1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
7 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
8 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
9 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
11 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
12 now complete on file names.
14 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
15 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
16 For instance, consider:
18 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
19 # struct example variable;
22 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
23 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
25 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
26 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
32 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
35 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
36 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
37 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
39 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
41 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
42 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
43 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
45 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
48 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
49 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
51 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
52 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
53 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
55 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
56 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
58 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
60 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
62 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
63 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
65 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
66 list of section offsets.
68 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
69 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
72 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
73 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
74 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
76 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
78 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
79 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
81 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
82 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
83 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
85 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
86 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
90 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
91 available is determined at configure time.
95 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
97 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
99 maint set python print-stack
100 maint show python print-stack
101 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
104 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
106 set print symbol-loading
107 show print symbol-loading
108 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
112 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
117 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
119 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
120 show multiple-symbols
121 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
122 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
123 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
125 set breakpoint always-inserted
126 show breakpoint always-inserted
127 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
128 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
129 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
131 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
132 show arm fallback-mode
133 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
135 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
136 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
137 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
138 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
140 set disable-randomization
141 show disable-randomization
142 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
143 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
144 multiple debugging sessions.
147 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
148 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
149 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
150 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
155 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
160 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
162 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
164 * New native configurations
166 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
167 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
171 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
172 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
174 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
176 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
177 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
178 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
179 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
181 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
182 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
184 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
187 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
188 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
189 and in inlined functions.
191 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
192 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
193 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
195 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
197 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
198 registers on PowerPC targets.
200 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
201 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
203 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
204 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
206 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
207 extended-remote mode.
209 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
210 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
211 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
212 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
214 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
215 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
216 target architectures.
218 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
219 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
220 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
221 stored in two consecutive float registers.
223 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
226 * Improved support for debugging Ada
227 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
229 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
230 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
231 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
232 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
234 - Improved command completion in Ada
237 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
242 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
243 show print frame-arguments
244 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
245 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
250 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
257 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
266 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
269 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
273 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
275 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
277 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
278 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
279 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
281 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
282 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
283 -Bsymbolic linker option.
285 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
286 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
289 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
290 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
292 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
293 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
295 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
297 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
298 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
299 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
301 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
302 automatically displayed as character or string data.
304 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
305 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
308 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
309 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
310 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
312 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
315 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
316 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
317 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
319 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
321 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
323 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
324 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
325 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
327 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
328 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
330 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
331 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
332 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
333 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
334 Windows and SymbianOS).
336 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
337 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
339 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
340 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
346 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
347 when debugging using remote targets.
349 set mem inaccessible-by-default
350 show mem inaccessible-by-default
351 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
352 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
353 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
354 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
355 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
357 set breakpoint auto-hw
358 show breakpoint auto-hw
359 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
360 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
361 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
362 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
363 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
364 including "next" and "finish".
367 catch exception unhandled
368 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
371 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
375 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
376 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
377 an alias to "set sysroot".
380 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
381 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
384 * New native configurations
386 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
391 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
392 not query the target for its built-in description.
396 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
397 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
398 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
403 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
404 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
407 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
412 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
413 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
415 qXfer:libraries:read:
416 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
417 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
418 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
419 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
423 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
432 i[34567]86-*-netware*
433 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
434 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
436 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
439 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
440 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
449 * Other removed features
456 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
463 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
468 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
469 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
474 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
475 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
477 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
479 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
480 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
481 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
482 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
486 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
487 in debugging information.
491 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
492 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
494 set mips stack-arg-size
495 set mips saved-gpreg-size
497 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
499 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
504 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
506 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
507 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
508 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
510 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
511 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
514 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
515 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
517 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
518 stub provides the required support.
520 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
521 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
526 unset substitute-path
528 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
529 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
530 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
531 between compilation and debugging.
535 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
536 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
537 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
541 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
543 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
544 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
546 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
551 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
552 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
553 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
554 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
558 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
559 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
561 qXfer:memory-map:read:
562 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
563 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
568 Erase and program a flash memory device.
570 * Removed remote packets
573 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
574 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
576 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
580 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
582 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
586 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
587 only if it doesn't already have a value.
589 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
591 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
593 restart <n> Return the program state to a
594 previously saved state.
596 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
598 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
600 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
601 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
603 info forks List forks of the user program that
604 are available to be debugged.
606 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
607 forks of the user program that are
608 available to be debugged.
610 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
611 that are available to be debugged (and
612 kill the forked process).
614 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
615 that are available to be debugged (and
616 allow the process to continue).
620 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
622 * Improved Windows host support
624 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
625 native console support, and remote communications using either
626 network sockets or serial ports.
628 * Improved Modula-2 language support
630 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
631 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
632 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
633 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
634 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
635 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
639 The ARM rdi-share module.
641 The Netware NLM debug server.
643 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
645 * New native configurations
647 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
648 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
652 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
654 * New command line options
656 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
657 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
658 the child (debugged) program exited with.
659 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
660 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
661 specified multiple times and in conjunction
662 with the --command (-x) option.
664 * Deprecated commands removed
666 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
670 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
671 othernames set arm disassembler
672 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
673 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
674 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
677 * New BSD user-level threads support
679 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
680 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
683 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
684 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
685 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
687 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
688 are not yet supported.
690 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
691 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
693 * REMOVED configurations and files
695 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
696 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
697 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
699 * New "set print array-indexes" command
701 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
702 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
705 * VAX floating point support
707 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
709 * User-defined command support
711 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
712 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
713 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
715 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
717 * New command line option
719 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
722 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
724 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
725 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
726 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
727 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
728 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
730 * Internationalization
732 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
733 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
734 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
738 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
739 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
740 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
742 * New native configurations
744 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
748 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
749 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
751 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
753 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
754 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
755 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
758 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
759 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
760 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
772 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
773 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
775 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
777 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
778 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
779 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
789 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
791 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
793 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
794 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
797 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
799 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
800 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
801 IRIX long double values).
805 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
806 command. This problem has been fixed.
808 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
810 * Fix for ``many threads''
812 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
813 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
816 ptrace: No such process.
817 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
819 This problem has been fixed.
821 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
823 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
826 * New ``start'' command.
828 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
830 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
832 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
833 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
834 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
836 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
837 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
838 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
839 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
840 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
841 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
842 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
843 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
844 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
846 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
848 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
849 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
850 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
851 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
852 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
854 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
855 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
856 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
858 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
860 * New native configurations
862 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
863 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
864 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
865 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
866 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
867 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
868 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
870 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
872 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
873 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
874 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
875 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
876 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
877 work, was also included.
879 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
880 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
890 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
891 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
893 * REMOVED configurations and files
895 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
896 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
897 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
898 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
899 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
900 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
901 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
902 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
903 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
905 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
907 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
909 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
911 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
912 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
913 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
914 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
917 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
919 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
920 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
921 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
922 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
923 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
924 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
927 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
929 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
931 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
932 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
933 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
935 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
937 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
938 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
940 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
942 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
943 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
944 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
946 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
948 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
949 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
951 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
953 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
954 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
955 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
957 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
959 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
960 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
961 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
963 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
965 * Removed --with-mmalloc
967 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
968 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
970 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
972 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
973 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
974 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
975 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
977 * Revised SPARC target
979 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
980 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
981 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
982 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
983 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
987 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
988 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
989 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
992 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
994 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
995 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
998 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1000 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1001 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1002 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1003 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1004 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1005 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1006 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1007 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1008 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1010 * New native configurations
1012 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1013 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1014 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1015 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1016 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1018 * New debugging protocols
1020 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1022 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1024 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1025 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1026 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1028 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1030 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1031 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1032 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1033 permanently REMOVED.
1035 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1036 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1037 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1038 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1039 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1040 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1041 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1042 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1043 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1044 sonymips mips-sony-*
1045 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1047 * REMOVED configurations and files
1049 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1050 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1051 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1052 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1053 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1054 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1055 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1056 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1057 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1058 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1059 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1060 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1061 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1062 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1063 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1064 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1065 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1067 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1071 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1072 integrated into GDB.
1074 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1076 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1077 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1078 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1081 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1082 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1083 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1087 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1088 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1089 remote protocol documentation for details.
1091 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1093 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1094 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1095 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1098 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1100 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1101 per-thread variables.
1103 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1105 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1106 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1108 * Separate debug info.
1110 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1111 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1112 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1113 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1114 and optional debug files.
1116 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1118 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1119 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1122 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1123 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1127 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1128 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1129 considered "useable".
1131 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1133 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1134 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1137 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1139 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1140 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1142 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1144 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1145 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1148 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1150 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1151 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1155 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1156 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1157 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1158 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1159 data, for more informative profiling results.
1161 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1163 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1164 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1165 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1167 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1170 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1171 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1172 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1173 in a subsequent -var-update.
1175 * New native configurations.
1177 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1179 * Multi-arched targets.
1181 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1182 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1184 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1186 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1187 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1188 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1189 permanently REMOVED.
1191 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1192 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1193 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1194 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1195 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1196 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1197 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1198 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1199 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1200 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1201 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1202 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1204 * REMOVED configurations and files
1207 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1208 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1209 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1210 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1211 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1212 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1214 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1215 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1216 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1217 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1218 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1219 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1221 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1223 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1224 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1225 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1226 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1227 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1229 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1231 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1233 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1234 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1235 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1236 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1237 shared libs like mad''.
1239 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1241 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1242 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1243 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1244 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1246 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1248 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1249 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1252 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1253 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1255 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1256 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1258 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1259 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1260 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1261 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1263 * Multi-arched targets.
1265 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1266 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1268 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1269 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1270 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1274 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1277 * New native configurations
1279 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1280 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1281 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1282 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1284 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1286 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1287 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1288 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1289 permanently REMOVED.
1291 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1292 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1293 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1294 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1295 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1296 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1297 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1298 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1299 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1300 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1302 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1303 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1305 * OBSOLETE languages
1307 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1309 * REMOVED configurations and files
1311 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1312 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1313 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1314 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1315 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1317 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1319 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1321 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1322 commands. The default is 1024.
1324 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1326 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1328 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1330 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1331 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1332 from a file into memory (restore).
1334 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1336 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1337 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1338 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1340 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1348 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1349 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1350 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1352 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1353 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1354 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1356 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1357 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1358 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1360 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1361 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1362 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1364 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1366 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1368 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1369 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1370 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1371 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1372 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1373 (notably embedded) targets.
1375 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1377 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1378 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1379 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1380 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1382 * New command line option
1384 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1386 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1388 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1389 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1390 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1391 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1392 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1393 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1394 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1395 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1396 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1397 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1399 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1401 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1402 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1404 * New native configurations
1406 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1407 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1408 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1409 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1413 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1415 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1417 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1418 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1419 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1420 permanently REMOVED.
1422 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1423 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1424 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1425 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1426 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1428 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1430 * REMOVED configurations and files
1432 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1434 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1435 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1436 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1437 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1438 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1439 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1440 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1441 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1442 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1443 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1444 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1446 * Changes to command line processing
1448 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1449 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1451 * Changes to key bindings
1453 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1455 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1457 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1459 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1462 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1464 Numerous documentation fixes.
1466 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1468 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1470 * New native configurations
1472 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1473 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1474 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1475 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1476 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1477 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1481 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1483 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1485 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1487 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1488 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1489 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1490 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1491 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1493 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1494 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1495 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1496 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1497 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1498 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1499 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1500 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1502 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1503 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1505 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1506 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1507 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1508 permanently REMOVED.
1510 * REMOVED configurations and files
1512 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1513 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1515 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1519 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1521 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1522 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1527 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1529 * The MI enabled by default.
1531 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1532 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1533 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1534 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1535 which is now deprecated.
1537 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1539 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1540 main features are supported:
1542 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1544 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1547 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1549 - a Pascal expression parser.
1551 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1553 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1555 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1557 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1558 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1560 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1562 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1564 * Changes in completion.
1566 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1567 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1568 users expect at the shell prompt.
1570 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1571 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1572 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1573 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1574 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1575 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1576 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1578 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1580 * New platform-independent commands:
1582 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1583 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1584 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1586 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1588 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1589 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1590 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1592 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1594 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1595 multi-threaded programs though.
1597 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1599 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1601 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1602 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1605 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1607 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1608 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1609 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1610 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1611 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1614 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1615 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1616 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1618 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1620 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1621 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1623 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1624 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1627 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1628 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1629 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1630 a given linear address.
1632 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1633 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1634 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1636 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1638 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1640 * Changes in documentation.
1642 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1643 Documentation License.
1645 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1648 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1650 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1653 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1654 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1655 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1657 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1659 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1660 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1661 contents of this file.
1665 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1667 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1669 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1671 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1672 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1673 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1674 greater level of detail.
1676 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1678 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1679 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1680 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1683 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1685 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1686 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1687 machines ``out of the box''.
1689 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1690 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1691 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1692 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1693 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1695 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1696 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1697 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1698 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1699 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1701 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1702 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1705 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1708 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1709 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1710 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1711 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1713 * New native configurations
1715 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1716 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1720 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1721 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1722 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1723 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1725 * OBSOLETE configurations
1727 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1728 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1730 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1733 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1734 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1735 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1736 be permanently REMOVED.
1738 * Gould support removed
1740 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1742 * New features for SVR4
1744 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1745 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1746 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1748 * Many C++ enhancements
1750 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1751 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1753 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1755 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1756 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1757 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1758 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1760 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1761 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1763 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1765 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1766 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1767 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1769 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1770 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1772 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1774 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1775 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1776 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1778 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1780 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1781 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1782 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1784 * ``apropos'' command added.
1786 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1787 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1788 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1792 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1793 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1794 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1795 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1796 enabled by configuring with:
1798 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1800 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1802 * New native configurations
1804 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1805 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1806 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1810 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1811 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1812 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1814 * OBSOLETE configurations
1816 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1818 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1819 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1820 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1821 be permanently REMOVED.
1825 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1826 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1827 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1828 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1829 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1830 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1831 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1836 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1838 * set extension-language
1840 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1841 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1842 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1843 set extension-language .c c++
1844 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1845 and their associated languages.
1847 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1849 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1850 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1851 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1855 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1856 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1858 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1859 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1861 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1862 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1863 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1864 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1865 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1866 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1867 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1868 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1870 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1871 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1872 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1873 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1877 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1878 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1879 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1880 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1881 for xdb and dbx commands.
1885 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1886 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1887 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1889 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1890 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1891 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1893 * Debugging across forks
1895 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1900 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1901 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1902 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1904 * GDB remote protocol additions
1906 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1907 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1908 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1909 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1911 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1912 full 64-bit address. The command
1914 set remoteaddresssize 32
1916 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1917 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1920 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1921 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1923 maint packet heythere
1925 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1926 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1929 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1930 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1931 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1933 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1935 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1936 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1937 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1939 * mask-address variable for Mips
1941 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1942 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1943 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1945 * Higher serial baud rates
1947 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1948 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1949 to achieve all of these rates.)
1953 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1954 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1957 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1959 * New native configurations
1961 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1962 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1963 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1964 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1965 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1966 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1967 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1971 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1972 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1973 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1974 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1975 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1976 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1977 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1978 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1979 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1980 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1981 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1983 * New debugging protocols
1985 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1986 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1987 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1988 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1989 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1990 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1994 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1995 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2000 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2001 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2003 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2005 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2006 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2007 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2009 * Live range splitting
2011 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2012 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2013 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2017 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2018 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2022 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2023 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2024 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2029 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2034 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2035 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2036 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2037 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2038 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2039 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2043 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2044 the symbol at the specified address.
2048 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2049 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2050 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2051 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2052 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2056 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2057 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2058 of most MIPS variants.
2062 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2063 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2064 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2068 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2069 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2070 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2071 the possible architectures.
2073 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2075 * New native configurations
2077 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2078 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2079 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2080 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2081 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2082 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2086 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2087 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2088 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2089 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2090 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2092 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2096 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2097 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2098 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2099 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2100 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2104 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2106 * Windows 95/NT native
2108 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2109 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2110 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2111 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2112 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2114 * dont-repeat command
2116 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2117 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2118 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2119 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2121 * Send break instead of ^C
2123 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2124 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2125 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2127 * Remote protocol timeout
2129 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2130 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2131 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2133 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2135 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2136 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2137 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2138 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2139 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2141 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2142 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2143 automatically on hpux10.
2145 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2147 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2149 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2151 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2152 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2153 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2154 every character. The default value is 1050.
2156 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2158 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2159 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2160 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2161 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2162 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2163 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2165 * Speedups for remote debugging
2167 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2168 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2169 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2171 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2173 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2174 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2176 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2178 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2180 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2181 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2183 * Remote targets use caching
2185 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2186 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2187 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2188 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2189 off' turns the the data cache off.
2191 * Remote targets may have threads
2193 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2194 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2195 gdb/remote.c for details.
2199 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2200 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2201 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2202 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2203 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2204 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2205 sequence is something like
2207 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2209 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2213 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2214 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2215 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2216 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2217 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2218 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2219 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2220 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2224 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2225 but does simplify configuration and building.
2229 GDB now supports hpux10.
2231 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2233 * New native configurations
2235 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2236 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2237 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2238 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2242 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2243 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2244 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2245 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2248 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2250 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2251 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2252 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2253 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2254 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2256 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2258 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2259 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2262 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2264 To execute the command use:
2267 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2268 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2269 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2271 * New `if' and `while' commands
2273 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2274 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2275 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2276 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2277 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2278 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2279 if the expression is zero.
2281 * Fortran source language mode
2283 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2284 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2285 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2286 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2289 * Better HPUX support
2291 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2292 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2293 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2294 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2295 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2301 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2302 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2308 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2309 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2312 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2313 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2315 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2317 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2318 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2319 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2320 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2321 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2322 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2324 * New DOS host serial code
2326 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2327 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2330 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2332 * New "complete" command
2334 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2335 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2337 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2339 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2340 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2342 * Breakpoint hit counts
2344 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2345 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2346 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2347 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2348 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2351 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2353 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2354 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2355 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2357 * Shared library breakpoints
2359 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2360 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2362 * Hardware watchpoints
2364 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2365 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2367 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2371 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2372 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2374 * Improved Irix 5 support
2376 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2378 * Improved HPPA support
2380 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2382 * New native configurations
2384 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2385 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2386 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2387 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2391 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2392 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2395 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2397 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2398 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2402 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2403 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2405 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2407 * Irix 5 is now supported
2411 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2412 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2413 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2414 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2415 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2418 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2420 * User visible changes:
2424 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2425 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2426 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2427 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2428 debugging info for the mips target).
2430 * DEC Alpha native support
2432 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2433 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2434 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2435 Alpha-specific notes.
2437 * Preliminary thread implementation
2439 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2441 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2443 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2444 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2447 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2449 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2450 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2451 call methods, ...etc.
2453 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2455 * User visible changes:
2457 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2458 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2459 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2460 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2462 Filename completion now works.
2464 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2465 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2466 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2468 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2469 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2470 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2471 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2472 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2476 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2477 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2480 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2484 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2485 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2486 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2490 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2491 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2492 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2493 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2494 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2498 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2499 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2500 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2502 * New targets supported
2504 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2505 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2506 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2507 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2508 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2510 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2511 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2512 GO32 memory extender.
2514 * New remote protocols
2516 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2518 * New source languages supported
2520 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2521 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2522 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2525 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2527 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2529 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2530 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2531 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2532 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2533 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2534 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2536 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2538 * Faster and better demangling
2540 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2541 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2542 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2543 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2544 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2545 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2548 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2549 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2550 compiler does not actually implement.
2552 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2554 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2555 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2556 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2557 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2558 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2559 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2562 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2563 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2565 * Improved configure script
2567 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2568 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2569 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2570 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2572 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2573 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2574 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2575 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2576 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2577 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2579 * Documentation improvements
2581 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2582 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2583 before submitting changes.
2585 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2586 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2587 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2588 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2589 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2591 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2592 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2593 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2594 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2595 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2596 around this problem.
2600 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2601 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2602 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2605 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2606 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2608 * New native hosts supported
2610 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2611 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2613 * New targets supported
2615 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2617 * New file formats supported
2619 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2620 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2624 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2626 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2627 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2629 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2630 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2631 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2633 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2634 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2636 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2637 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2638 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2641 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2642 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2643 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2644 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2645 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2647 * Internal improvements
2649 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2650 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2652 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2653 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2654 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2655 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2656 shared code that handles any of them.
2658 * New command line options
2660 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2664 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2665 General Public License.
2667 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2669 * Host/native/target split
2671 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2672 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2673 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2674 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2675 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2677 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2678 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2679 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2680 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2681 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2682 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2683 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2685 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2686 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2687 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2689 * New hosts supported
2691 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2692 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2693 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2695 * New targets supported
2697 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2698 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2700 * New native hosts supported
2702 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2703 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2704 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2706 * New file formats supported
2708 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2709 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2710 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2714 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2715 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2716 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2718 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2720 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2721 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2722 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2723 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2727 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2728 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2729 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2731 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2735 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2736 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2739 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2740 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2742 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2743 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2744 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2745 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2746 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2747 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2749 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2750 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2751 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2752 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2756 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2757 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2758 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2759 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2760 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2762 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2763 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2764 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2765 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2769 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2770 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2771 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2772 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2773 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2774 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2775 each instruction being stepped through.
2777 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2778 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2780 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2781 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2782 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2783 processor with a serial port.
2787 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2788 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2789 supported, and what files each one uses.
2793 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2794 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2795 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2796 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2798 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2799 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2800 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2801 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2805 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2806 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2807 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2808 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2809 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2810 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2812 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2815 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2817 * Better support for C++ function names
2819 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2820 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2821 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2822 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2823 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2825 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2826 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2827 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2828 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2829 for the list of formats.
2831 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2833 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2834 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2835 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2836 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2837 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2838 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2841 * New 'maintenance' command
2843 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2844 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2845 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2847 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2848 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2849 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2850 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2851 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2852 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2854 The following commands are new:
2856 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2857 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2858 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2860 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2862 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2863 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2864 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2865 read after argv processing.
2867 * New hosts supported
2869 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2871 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2873 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2874 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2875 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2876 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2877 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2880 * New targets supported
2882 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2884 * More smarts about finding #include files
2886 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2887 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2888 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2889 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2890 the one that contains your sources.
2892 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2893 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2894 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2896 * Interesting infernals change
2898 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2899 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2900 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2901 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2903 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2905 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2906 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2907 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2909 See the ChangeLog for details.
2911 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2913 * New machines supported (host and target)
2915 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2917 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2919 * New malloc package
2921 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2922 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2923 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2924 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2925 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2926 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2930 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2931 'help info proc' for details.
2933 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2935 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2936 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2939 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2941 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2942 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2943 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2944 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2945 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2946 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2948 * Cross byte order fixes
2950 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2951 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2953 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2955 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2956 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2957 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2958 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2959 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2960 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2961 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2962 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2963 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2964 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2966 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2967 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2968 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2969 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2971 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2972 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2973 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2976 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2978 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2979 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2980 shared across multiple host platforms.
2982 * longjmp() handling
2984 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2985 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2986 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2987 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2991 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2992 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2997 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2998 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2999 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3001 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3003 * New machines supported (host and target)
3005 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3007 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3008 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3010 * New machines supported (target)
3012 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3016 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3017 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3018 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3020 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3021 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3022 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3023 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3024 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3027 * New features for SVR4
3029 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3030 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3031 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3033 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3034 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3035 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3037 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3038 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3040 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3042 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3043 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3044 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3045 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3046 same code linked statically.
3050 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3051 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3052 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3053 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3054 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3055 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3059 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3060 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3061 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3064 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3066 * New machines supported (host and target)
3068 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3069 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3070 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3072 * Almost SCO Unix support
3074 We had hoped to support:
3075 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3076 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3077 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3078 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3080 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3082 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3083 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3084 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3085 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3090 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3091 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3092 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3096 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3097 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3098 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3100 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3102 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3103 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3104 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3106 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3107 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3108 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3109 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3112 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3113 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3114 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3115 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3118 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3119 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3122 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3123 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3124 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3127 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3129 * Improved configuration
3131 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3132 Porting BFD is simpler.
3136 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3137 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3138 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3139 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3143 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3145 * New host supported (not target)
3147 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3150 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3152 * Multiple source language support
3154 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3155 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3156 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3157 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3158 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3159 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3163 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3164 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3165 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3166 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3168 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3169 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3170 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3172 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3173 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3177 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3178 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3179 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3180 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3183 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3185 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3186 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3187 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3188 examining core files.
3192 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3195 * New machines supported (host and target)
3197 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3198 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3199 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3201 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3203 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3205 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3207 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3208 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3209 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3211 * New remote interfaces
3217 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3221 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3223 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3224 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3225 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3226 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3227 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3228 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3229 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3230 stub on the target system.
3232 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3234 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3235 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3236 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3238 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3239 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3242 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3244 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3245 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3247 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3248 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3249 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3251 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3252 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3253 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3254 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3256 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3257 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3258 it is already running. Default is ON.
3260 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3261 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3262 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3263 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3266 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3267 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3268 or the value of the environment variable
3271 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3272 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3275 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3276 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3277 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3279 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3280 history expansion will be performed on
3281 command line input. The default is OFF.
3283 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3284 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3285 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3287 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3288 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3289 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3292 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3293 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3294 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3297 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3298 ``set width'' instead.
3300 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3301 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3302 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3303 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3305 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3308 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3311 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3314 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3317 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3319 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3320 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3321 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3325 * Support for Shared Libraries
3327 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3328 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3329 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3330 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3331 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3332 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3333 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3334 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3336 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3337 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3338 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3340 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3345 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3346 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3347 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3348 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3349 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3350 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3352 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3354 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3356 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3357 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3358 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3361 * C++ multiple inheritance
3363 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3366 * C++ exception handling
3368 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3369 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3370 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3373 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3374 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3375 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3377 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3378 current stack frame.
3381 * Minor command changes
3383 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3384 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3385 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3387 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3388 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3389 frames without printing.
3391 * New directory command
3393 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3394 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3395 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3396 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3397 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3399 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3401 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3404 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3405 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3406 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3407 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob