1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.5
6 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
7 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
8 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
10 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
11 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
16 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
18 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
19 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
24 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
25 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
26 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
27 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
31 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
32 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
34 * Removed remote packets
37 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
38 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
40 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
44 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
46 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
50 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
51 only if it doesn't already have a value.
53 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
55 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
57 restart <n> Return the program state to a
58 previously saved state.
60 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
62 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
64 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
65 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
67 info forks List forks of the user program that
68 are available to be debugged.
70 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
71 forks of the user program that are
72 available to be debugged.
74 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
75 that are available to be debugged (and
76 kill the forked process).
78 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
79 that are available to be debugged (and
80 allow the process to continue).
84 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
86 * Improved Windows host support
88 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
89 native console support, and remote communications using either
90 network sockets or serial ports.
92 * Improved Modula-2 language support
94 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
95 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
96 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
97 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
98 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
99 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
103 The ARM rdi-share module.
105 The Netware NLM debug server.
107 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
109 * New native configurations
111 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
112 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
116 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
118 * New command line options
120 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
121 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
122 the child (debugged) program exited with.
123 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
124 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
125 specified multiple times and in conjunction
126 with the --command (-x) option.
128 * Deprecated commands removed
130 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
134 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
135 othernames set arm disassembler
136 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
137 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
138 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
141 * New BSD user-level threads support
143 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
144 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
147 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
148 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
149 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
151 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
152 are not yet supported.
154 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
155 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
157 * REMOVED configurations and files
159 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
160 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
161 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
163 * New "set print array-indexes" command
165 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
166 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
169 * VAX floating point support
171 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
173 * User-defined command support
175 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
176 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
177 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
179 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
181 * New command line option
183 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
186 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
188 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
189 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
190 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
191 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
192 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
194 * Internationalization
196 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
197 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
198 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
202 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
203 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
204 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
206 * New native configurations
208 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
212 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
213 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
215 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
217 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
218 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
219 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
222 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
223 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
224 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
236 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
237 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
239 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
241 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
242 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
243 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
253 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
255 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
257 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
258 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
261 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
263 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
264 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
265 IRIX long double values).
269 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
270 command. This problem has been fixed.
272 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
274 * Fix for ``many threads''
276 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
277 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
280 ptrace: No such process.
281 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
283 This problem has been fixed.
285 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
287 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
290 * New ``start'' command.
292 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
294 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
296 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
297 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
298 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
300 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
301 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
302 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
303 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
304 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
305 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
306 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
307 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
308 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
310 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
312 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
313 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
314 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
315 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
316 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
318 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
319 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
320 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
322 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
324 * New native configurations
326 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
327 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
328 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
329 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
330 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
331 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
332 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
334 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
336 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
337 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
338 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
339 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
340 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
341 work, was also included.
343 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
344 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
354 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
355 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
357 * REMOVED configurations and files
359 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
360 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
361 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
362 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
363 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
364 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
365 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
366 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
367 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
369 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
371 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
373 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
375 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
376 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
377 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
378 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
381 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
383 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
384 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
385 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
386 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
387 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
388 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
391 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
393 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
395 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
396 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
397 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
399 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
401 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
402 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
404 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
406 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
407 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
408 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
410 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
412 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
413 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
415 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
417 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
418 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
419 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
421 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
423 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
424 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
425 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
427 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
429 * Removed --with-mmalloc
431 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
432 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
434 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
436 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
437 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
438 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
439 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
441 * Revised SPARC target
443 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
444 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
445 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
446 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
447 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
451 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
452 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
453 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
456 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
458 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
459 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
462 * C++ nested types and namespaces
464 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
465 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
466 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
467 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
468 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
469 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
470 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
471 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
472 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
474 * New native configurations
476 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
477 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
478 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
479 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
480 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
482 * New debugging protocols
484 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
486 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
488 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
489 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
490 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
492 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
494 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
495 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
496 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
499 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
500 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
501 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
502 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
503 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
504 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
505 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
506 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
507 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
509 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
511 * REMOVED configurations and files
513 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
514 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
515 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
516 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
517 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
518 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
519 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
520 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
521 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
522 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
523 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
524 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
525 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
526 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
527 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
528 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
529 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
531 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
535 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
538 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
540 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
541 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
542 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
545 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
546 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
551 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
552 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
553 remote protocol documentation for details.
555 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
557 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
558 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
559 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
562 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
564 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
565 per-thread variables.
567 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
569 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
570 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
572 * Separate debug info.
574 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
575 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
576 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
577 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
578 and optional debug files.
580 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
582 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
583 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
586 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
587 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
591 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
592 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
593 considered "useable".
595 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
597 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
598 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
601 * GDB supports logging output to a file
603 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
604 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
606 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
608 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
609 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
612 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
614 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
615 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
619 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
620 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
621 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
622 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
623 data, for more informative profiling results.
625 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
627 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
628 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
629 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
631 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
634 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
635 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
636 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
637 in a subsequent -var-update.
639 * New native configurations.
641 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
643 * Multi-arched targets.
645 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
646 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
648 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
650 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
651 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
652 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
655 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
656 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
657 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
658 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
659 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
660 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
661 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
662 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
663 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
664 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
665 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
666 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
668 * REMOVED configurations and files
671 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
672 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
673 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
674 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
675 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
676 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
678 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
679 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
680 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
681 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
682 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
683 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
685 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
687 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
688 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
689 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
690 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
691 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
693 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
695 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
697 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
698 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
699 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
700 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
701 shared libs like mad''.
703 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
705 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
706 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
707 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
708 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
710 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
712 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
713 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
716 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
717 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
719 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
720 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
722 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
723 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
724 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
725 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
727 * Multi-arched targets.
729 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
730 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
732 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
733 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
734 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
738 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
741 * New native configurations
743 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
744 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
745 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
746 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
748 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
750 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
751 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
752 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
755 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
756 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
757 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
758 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
759 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
760 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
761 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
762 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
763 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
764 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
766 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
767 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
771 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
773 * REMOVED configurations and files
775 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
776 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
777 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
778 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
779 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
781 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
783 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
785 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
786 commands. The default is 1024.
788 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
790 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
792 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
794 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
795 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
796 from a file into memory (restore).
798 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
800 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
801 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
802 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
804 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
812 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
813 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
814 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
816 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
817 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
818 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
820 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
821 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
822 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
824 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
825 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
826 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
828 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
830 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
832 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
833 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
834 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
835 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
836 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
837 (notably embedded) targets.
839 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
841 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
842 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
843 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
844 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
846 * New command line option
848 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
850 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
852 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
853 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
854 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
855 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
856 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
857 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
858 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
859 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
860 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
861 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
863 * Changes in ARM configurations.
865 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
866 configuration is fully multi-arch.
868 * New native configurations
870 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
871 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
872 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
873 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
877 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
879 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
881 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
882 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
883 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
886 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
887 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
888 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
889 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
890 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
892 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
894 * REMOVED configurations and files
896 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
898 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
899 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
900 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
901 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
902 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
903 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
904 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
905 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
906 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
907 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
908 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
910 * Changes to command line processing
912 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
913 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
915 * Changes to key bindings
917 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
919 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
921 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
923 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
926 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
928 Numerous documentation fixes.
930 Numerous testsuite fixes.
932 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
934 * New native configurations
936 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
937 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
938 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
939 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
941 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
945 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
947 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
949 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
951 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
952 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
953 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
954 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
955 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
957 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
958 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
959 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
960 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
961 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
962 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
963 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
964 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
966 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
967 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
969 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
970 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
971 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
974 * REMOVED configurations and files
976 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
977 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
979 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
983 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
985 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
986 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
991 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
993 * The MI enabled by default.
995 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
996 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
997 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
998 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
999 which is now deprecated.
1001 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1003 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1004 main features are supported:
1006 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1008 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1011 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1013 - a Pascal expression parser.
1015 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1017 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1019 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1021 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1022 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1024 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1026 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1028 * Changes in completion.
1030 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1031 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1032 users expect at the shell prompt.
1034 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1035 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1036 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1037 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1038 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1039 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1040 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1042 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1044 * New platform-independent commands:
1046 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1047 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1048 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1050 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1052 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1053 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1054 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1056 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1058 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1059 multi-threaded programs though.
1061 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1063 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1065 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1066 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1069 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1071 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1072 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1073 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1074 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1075 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1078 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1079 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1080 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1082 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1084 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1085 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1087 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1088 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1091 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1092 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1093 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1094 a given linear address.
1096 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1097 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1098 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1100 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1102 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1104 * Changes in documentation.
1106 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1107 Documentation License.
1109 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1112 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1114 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1117 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1118 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1119 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1121 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1123 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1124 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1125 contents of this file.
1129 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1131 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1133 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1135 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1136 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1137 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1138 greater level of detail.
1140 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1142 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1143 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1144 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1147 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1149 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1150 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1151 machines ``out of the box''.
1153 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1154 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1155 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1156 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1157 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1159 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1160 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1161 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1162 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1163 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1165 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1166 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1169 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1172 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1173 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1174 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1175 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1177 * New native configurations
1179 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1180 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1184 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1185 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1186 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1187 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1189 * OBSOLETE configurations
1191 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1192 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1194 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1197 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1198 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1199 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1200 be permanently REMOVED.
1202 * Gould support removed
1204 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1206 * New features for SVR4
1208 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1209 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1210 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1212 * Many C++ enhancements
1214 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1215 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1217 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1219 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1220 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1221 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1222 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1224 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1225 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1227 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1229 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1230 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1231 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1233 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1234 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1236 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1238 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1239 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1240 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1242 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1244 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1245 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1246 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1248 * ``apropos'' command added.
1250 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1251 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1252 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1256 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1257 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1258 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1259 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1260 enabled by configuring with:
1262 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1264 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1266 * New native configurations
1268 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1269 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1270 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1274 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1275 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1276 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1278 * OBSOLETE configurations
1280 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1282 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1283 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1284 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1285 be permanently REMOVED.
1289 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1290 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1291 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1292 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1293 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1294 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1295 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1300 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1302 * set extension-language
1304 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1305 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1306 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1307 set extension-language .c c++
1308 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1309 and their associated languages.
1311 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1313 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1314 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1315 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1319 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1320 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1322 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1323 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1325 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1326 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1327 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1328 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1329 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1330 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1331 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1332 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1334 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1335 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1336 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1337 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1341 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1342 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1343 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1344 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1345 for xdb and dbx commands.
1349 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1350 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1351 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1353 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1354 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1355 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1357 * Debugging across forks
1359 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1364 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1365 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1366 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1368 * GDB remote protocol additions
1370 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1371 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1372 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1373 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1375 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1376 full 64-bit address. The command
1378 set remoteaddresssize 32
1380 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1381 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1384 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1385 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1387 maint packet heythere
1389 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1390 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1393 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1394 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1395 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1397 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1399 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1400 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1401 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1403 * mask-address variable for Mips
1405 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1406 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1407 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1409 * Higher serial baud rates
1411 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1412 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1413 to achieve all of these rates.)
1417 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1418 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1421 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1423 * New native configurations
1425 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1426 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1427 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1428 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1429 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1430 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1431 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1435 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1436 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1437 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1438 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1439 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1440 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1441 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1442 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1443 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1444 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1445 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1447 * New debugging protocols
1449 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1450 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1451 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1452 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1453 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1454 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1458 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1459 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1464 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1465 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1467 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1469 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1470 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1471 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1473 * Live range splitting
1475 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1476 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1477 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1481 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1482 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1486 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1487 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1488 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1493 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1498 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1499 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1500 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1501 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1502 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1503 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1507 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1508 the symbol at the specified address.
1512 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1513 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1514 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1515 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1516 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1520 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1521 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1522 of most MIPS variants.
1526 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1527 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1528 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1532 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1533 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1534 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1535 the possible architectures.
1537 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1539 * New native configurations
1541 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1542 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1543 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1544 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1545 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1546 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1550 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1551 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1552 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1553 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1554 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1556 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1560 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1561 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1562 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1563 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1564 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1568 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1570 * Windows 95/NT native
1572 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1573 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1574 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1575 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1576 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1578 * dont-repeat command
1580 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1581 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1582 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1583 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1585 * Send break instead of ^C
1587 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1588 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1589 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1591 * Remote protocol timeout
1593 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1594 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1595 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1597 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1599 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1600 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1601 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1602 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1603 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1605 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1606 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1607 automatically on hpux10.
1609 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1611 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1613 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1615 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1616 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1617 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1618 every character. The default value is 1050.
1620 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1622 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1623 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1624 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1625 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1626 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1627 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1629 * Speedups for remote debugging
1631 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1632 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1633 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1635 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1637 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1638 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1640 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1642 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1644 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1645 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1647 * Remote targets use caching
1649 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1650 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1651 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1652 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1653 off' turns the the data cache off.
1655 * Remote targets may have threads
1657 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1658 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1659 gdb/remote.c for details.
1663 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1664 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1665 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1666 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1667 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1668 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1669 sequence is something like
1671 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1673 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1677 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1678 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1679 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1680 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1681 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1682 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1683 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1684 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1688 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1689 but does simplify configuration and building.
1693 GDB now supports hpux10.
1695 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1697 * New native configurations
1699 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1700 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1701 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1702 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1706 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1707 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1708 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1709 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1712 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1714 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1715 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1716 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1717 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1718 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1720 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1722 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1723 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1726 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1728 To execute the command use:
1731 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1732 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1733 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1735 * New `if' and `while' commands
1737 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1738 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1739 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1740 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1741 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1742 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1743 if the expression is zero.
1745 * Fortran source language mode
1747 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1748 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1749 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1750 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1753 * Better HPUX support
1755 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1756 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1757 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1758 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1759 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1765 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1766 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1772 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1773 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1776 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1777 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1779 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1781 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1782 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1783 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1784 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1785 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1786 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1788 * New DOS host serial code
1790 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1791 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1794 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1796 * New "complete" command
1798 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1799 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1801 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1803 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1804 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1806 * Breakpoint hit counts
1808 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1809 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1810 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1811 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1812 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1815 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1817 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1818 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1819 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1821 * Shared library breakpoints
1823 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1824 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1826 * Hardware watchpoints
1828 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1829 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1831 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1835 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1836 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1838 * Improved Irix 5 support
1840 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1842 * Improved HPPA support
1844 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1846 * New native configurations
1848 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1849 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1850 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1851 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1855 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1856 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1859 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1861 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1862 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1866 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1867 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1869 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1871 * Irix 5 is now supported
1875 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1876 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1877 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1878 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1879 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1882 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1884 * User visible changes:
1888 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1889 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1890 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1891 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1892 debugging info for the mips target).
1894 * DEC Alpha native support
1896 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1897 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1898 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1899 Alpha-specific notes.
1901 * Preliminary thread implementation
1903 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1905 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1907 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1908 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1911 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1913 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1914 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1915 call methods, ...etc.
1917 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1919 * User visible changes:
1921 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1922 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1923 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1924 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1926 Filename completion now works.
1928 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1929 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1930 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1932 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1933 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1934 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1935 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1936 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1940 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1941 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1944 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1948 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1949 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1950 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1954 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1955 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1956 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1957 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1958 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1962 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1963 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1964 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1966 * New targets supported
1968 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1969 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1970 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1971 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1972 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1974 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1975 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1976 GO32 memory extender.
1978 * New remote protocols
1980 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1982 * New source languages supported
1984 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1985 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1986 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1989 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1991 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1993 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1994 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1995 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1996 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1997 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1998 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2000 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2002 * Faster and better demangling
2004 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2005 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2006 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2007 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2008 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2009 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2012 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2013 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2014 compiler does not actually implement.
2016 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2018 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2019 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2020 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2021 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2022 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2023 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2026 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2027 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2029 * Improved configure script
2031 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2032 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2033 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2034 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2036 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2037 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2038 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2039 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2040 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2041 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2043 * Documentation improvements
2045 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2046 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2047 before submitting changes.
2049 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2050 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2051 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2052 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2053 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2055 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2056 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2057 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2058 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2059 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2060 around this problem.
2064 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2065 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2066 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2069 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2070 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2072 * New native hosts supported
2074 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2075 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2077 * New targets supported
2079 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2081 * New file formats supported
2083 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2084 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2088 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2090 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2091 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2093 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2094 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2095 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2097 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2098 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2100 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2101 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2102 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2105 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2106 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2107 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2108 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2109 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2111 * Internal improvements
2113 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2114 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2116 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2117 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2118 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2119 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2120 shared code that handles any of them.
2122 * New command line options
2124 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2128 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2129 General Public License.
2131 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2133 * Host/native/target split
2135 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2136 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2137 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2138 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2139 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2141 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2142 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2143 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2144 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2145 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2146 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2147 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2149 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2150 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2151 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2153 * New hosts supported
2155 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2156 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2157 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2159 * New targets supported
2161 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2162 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2164 * New native hosts supported
2166 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2167 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2168 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2170 * New file formats supported
2172 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2173 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2174 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2178 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2179 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2180 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2182 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2184 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2185 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2186 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2187 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2191 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2192 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2193 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2195 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2199 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2200 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2203 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2204 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2206 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2207 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2208 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2209 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2210 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2211 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2213 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2214 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2215 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2216 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2220 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2221 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2222 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2223 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2224 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2226 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2227 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2228 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2229 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2233 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2234 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2235 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2236 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2237 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2238 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2239 each instruction being stepped through.
2241 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2242 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2244 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2245 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2246 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2247 processor with a serial port.
2251 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2252 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2253 supported, and what files each one uses.
2257 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2258 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2259 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2260 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2262 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2263 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2264 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2265 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2269 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2270 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2271 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2272 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2273 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2274 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2276 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2279 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2281 * Better support for C++ function names
2283 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2284 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2285 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2286 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2287 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2289 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2290 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2291 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2292 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2293 for the list of formats.
2295 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2297 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2298 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2299 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2300 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2301 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2302 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2305 * New 'maintenance' command
2307 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2308 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2309 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2311 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2312 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2313 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2314 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2315 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2316 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2318 The following commands are new:
2320 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2321 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2322 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2324 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2326 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2327 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2328 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2329 read after argv processing.
2331 * New hosts supported
2333 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2335 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2337 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2338 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2339 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2340 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2341 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2344 * New targets supported
2346 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2348 * More smarts about finding #include files
2350 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2351 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2352 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2353 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2354 the one that contains your sources.
2356 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2357 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2358 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2360 * Interesting infernals change
2362 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2363 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2364 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2365 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2367 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2369 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2370 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2371 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2373 See the ChangeLog for details.
2375 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2377 * New machines supported (host and target)
2379 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2381 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2383 * New malloc package
2385 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2386 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2387 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2388 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2389 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2390 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2394 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2395 'help info proc' for details.
2397 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2399 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2400 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2403 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2405 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2406 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2407 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2408 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2409 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2410 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2412 * Cross byte order fixes
2414 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2415 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2417 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2419 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2420 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2421 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2422 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2423 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2424 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2425 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2426 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2427 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2428 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2430 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2431 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2432 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2433 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2435 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2436 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2437 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2440 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2442 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2443 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2444 shared across multiple host platforms.
2446 * longjmp() handling
2448 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2449 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2450 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2451 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2455 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2456 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2461 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2462 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2463 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2465 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2467 * New machines supported (host and target)
2469 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2471 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2472 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2474 * New machines supported (target)
2476 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2480 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2481 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2482 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2484 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2485 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2486 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2487 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2488 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2491 * New features for SVR4
2493 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2494 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2495 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2497 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2498 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2499 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2501 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2502 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2504 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2506 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2507 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2508 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2509 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2510 same code linked statically.
2514 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2515 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2516 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2517 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2518 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2519 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2523 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2524 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2525 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2528 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2530 * New machines supported (host and target)
2532 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2533 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2534 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2536 * Almost SCO Unix support
2538 We had hoped to support:
2539 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2540 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2541 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2542 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2544 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2546 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2547 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2548 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2549 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2554 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2555 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2556 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2560 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2561 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2562 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2564 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2566 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2567 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2568 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2570 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2571 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2572 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2573 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2576 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2577 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2578 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2579 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2582 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2583 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2586 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2587 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2588 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2591 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2593 * Improved configuration
2595 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2596 Porting BFD is simpler.
2600 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2601 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2602 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2603 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2607 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2609 * New host supported (not target)
2611 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2614 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2616 * Multiple source language support
2618 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2619 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2620 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2621 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2622 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2623 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2627 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2628 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2629 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2630 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2632 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2633 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2634 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2636 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2637 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2641 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2642 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2643 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2644 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2647 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2649 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2650 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2651 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2652 examining core files.
2656 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2659 * New machines supported (host and target)
2661 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2662 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2663 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2665 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2667 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2669 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2671 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2672 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2673 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2675 * New remote interfaces
2681 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2685 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2687 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2688 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2689 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2690 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2691 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2692 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2693 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2694 stub on the target system.
2696 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2698 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2699 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2700 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2702 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2703 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2706 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2708 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2709 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2711 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2712 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2713 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2715 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2716 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2717 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2718 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2720 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2721 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2722 it is already running. Default is ON.
2724 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2725 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2726 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2727 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2730 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2731 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2732 or the value of the environment variable
2735 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2736 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2739 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2740 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2741 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2743 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2744 history expansion will be performed on
2745 command line input. The default is OFF.
2747 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2748 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2749 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2751 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2752 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2753 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2756 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2757 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2758 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2761 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2762 ``set width'' instead.
2764 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2765 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2766 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2767 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2769 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2772 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2775 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2778 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2781 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2783 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2784 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2785 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2789 * Support for Shared Libraries
2791 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2792 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2793 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2794 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2795 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2796 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2797 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2798 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2800 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2801 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2802 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2804 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2809 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2810 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2811 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2812 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2813 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2814 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2816 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2818 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2820 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2821 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2822 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2825 * C++ multiple inheritance
2827 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2830 * C++ exception handling
2832 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2833 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2834 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2837 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2838 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2839 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2841 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2842 current stack frame.
2845 * Minor command changes
2847 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2848 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2849 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2851 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2852 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2853 frames without printing.
2855 * New directory command
2857 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2858 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2859 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2860 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2861 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2863 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2865 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2868 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2869 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2870 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2871 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob