 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
157 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
159 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
160 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
161 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
164 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
165 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
166 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
167 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
168 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
169 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
170 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
171 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
172 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
173 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
175 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
176 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
180 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
182 * REMOVED configurations and files
184 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
185 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
186 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
187 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
188 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
190 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
192 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
194 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
195 commands. The default is 1024.
197 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
199 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
201 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
203 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
204 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
205 from a file into memory (restore).
207 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
209 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
210 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
211 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
213 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
221 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
222 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
223 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
225 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
226 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
227 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
229 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
230 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
231 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
233 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
234 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
235 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
237 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
239 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
241 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
242 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
243 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
244 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
245 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
246 (notably embedded) targets.
248 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
250 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
251 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
252 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
253 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
255 * New command line option
257 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
259 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
261 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
262 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
263 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
264 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
265 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
266 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
267 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
268 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
269 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
270 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
272 * Changes in ARM configurations.
274 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
275 configuration is fully multi-arch.
277 * New native configurations
279 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
280 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
281 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
282 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
286 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
288 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
290 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
291 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
292 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
295 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
296 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
297 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
298 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
299 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
301 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
303 * REMOVED configurations and files
305 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
307 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
308 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
309 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
310 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
311 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
312 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
313 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
314 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
315 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
316 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
317 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
319 * Changes to command line processing
321 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
322 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
324 * Changes to key bindings
326 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
328 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
330 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
332 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
335 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
337 Numerous documentation fixes.
339 Numerous testsuite fixes.
341 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
343 * New native configurations
345 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
346 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
347 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
348 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
350 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
354 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
356 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
358 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
360 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
361 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
362 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
363 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
364 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
366 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
367 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
368 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
369 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
370 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
371 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
372 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
373 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
375 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
376 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
378 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
379 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
380 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
383 * REMOVED configurations and files
385 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
386 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
388 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
392 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
394 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
395 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
400 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
402 * The MI enabled by default.
404 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
405 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
406 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
407 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
408 which is now deprecated.
410 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
412 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
413 main features are supported:
415 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
417 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
420 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
422 - a Pascal expression parser.
424 However, some important features are not yet supported.
426 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
428 - there are some problems with boolean types;
430 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
431 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
433 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
435 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
437 * Changes in completion.
439 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
440 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
441 users expect at the shell prompt.
443 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
444 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
445 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
446 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
447 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
448 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
449 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
451 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
453 * New platform-independent commands:
455 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
456 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
457 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
459 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
461 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
462 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
463 many threads as your system allows you to have.
465 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
467 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
468 multi-threaded programs though.
470 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
472 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
474 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
475 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
478 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
480 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
481 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
482 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
483 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
484 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
487 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
488 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
489 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
491 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
493 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
494 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
496 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
497 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
500 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
501 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
502 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
503 a given linear address.
505 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
506 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
507 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
509 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
511 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
513 * Changes in documentation.
515 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
516 Documentation License.
518 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
521 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
523 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
526 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
527 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
528 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
530 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
532 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
533 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
534 contents of this file.
538 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
540 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
542 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
544 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
545 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
546 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
547 greater level of detail.
549 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
551 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
552 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
553 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
556 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
558 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
559 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
560 machines ``out of the box''.
562 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
563 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
564 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
565 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
566 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
568 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
569 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
570 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
571 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
572 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
574 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
575 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
578 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
581 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
582 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
583 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
584 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
586 * New native configurations
588 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
589 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
593 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
594 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
595 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
596 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
598 * OBSOLETE configurations
600 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
601 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
603 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
606 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
607 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
608 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
609 be permanently REMOVED.
611 * Gould support removed
613 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
615 * New features for SVR4
617 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
618 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
619 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
621 * Many C++ enhancements
623 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
624 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
626 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
628 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
629 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
630 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
631 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
633 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
634 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
636 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
638 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
639 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
640 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
642 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
643 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
645 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
647 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
648 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
649 include ``set remote P-packet''.
651 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
653 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
654 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
655 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
657 * ``apropos'' command added.
659 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
660 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
661 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
665 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
666 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
667 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
668 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
669 enabled by configuring with:
671 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
673 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
675 * New native configurations
677 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
678 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
679 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
683 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
684 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
685 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
687 * OBSOLETE configurations
689 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
691 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
692 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
693 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
694 be permanently REMOVED.
698 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
699 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
700 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
701 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
702 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
703 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
704 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
709 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
711 * set extension-language
713 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
714 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
715 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
716 set extension-language .c c++
717 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
718 and their associated languages.
720 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
722 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
723 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
724 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
728 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
729 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
731 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
732 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
734 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
735 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
736 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
737 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
738 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
739 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
740 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
741 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
743 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
744 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
745 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
746 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
750 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
751 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
752 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
753 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
754 for xdb and dbx commands.
758 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
759 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
760 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
762 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
763 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
764 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
766 * Debugging across forks
768 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
773 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
774 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
775 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
777 * GDB remote protocol additions
779 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
780 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
781 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
782 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
784 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
785 full 64-bit address. The command
787 set remoteaddresssize 32
789 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
790 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
793 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
794 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
796 maint packet heythere
798 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
799 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
802 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
803 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
804 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
806 * Tracing can collect general expressions
808 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
809 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
810 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
812 * mask-address variable for Mips
814 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
815 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
816 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
818 * Higher serial baud rates
820 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
821 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
822 to achieve all of these rates.)
826 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
827 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
830 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
832 * New native configurations
834 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
835 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
836 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
837 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
838 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
839 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
840 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
844 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
845 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
846 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
847 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
848 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
849 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
850 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
851 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
852 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
853 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
854 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
856 * New debugging protocols
858 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
859 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
860 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
861 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
862 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
863 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
867 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
868 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
873 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
874 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
876 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
878 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
879 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
880 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
882 * Live range splitting
884 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
885 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
886 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
890 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
891 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
895 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
896 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
897 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
902 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
907 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
908 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
909 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
910 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
911 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
912 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
916 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
917 the symbol at the specified address.
921 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
922 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
923 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
924 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
925 file tracepoint.c for more details.
929 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
930 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
931 of most MIPS variants.
935 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
936 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
937 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
941 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
942 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
943 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
944 the possible architectures.
946 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
948 * New native configurations
950 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
951 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
952 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
953 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
954 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
955 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
959 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
960 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
961 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
962 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
963 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
965 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
969 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
970 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
971 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
972 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
973 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
977 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
979 * Windows 95/NT native
981 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
982 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
983 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
984 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
985 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
987 * dont-repeat command
989 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
990 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
991 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
992 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
994 * Send break instead of ^C
996 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
997 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
998 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1000 * Remote protocol timeout
1002 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1003 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1004 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1006 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1008 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1009 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1010 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1011 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1012 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1014 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1015 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1016 automatically on hpux10.
1018 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1020 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1022 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1024 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1025 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1026 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1027 every character. The default value is 1050.
1029 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1031 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1032 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1033 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1034 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1035 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1036 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1038 * Speedups for remote debugging
1040 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1041 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1042 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1044 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1046 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1047 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1049 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1051 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1053 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1054 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1056 * Remote targets use caching
1058 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1059 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1060 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1061 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1062 off' turns the the data cache off.
1064 * Remote targets may have threads
1066 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1067 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1068 gdb/remote.c for details.
1072 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1073 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1074 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1075 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1076 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1077 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1078 sequence is something like
1080 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1082 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1086 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1087 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1088 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1089 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1090 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1091 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1092 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1093 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1097 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1098 but does simplify configuration and building.
1102 GDB now supports hpux10.
1104 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1106 * New native configurations
1108 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1109 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1110 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1111 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1115 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1116 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1117 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1118 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1121 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1123 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1124 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1125 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1126 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1127 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1129 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1131 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1132 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1135 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1137 To execute the command use:
1140 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1141 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1142 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1144 * New `if' and `while' commands
1146 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1147 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1148 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1149 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1150 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1151 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1152 if the expression is zero.
1154 * Fortran source language mode
1156 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1157 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1158 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1159 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1162 * Better HPUX support
1164 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1165 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1166 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1167 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1168 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1174 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1175 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1181 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1182 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1185 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1186 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1188 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1190 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1191 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1192 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1193 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1194 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1195 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1197 * New DOS host serial code
1199 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1200 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1203 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1205 * New "complete" command
1207 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1208 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1210 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1212 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1213 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1215 * Breakpoint hit counts
1217 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1218 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1219 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1220 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1221 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1224 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1226 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1227 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1228 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1230 * Shared library breakpoints
1232 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1233 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1235 * Hardware watchpoints
1237 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1238 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1240 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1244 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1245 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1247 * Improved Irix 5 support
1249 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1251 * Improved HPPA support
1253 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1255 * New native configurations
1257 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1258 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1259 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1260 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1264 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1265 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1268 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1270 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1271 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1275 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1276 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1278 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1280 * Irix 5 is now supported
1284 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1285 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1286 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1287 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1288 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1291 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1293 * User visible changes:
1297 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1298 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1299 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1300 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1301 debugging info for the mips target).
1303 * DEC Alpha native support
1305 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1306 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1307 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1308 Alpha-specific notes.
1310 * Preliminary thread implementation
1312 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1314 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1316 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1317 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1320 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1322 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1323 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1324 call methods, ...etc.
1326 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1328 * User visible changes:
1330 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1331 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1332 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1333 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1335 Filename completion now works.
1337 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1338 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1339 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1341 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1342 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1343 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1344 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1345 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1349 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1350 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1353 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1357 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1358 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1359 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1363 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1364 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1365 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1366 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1367 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1371 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1372 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1373 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1375 * New targets supported
1377 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1378 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1379 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1380 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1381 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1383 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1384 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1385 GO32 memory extender.
1387 * New remote protocols
1389 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1391 * New source languages supported
1393 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1394 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1395 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1398 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1400 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1402 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1403 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1404 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1405 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1406 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1407 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1409 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1411 * Faster and better demangling
1413 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1414 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1415 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1416 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1417 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1418 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1421 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1422 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1423 compiler does not actually implement.
1425 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1427 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1428 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1429 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1430 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1431 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1432 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1435 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1436 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1438 * Improved configure script
1440 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1441 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1442 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1443 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1445 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1446 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1447 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1448 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1449 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1450 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1452 * Documentation improvements
1454 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1455 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1456 before submitting changes.
1458 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1459 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1460 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1461 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1462 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1464 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1465 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1466 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1467 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1468 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1469 around this problem.
1473 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1474 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1475 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1478 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1479 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1481 * New native hosts supported
1483 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1484 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1486 * New targets supported
1488 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1490 * New file formats supported
1492 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1493 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1497 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1499 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1500 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1502 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1503 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1504 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1506 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1507 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1509 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1510 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1511 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1514 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1515 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1516 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1517 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1518 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1520 * Internal improvements
1522 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1523 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1525 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1526 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1527 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1528 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1529 shared code that handles any of them.
1531 * New command line options
1533 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1537 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1538 General Public License.
1540 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1542 * Host/native/target split
1544 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1545 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1546 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1547 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1548 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1550 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1551 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1552 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1553 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1554 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1555 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1556 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1558 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1559 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1560 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1562 * New hosts supported
1564 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1565 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1566 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1568 * New targets supported
1570 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1571 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1573 * New native hosts supported
1575 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1576 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1577 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1579 * New file formats supported
1581 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1582 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1583 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1587 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1588 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1589 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1591 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1593 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1594 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1595 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1596 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1600 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1601 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1602 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1604 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1608 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1609 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1612 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1613 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1615 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1616 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1617 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1618 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1619 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1620 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1622 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1623 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1624 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1625 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1629 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1630 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1631 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1632 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1633 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1635 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1636 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1637 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1638 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1642 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1643 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1644 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1645 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1646 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1647 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1648 each instruction being stepped through.
1650 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1651 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1653 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1654 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1655 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1656 processor with a serial port.
1660 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1661 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1662 supported, and what files each one uses.
1666 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1667 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1668 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1669 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1671 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1672 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1673 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1674 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1678 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1679 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1680 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1681 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1682 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1683 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1685 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1688 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1690 * Better support for C++ function names
1692 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1693 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1694 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1695 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1696 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1698 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1699 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1700 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1701 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1702 for the list of formats.
1704 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1706 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1707 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1708 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1709 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1710 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1711 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1714 * New 'maintenance' command
1716 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1717 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1718 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1720 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1721 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1722 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1723 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1724 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1725 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1727 The following commands are new:
1729 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1730 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1731 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1733 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1735 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1736 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1737 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1738 read after argv processing.
1740 * New hosts supported
1742 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1744 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1746 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1747 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1748 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1749 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1750 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1753 * New targets supported
1755 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1757 * More smarts about finding #include files
1759 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1760 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1761 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1762 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1763 the one that contains your sources.
1765 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1766 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1767 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1769 * Interesting infernals change
1771 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1772 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1773 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1774 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1776 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1778 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1779 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1780 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1782 See the ChangeLog for details.
1784 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1786 * New machines supported (host and target)
1788 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1790 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1792 * New malloc package
1794 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1795 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1796 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1797 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1798 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1799 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1803 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1804 'help info proc' for details.
1806 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1808 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1809 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1812 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1814 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1815 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1816 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1817 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1818 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1819 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1821 * Cross byte order fixes
1823 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1824 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1826 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1828 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1829 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1830 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1831 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1832 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1833 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1834 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1835 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1836 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1837 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1839 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1840 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1841 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1842 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1844 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1845 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1846 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1849 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1851 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1852 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1853 shared across multiple host platforms.
1855 * longjmp() handling
1857 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1858 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1859 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1860 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1864 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1865 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1870 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1871 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1872 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1874 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1876 * New machines supported (host and target)
1878 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1880 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1881 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1883 * New machines supported (target)
1885 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1889 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1890 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1891 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1893 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1894 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1895 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1896 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1897 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1900 * New features for SVR4
1902 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1903 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1904 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1906 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1907 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1908 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1910 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1911 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1913 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1915 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1916 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1917 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1918 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1919 same code linked statically.
1923 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1924 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1925 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1926 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1927 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1928 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1932 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1933 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1934 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1937 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1939 * New machines supported (host and target)
1941 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1942 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1943 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1945 * Almost SCO Unix support
1947 We had hoped to support:
1948 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1949 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1950 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1951 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1953 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1955 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1956 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1957 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1958 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1963 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1964 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1965 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1969 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1970 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1971 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1973 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1975 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1976 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1977 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1979 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1980 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1981 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1982 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1985 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1986 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1987 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1988 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1991 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1992 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1995 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1996 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1997 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2000 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2002 * Improved configuration
2004 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2005 Porting BFD is simpler.
2009 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2010 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2011 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2012 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2016 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2018 * New host supported (not target)
2020 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2023 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2025 * Multiple source language support
2027 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2028 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2029 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2030 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2031 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2032 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2036 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2037 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2038 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2039 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2041 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2042 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2043 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2045 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2046 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2050 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2051 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2052 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2053 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2056 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2058 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2059 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2060 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2061 examining core files.
2065 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2068 * New machines supported (host and target)
2070 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2071 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2072 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2074 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2076 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2078 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2080 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2081 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2082 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2084 * New remote interfaces
2090 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2094 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2096 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2097 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2098 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2099 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2100 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2101 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2102 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2103 stub on the target system.
2105 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2107 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2108 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2109 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2111 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2112 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2115 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2117 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2118 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2120 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2121 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2122 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2124 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2125 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2126 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2127 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2129 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2130 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2131 it is already running. Default is ON.
2133 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2134 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2135 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2136 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2139 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2140 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2141 or the value of the environment variable
2144 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2145 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2148 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2149 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2150 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2152 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2153 history expansion will be performed on
2154 command line input. The default is OFF.
2156 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2157 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2158 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2160 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2161 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2162 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2165 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2166 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2167 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2170 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2171 ``set width'' instead.
2173 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2174 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2175 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2176 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2178 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2181 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2184 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2187 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2190 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2192 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2193 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2194 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2198 * Support for Shared Libraries
2200 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2201 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2202 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2203 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2204 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2205 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2206 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2207 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2209 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2210 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2211 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2213 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2218 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2219 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2220 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2221 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2222 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2223 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2225 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2227 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2229 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2230 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2231 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2234 * C++ multiple inheritance
2236 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2239 * C++ exception handling
2241 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2242 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2243 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2246 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2247 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2248 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2250 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2251 current stack frame.
2254 * Minor command changes
2256 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2257 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2258 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2260 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2261 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2262 frames without printing.
2264 * New directory command
2266 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2267 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2268 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2269 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2270 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2272 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2274 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2277 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2278 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2279 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2280 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob