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