afb817f53c11dae673376c423abba25d2a8994c6
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.12
5
6 * GDB and GDBserver now require building with a C++11 compiler.
7
8 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
9
10 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
11 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
12 removed.
13
14 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
15
16 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
17 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
18 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
19 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
20 features.
21
22 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
23
24 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
25 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
26 debugger.
27
28 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
29
30 * New targets
31
32 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
33
34 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
35
36 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
37
38 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
39 default. One must now explicitly configure with
40 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
41 option will be removed in a future release.
42
43 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
44 GDB connection.
45
46 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
47 memory backward from the given address. For example:
48
49 (gdb) bt
50 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
51 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
52 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
53 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
54 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
55 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
56 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
57 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
58 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
59
60 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
61 arrays of dynamic types.
62
63 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
64 descriptions.
65
66 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
67 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
68 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
69
70 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
71
72 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
73 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
74 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
75 signal received and code location.
76
77 For example:
78
79 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
80 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
81 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
82 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
83
84 * Rust language support.
85 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
86 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
87 Rust.
88
89 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
90
91 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
92 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
93 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
94 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
95 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
96 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
97 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
98 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
99 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
100 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
101 line.
102
103 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
104
105 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
106 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
107
108 * New commands
109
110 skip -file file
111 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
112 skip -function function
113 skip -rfunction regular-expression
114 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
115 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
116 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
117
118 maint info line-table REGEXP
119 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
120
121 maint selftest
122 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
123
124 new-ui INTERP TTY
125 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
126 using the TTY file for input/output.
127
128 * Python Scripting
129
130 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
131 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
132 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
133 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
134 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
135
136 signal-event EVENTID
137 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
138 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
139 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
140 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
141 signalling an event.
142
143 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
144 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
145 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
146
147 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
148 been removed:
149
150 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
151 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
152 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
153 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
154 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
155 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
156
157 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
158 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
159 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
160 bytecode into native code.
161
162 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
163 recording. For example:
164
165 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
166
167 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
168
169 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
170
171 * New targets
172
173 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
174
175 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
176
177 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
178
179 * Per-inferior thread numbers
180
181 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
182 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
183 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
184
185 (gdb) info threads
186 Id Target Id Frame
187 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
188 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
189 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
190 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
191
192 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
193 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
194 are no longer unique between inferiors.
195
196 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
197 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
198 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
199
200 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
201 IDs.
202
203 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
204 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
205
206 (gdb) thread 2.1
207 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
208 (gdb)
209
210 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
211 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
212 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
213 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
214 threads 2.*".
215
216 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
217 all threads.
218
219 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
220 the current thread.
221
222 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
223 current inferior.
224
225 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
226 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
227 example:
228
229 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
230 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
231
232 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
233
234 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
235
236 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
237 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
238
239 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
240 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
241 clients.
242
243 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
244 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
245 at the same time.
246
247 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
248 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
249 into native code.
250
251 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
252
253 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
254 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
255 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
256
257 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
258 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
259
260 * New commands
261
262 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
263 maint show target-non-stop
264 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
265 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
266 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
267
268 maint set bfd-sharing
269 maint show bfd-sharing
270 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
271
272 set debug bfd-cache
273 show debug bfd-cache
274 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
275
276 set debug fbsd-lwp
277 show debug fbsd-lwp
278 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
279
280 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
281 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
282 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
283
284 set remote thread-events
285 show remote thread-events
286 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
287
288 set ada print-signatures on|off
289 show ada print-signatures"
290 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
291 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
292
293 set max-value-size
294 show max-value-size
295 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
296 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
297 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
298
299 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
300 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
301 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
302 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
303 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
304 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
305
306 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
307 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
308
309 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
310 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
311
312 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
313
314 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
315 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
316 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
317 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
318 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
319 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
320
321 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
322 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
323
324 * New remote packets
325
326 exec stop reason
327 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
328
329 exec-events feature in qSupported
330 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
331 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
332 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
333 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
334
335 vCtrlC
336 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
337 non-stop mode.
338
339 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
340 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
341
342 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
343 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
344
345 QThreadEvents
346 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
347 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
348 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
349 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
350 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
351 stop for that same thread.
352
353 N stop reply
354 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
355 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
356 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
357
358 QCatchSyscalls
359 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
360 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
361
362 syscall_entry stop reason
363 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
364
365 syscall_return stop reason
366 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
367
368 * Extended-remote exec events
369
370 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
371 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
372 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
373
374 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
375 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
376 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
377
378 * Thread names in remote protocol
379
380 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
381 thread.
382
383 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
384
385 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
386 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
387 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
388 fork and exec catchpoints.
389
390 * Remote syscall events
391
392 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
393 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
394
395 set remote catch-syscall-packet
396 show remote catch-syscall-packet
397 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
398
399 * MI changes
400
401 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
402 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
403 left.
404
405 * Python Scripting
406
407 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
408 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
409 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
410 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
411 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
412 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
413
414 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
415
416 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
417 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
418 including advance SIMD instructions.
419
420 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
421
422 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
423 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
424 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
425 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
426 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
427 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
428 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
429
430 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
431 cpu information :
432 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
433
434 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
435 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
436 remote serial I/O.
437
438 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
439 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
440 and may include things like its command line arguments.
441
442 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
443 is now available on all platforms.
444
445 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
446 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
447 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
448 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
449 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
450 backward compatibility.
451
452 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
453 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
454 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
455 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
456
457 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
458 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
459 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
460 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
461 packets" below.
462
463 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
464
465 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
466
467 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
468 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
469 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
470 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
471 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
472 See "New remote packets" below.
473
474 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
475 available register groups, including target specific groups.
476
477 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
478 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
479 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
480 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
481 are ignored.
482
483 * Guile Scripting
484
485 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
486
487 * Python Scripting
488
489 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
490 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
491 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
492 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
493 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
494 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
495 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
496 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
497 "const" version of the value respectively.
498
499 * New commands
500
501 maint print symbol-cache
502 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
503
504 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
505 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
506
507 maint flush-symbol-cache
508 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
509
510 record btrace bts
511 record bts
512 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
513
514 compile print
515 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
516
517 tui enable
518 tui disable
519 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
520
521 show mpx bound
522 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
523 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
524
525 record btrace pt
526 record pt
527 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
528
529 maint info btrace
530 Print information about branch tracing internals.
531
532 maint btrace packet-history
533 Print the raw branch tracing data.
534
535 maint btrace clear-packet-history
536 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
537
538 maint btrace clear
539 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
540 anew by the next "record" command.
541
542 * New options
543
544 set debug dwarf-die
545 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
546 show debug dwarf-die
547 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
548
549 set debug dwarf-read
550 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
551 show debug dwarf-read
552 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
553
554 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
555 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
556 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
557 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
558
559 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
560 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
561 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
562 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
563
564 set debug dwarf-line
565 show debug dwarf-line
566 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
567
568 set max-completions
569 show max-completions
570 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
571 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
572 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
573 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
574
575 set history remove-duplicates
576 show history remove-duplicates
577 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
578
579 maint set symbol-cache-size
580 maint show symbol-cache-size
581 Control the size of the symbol cache.
582
583 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
584 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
585 BTS format.
586 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
587 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
588
589 set debug linux-namespaces
590 show debug linux-namespaces
591 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
592
593 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
594 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
595 Intel Processor Trace format.
596 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
597 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
598
599 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
600 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
601 packet history.
602
603 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
604 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
605
606 * Python/Guile scripting
607
608 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
609 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
610
611 * New remote packets
612
613 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
614 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
615
616 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
617 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
618
619 Qbtrace:pt
620 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
621 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
622 qSupported query.
623
624 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
625 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
626 Trace format.
627
628 swbreak stop reason
629 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
630 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
631 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
632 mode operation.
633
634 hwbreak stop reason
635 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
636 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
637
638 vFile:fstat:
639 Return information about files on the remote system.
640
641 qXfer:exec-file:read
642 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
643 create a process running on the remote system.
644
645 vFile:setfs:
646 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
647 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
648 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
649 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
650
651 fork stop reason
652 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
653
654 vfork stop reason
655 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
656
657 vforkdone stop reason
658 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
659 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
660
661 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
662 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
663 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
664 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
665 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
666 whether these features are enabled.
667
668 * Extended-remote fork events
669
670 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
671 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
672 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
673 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
674
675 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
676 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
677 the btrace record target.
678 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
679
680 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
681 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
682
683 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
684 targets.
685
686 * Removed command line options
687
688 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
689
690 * Removed targets and native configurations
691
692 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
693 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
694
695 * New configure options
696
697 --with-intel-pt
698 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
699 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
700
701 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
702 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
703 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
704 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
705
706 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
707
708 * Python Scripting
709
710 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
711
712 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
713
714 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
715
716 * Python Scripting
717
718 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
719 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
720 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
721 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
722 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
723 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
724 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
725 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
726 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
727 selecting a new file to debug.
728 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
729 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
730
731 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
732 inferior.
733
734 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
735 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
736 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
737 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
738
739 * New Python-based convenience functions:
740
741 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
742 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
743 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
744 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
745
746 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
747 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
748 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
749 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
750 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
751 interface with this new feature are:
752
753 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
754 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
755
756 * New commands
757
758 demangle [-l language] [--] name
759 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
760 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
761 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
762 as "maint demangler-warning".
763
764 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
765 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
766
767 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
768 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
769 scripts.
770
771 maint print user-registers
772 List all currently available "user" registers.
773
774 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
775 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
776 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
777
778 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
779 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
780 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
781 provided.
782
783 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
784 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
785 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
786 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
787 at resume time.
788
789 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
790 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
791 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
792 switched threads meanwhile.
793
794 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
795
796 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
797 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
798 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
799 is now the default mode.
800
801 * New options
802
803 set debug symbol-lookup
804 show debug symbol-lookup
805 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
806
807 * MI changes
808
809 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
810 inferiors that have exited.
811
812 * New targets
813
814 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
815
816 * Removed targets
817
818 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
819
820 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
821 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
822 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
823 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
824 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
825
826 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
827 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
828 its alias "share", instead.
829
830 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
831
832 * New command line options
833
834 -D data-directory
835 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
836
837 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
838 as specified in ISO C99.
839
840 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
841 with or without disassembly.
842
843 * Guile scripting
844
845 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
846 available is determined at configure time.
847 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
848 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
849
850 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
851
852 guile [code]
853 gu [code]
854 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
855
856 guile-repl
857 gr
858 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
859
860 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
861 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
862
863 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
864 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
865
866 * New options
867
868 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
869 show print symbol-loading
870 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
871 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
872 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
873 becomes less useful.
874
875 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
876 show guile print-stack
877 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
878
879 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
880 show auto-load guile-scripts
881 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
882
883 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
884 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
885 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
886 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
887 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
888 usage of this option.
889
890 set auto-connect-native-target
891
892 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
893 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
894 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
895
896 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
897 show record btrace replay-memory-access
898 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
899
900 maint set target-async (on|off)
901 maint show target-async
902 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
903 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
904 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
905 occurring only in synchronous mode.
906
907 set mi-async (on|off)
908 show mi-async
909 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
910 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
911
912 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
913 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
914
915 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
916 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
917 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
918 "set target-async on" command.
919
920 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
921
922 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
923 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
924 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
925 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
926 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
927
928 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
929 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
930 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
931
932 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
933 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
934 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
935 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
936 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
937 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
938 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
939
940 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
941 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
942
943 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
944 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
945 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
946
947 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
948 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
949 memory or registers.
950
951 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
952
953 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
954 remote. It now works with all targets.
955
956 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
957 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
958 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
959 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
960 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
961 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
962 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
963 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
964 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
965 target-stack".
966
967 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
968 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
969 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
970
971 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
972
973 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
974 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
975 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
976
977 * New remote packets
978
979 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
980 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
981 branch trace incrementally.
982
983 * Python Scripting
984
985 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
986 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
987 available.
988 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
989 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
990 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
991 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
992 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
993
994 * New targets
995 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
996
997 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
998 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
999 its alias "share", instead.
1000
1001 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1002 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1003 instead.
1004
1005 * MI changes
1006
1007 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1008 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1009 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1010 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1011 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1012 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1013 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1014 commands and CLI execution commands.
1015
1016 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
1017
1018 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1019 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1020 recording has been added.
1021
1022 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1023
1024 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1025 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1026
1027 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1028 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1029 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1030 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1031 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1032 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1033 "void".
1034
1035 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1036
1037 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1038
1039 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1040 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1041 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1042 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1043
1044 (gdb) p $rax
1045 $1 = <not saved>
1046
1047 (gdb) info registers rax
1048 rax <not saved>
1049
1050 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1051 "*value not available*".
1052
1053 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1054 to binaries.
1055
1056 * Python scripting
1057
1058 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1059 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1060 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1061 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1062 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1063 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1064
1065 * New targets
1066
1067 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1068 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1069 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1070
1071 * Removed native configurations
1072
1073 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1074 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1075
1076 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1077 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1078 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1079 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1080 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1081 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1082 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1083
1084 * New commands:
1085 catch rethrow
1086 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1087 maint check-psymtabs
1088 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1089 maint check-symtabs
1090 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1091 maint expand-symtabs
1092 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1093
1094 show configuration
1095 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1096
1097 maint set|show per-command
1098 maint set|show per-command space
1099 maint set|show per-command time
1100 maint set|show per-command symtab
1101 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1102
1103 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1104 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1105 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1106 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1107 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1108
1109 info exceptions
1110 info exceptions REGEXP
1111 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1112 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1113 are listed.
1114
1115 * New options
1116
1117 set debug symfile off|on
1118 show debug symfile
1119 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1120 symbol tables within those files
1121
1122 set print raw frame-arguments
1123 show print raw frame-arguments
1124 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1125 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1126
1127 set remote trace-status-packet
1128 show remote trace-status-packet
1129 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1130
1131 set debug nios2
1132 show debug nios2
1133 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1134
1135 set range-stepping
1136 show range-stepping
1137 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1138
1139 set startup-with-shell
1140 show startup-with-shell
1141 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1142 directly.
1143
1144 set code-cache
1145 show code-cache
1146 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1147 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1148
1149 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1150 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1151 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1152 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1153 "set height 0".
1154
1155 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1156 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1157 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1158
1159 * New command-line options
1160 --configuration
1161 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1162
1163 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1164 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1165
1166 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1167 GDB command gcore.
1168
1169 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1170
1171 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1172 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1173
1174 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1175 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1176
1177 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1178 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1179 due to an uncaught signal.
1180
1181 * MI changes
1182
1183 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1184 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1185 command, which should contain "language-option".
1186
1187 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1188 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1189
1190 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1191 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1192 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1193 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1194 "undefined-command-error-code".
1195
1196 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1197 Trace Format now.
1198
1199 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1200
1201 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1202 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1203 are displayed.
1204
1205 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1206 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1207
1208 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1209 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1210 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1211
1212 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1213 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1214 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1215 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1216 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1217 "exec-run-start-option".
1218
1219 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1220 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1221
1222 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1223 the new "info exceptions" command.
1224
1225 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1226 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1227 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1228 ** ElinOS
1229 ** Wind River Linux
1230
1231 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1232 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1233 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1234 below.
1235
1236 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1237 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1238
1239 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1240 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1241 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1242
1243 * New remote packets
1244
1245 vCont;r
1246
1247 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1248 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1249 involvemement at each single-step.
1250
1251 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1252 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1253 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1254 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1255 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1256 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1257 speedup.
1258
1259 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1260
1261 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1262 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1263
1264 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1265 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1266 trace state variables.
1267
1268 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1269 target.
1270
1271 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1272 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1273
1274 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1275
1276 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1277 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1278 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1279 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1280
1281 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1282
1283 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1284 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1285 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1286 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1287
1288 set|show record full insn-number-max
1289 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1290 set|show record full memory-query
1291
1292 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1293 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1294 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1295 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1296 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1297
1298 record btrace
1299
1300 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1301 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1302
1303 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1304 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1305 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1306
1307 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1308 instruction granularity
1309
1310 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1311 function granularity
1312
1313 * New native configurations
1314
1315 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1316 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1317 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1318 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1319
1320 * New targets
1321
1322 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1323 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1324 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1325 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1326 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1327
1328 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1329 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1330 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1331 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1332 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1333 --data-directory command-line option.
1334
1335 * New command line options:
1336
1337 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1338 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1339
1340 * Removed command line options
1341
1342 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1343 Emacs.
1344
1345 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1346 type formatting.
1347
1348 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1349
1350 * Python scripting
1351
1352 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1353
1354 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1355
1356 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1357
1358 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1359
1360 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1361 of architecture in the Python API.
1362
1363 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1364 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1365
1366 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1367
1368 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1369 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1370 ** $_strlen(str)
1371 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1372
1373 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1374 given an argument.
1375
1376 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1377 default for GCC since November 2000.
1378
1379 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1380
1381 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1382 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1383
1384 * New configure options
1385
1386 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1387 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1388 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1389 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1390 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1391 options allow the user to override that default.
1392 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1393 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1394 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1395
1396 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1397
1398 catch signal
1399 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1400 conditions to be attached.
1401
1402 maint info bfds
1403 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1404
1405 python-interactive [command]
1406 pi [command]
1407 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1408 and print the result of expressions.
1409
1410 py [command]
1411 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1412
1413 enable type-printer [name]...
1414 disable type-printer [name]...
1415 Enable or disable type printers.
1416
1417 * Removed commands
1418
1419 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1420 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1421 instead.
1422
1423 * New options
1424
1425 set print type methods (on|off)
1426 show print type methods
1427 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1428 The default is to show them.
1429
1430 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1431 show print type typedefs
1432 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1433 The default is to show them.
1434
1435 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1436 show filename-display
1437 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1438 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1439
1440 set trace-buffer-size
1441 show trace-buffer-size
1442 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1443
1444 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1445 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1446 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1447
1448 set debug aarch64
1449 show debug aarch64
1450 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1451 The default is off.
1452
1453 set debug coff-pe-read
1454 show debug coff-pe-read
1455 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1456 exported symbols.
1457
1458 set debug mach-o
1459 show debug mach-o
1460 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1461 processing.
1462
1463 set debug notification
1464 show debug notification
1465 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1466
1467 * MI changes
1468
1469 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1470 "=cmd-param-changed".
1471 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1472 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1473 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1474 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1475 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1476 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1477 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1478 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1479 "=memory-changed".
1480 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1481 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1482 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1483 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1484 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1485 library load/unload events.
1486 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1487 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1488 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1489 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1490 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1491 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1492 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1493 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1494
1495 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1496 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1497 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1498 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1499
1500 * New remote packets
1501
1502 QTBuffer:size
1503 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1504 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1505
1506 Qbtrace:bts
1507 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1508 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1509 qSupported query.
1510
1511 Qbtrace:off
1512 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1513 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1514
1515 qXfer:btrace:read
1516 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1517 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1518
1519 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1520
1521 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1522 for more x32 ABI info.
1523
1524 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1525
1526 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1527
1528 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1529 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1530 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1531 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1532 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1533 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1534 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1535 "info os msg" lists message queues
1536 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1537
1538 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1539 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1540 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1541 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1542 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1543 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1544
1545 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1546 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1547 record/replay support.
1548
1549 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1550
1551 * Python scripting
1552
1553 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
1554 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
1555
1556 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
1557
1558 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
1559 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
1560
1561 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
1562
1563 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
1564 the source at which the symbol was defined.
1565
1566 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
1567 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
1568 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
1569 symbol's value.
1570
1571 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
1572 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
1573
1574 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
1575 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
1576 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
1577
1578 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
1579 object associated with a PC value.
1580
1581 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
1582 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
1583
1584 * Go language support.
1585 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
1586 language.
1587
1588 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1589 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1590
1591 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1592 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1593
1594 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
1595 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
1596 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
1597 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
1598 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
1599 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
1600
1601 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
1602 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
1603 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
1604 build/libcpp/expr.c.
1605
1606 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
1607 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
1608
1609 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
1610 since December 2007.
1611
1612 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
1613 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
1614 command does. For instance:
1615
1616 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
1617
1618 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
1619 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
1620 created, using the "condition" command.
1621
1622 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
1623 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
1624
1625 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
1626
1627 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
1628 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
1629 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
1630 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
1631 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
1632 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
1633 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
1634 files with older .gdb_index sections.
1635
1636 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
1637 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
1638 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
1639 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
1640 the .gdb_index section.
1641
1642 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1643
1644 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1645 target.
1646
1647 * MI changes
1648
1649 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1650
1651 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1652
1653 * New commands
1654
1655 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1656 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1657 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1658
1659 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1660 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1661
1662 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1663 several hits.
1664
1665 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
1666 C++ and Java objects.
1667
1668 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
1669 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
1670 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1671 configured with '--with-python'.
1672
1673 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1674 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1675 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1676 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1677 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1678 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1679 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1680
1681 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1682 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1683 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1684 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1685
1686 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1687 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1688 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1689 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1690
1691 ** "set print symbol"
1692 "show print symbol"
1693 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1694 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1695 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1696
1697 * Deprecated commands
1698
1699 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1700 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1701
1702 * New targets
1703
1704 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1705 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
1706
1707 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1708 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1709 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1710 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1711 evaluates to true.
1712
1713 * New options
1714
1715 set mips compression
1716 show mips compression
1717 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1718 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1719 mips16
1720 micromips
1721 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1722
1723 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1724 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
1725 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
1726 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1727 available mode.
1728 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1729 target.
1730
1731 set auto-load off
1732 Disable auto-loading globally.
1733
1734 show auto-load
1735 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1736
1737 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1738 show auto-load gdb-scripts
1739 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1740
1741 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1742 show auto-load python-scripts
1743 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1744
1745 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1746 show auto-load local-gdbinit
1747 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1748
1749 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1750 show auto-load libthread-db
1751 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1752
1753 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1754 show auto-load scripts-directory
1755 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1756 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1757 of the directories listed by this option.
1758 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1759
1760 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1761 show auto-load safe-path
1762 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1763 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1764
1765 set debug auto-load on|off
1766 show debug auto-load
1767 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1768
1769 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
1770 show dprintf-style
1771 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1772 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1773 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1774 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
1775
1776 set dprintf-function <expr>
1777 show dprintf-function
1778 set dprintf-channel <expr>
1779 show dprintf-channel
1780 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1781 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1782
1783 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1784 show disconnected-dprintf
1785 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1786 after GDB disconnects.
1787
1788 * New configure options
1789
1790 --with-auto-load-dir
1791 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1792 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1793 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1794 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1795 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
1796
1797 --with-auto-load-safe-path
1798 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
1799 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
1800
1801 --without-auto-load-safe-path
1802 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1803 security feature.
1804
1805 * New remote packets
1806
1807 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1808
1809 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1810 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1811 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1812 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1813
1814 QProgramSignals:
1815
1816 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1817 program without GDB involvement.
1818
1819 * New command line options
1820
1821 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1822 before loading inferior.
1823 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1824 execute it before loading inferior.
1825
1826 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
1827
1828 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1829 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1830 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1831 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1832 inferior changes.
1833
1834 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1835 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1836
1837 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1838 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1839 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1840 target hardware watchpoint.
1841
1842 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1843 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1844 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1845 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1846
1847 * Python scripting
1848
1849 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
1850 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
1851 existing one.
1852
1853 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
1854 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1855 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1856 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1857 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1858 the stack trace.
1859
1860 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
1861 Python API.
1862
1863 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1864 modules library. This module provides functionality for
1865 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
1866 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1867 corresponding value.
1868
1869 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1870 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1871 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1872 on GDB start-up.
1873
1874 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1875 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1876 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1877 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1878
1879 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1880
1881 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1882 "gdb.breakpoints".
1883
1884 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1885 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1886 available in the CLI.
1887
1888 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1889 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1890 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1891 "some_type.items()".
1892
1893 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1894 new object file.
1895
1896 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1897 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1898 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1899 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1900 any anonymous fields.
1901
1902 * MI changes
1903
1904 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1905 "solib-event".
1906
1907 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1908 "=breakpoint-modified".
1909
1910 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1911
1912 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1913 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1914 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1915 lives.
1916
1917 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1918 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1919 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1920 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1921 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1922
1923 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1924 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1925
1926 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1927 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1928 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1929 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1930 use this option to specify where to find it.
1931
1932 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1933 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1934 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1935 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1936 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1937 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1938 section in the user manual for more details.
1939
1940 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1941 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1942 become available after that.
1943
1944 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
1945
1946 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1947 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1948 gcc version 4.7.
1949
1950 * New commands
1951
1952 !SHELL COMMAND
1953 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1954 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1955
1956 * Changed commands
1957
1958 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1959 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1960 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1961
1962 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1963 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1964 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1965
1966 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1967 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1968 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1969 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1970 name starts with a hyphen.
1971
1972 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1973 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1974 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1975 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1976 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1977 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1978 number of bytes that will be collected.
1979
1980 tstart [NOTES]
1981 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1982 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1983 setting the variable trace-notes.
1984
1985 tstop [NOTES]
1986 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1987 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1988 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1989 trace-stop-notes.
1990
1991 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1992 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1993 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1994 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1995 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1996 is running.
1997
1998 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1999 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2000 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2001
2002 * New options
2003
2004 set debug dwarf2-read
2005 show debug dwarf2-read
2006 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2007 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2008
2009 set debug symtab-create
2010 show debug symtab-create
2011 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2012 creation. The default is off.
2013
2014 set extended-prompt
2015 show extended-prompt
2016 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2017 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2018 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2019 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2020 prompt is displayed.
2021
2022 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2023 show print entry-values
2024 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2025 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2026 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2027
2028 set debug entry-values
2029 show debug entry-values
2030 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2031 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2032
2033 set basenames-may-differ
2034 show basenames-may-differ
2035 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2036 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2037 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2038 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2039 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2040 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2041 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2042 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2043
2044 set trace-user
2045 show trace-user
2046 set trace-notes
2047 show trace-notes
2048 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2049 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2050 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2051 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2052
2053 set trace-stop-notes
2054 show trace-stop-notes
2055 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2056 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2057 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2058 started by someone else.
2059
2060 * New remote packets
2061
2062 QTEnable
2063
2064 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2065
2066 QTDisable
2067
2068 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2069
2070 QTNotes
2071
2072 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2073
2074 qTP
2075
2076 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2077
2078 qTMinFTPILen
2079
2080 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2081 be placed.
2082
2083 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2084 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2085
2086 * New targets
2087
2088 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2089
2090 * New Simulators
2091
2092 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2093
2094 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2095
2096 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2097
2098 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2099
2100 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2101 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2102 matches the given regular expression.
2103
2104 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2105
2106 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2107 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2108
2109 * New command line options
2110
2111 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2112 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2113
2114 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2115 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2116
2117 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2118 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2119 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2120
2121 * GDB now understands thread names.
2122
2123 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2124 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2125
2126 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2127 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2128
2129 * OpenCL C
2130 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2131 has been integrated into GDB.
2132
2133 * Python scripting
2134
2135 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2136 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2137 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2138
2139 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2140 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2141 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2142 and allows for more dynamic content.
2143
2144 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2145 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2146 have an is_valid method.
2147
2148 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2149 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2150 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2151
2152 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2153
2154 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2155 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2156 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2157 that function like so:
2158
2159 result = some_value (10,20)
2160
2161 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2162 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2163 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2164
2165 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2166 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2167 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2168 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2169 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2170
2171 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2172 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2173
2174 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2175
2176 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2177 selected thread.
2178
2179 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2180 holds the thread's name.
2181
2182 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2183 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2184 occurring in the process being debugged.
2185 The following events are currently supported:
2186 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2187 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2188 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2189
2190 * C++ Improvements:
2191
2192 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2193 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2194
2195 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2196
2197 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2198 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2199 was added to GCC 4.5.
2200
2201 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2202 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2203 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2204 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2205 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2206 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2207
2208 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2209 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2210 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2211 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2212 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2213
2214 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2215 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2216 execution to a label.
2217
2218 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2219 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2220 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2221 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2222
2223 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2224 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2225 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2226 of scope.
2227
2228 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2229
2230 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2231 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2232 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2233 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2234 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2235 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2236
2237 (gdb) info threads
2238 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2239
2240 While now you see this:
2241
2242 (gdb) info threads
2243 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2244
2245 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2246 dumps.
2247
2248 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2249 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2250 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2251 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2252
2253 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2254 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2255 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2256 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2257 section in the user manual for more details.
2258
2259 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2260
2261 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2262 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2263
2264 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2265
2266 * New native configurations
2267
2268 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2269
2270 * New targets:
2271
2272 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2273
2274 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2275 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2276 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2277 in the GDB user manual.
2278
2279 * Guile support was removed.
2280
2281 * New features in the GNU simulator
2282
2283 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2284
2285 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2286
2287 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2288
2289 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2290
2291 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2292 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2293 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2294 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2295 was always disabled for such configurations.
2296
2297 * C++ Improvements:
2298
2299 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2300
2301 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2302 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2303 For example:
2304 namespace A
2305 {
2306 class B { };
2307 void foo (B) { }
2308 }
2309 ...
2310 A::B b
2311 foo(b)
2312 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2313 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2314 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2315
2316 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2317
2318 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2319 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2320 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2321 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2322 entry.
2323 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2324 mentioned flavors of operators.
2325
2326 ** static const class members
2327
2328 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2329 class definition has been fixed.
2330
2331 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2332
2333 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2334 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2335 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2336 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2337 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2338 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2339
2340 * Static tracepoints
2341
2342 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2343 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2344 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2345 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2346 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2347 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2348 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2349 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2350 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2351 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2352 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2353 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2354 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2355 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2356 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2357 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2358 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2359 the "New remote packets" section below.
2360
2361 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2362
2363 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2364 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2365 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2366 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2367
2368 * Observer mode
2369
2370 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2371 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2372 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2373 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2374 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2375 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2376 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2377
2378 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2379 current thread.
2380
2381 * New remote packets
2382
2383 qGetTIBAddr
2384
2385 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2386
2387 qRelocInsn
2388
2389 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2390 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2391 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2392 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2393 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2394 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2395
2396 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2397
2398 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2399
2400 qTSTMat
2401
2402 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2403 program.
2404
2405 qXfer:statictrace:read
2406
2407 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2408 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2409 to gdb's qSupported query.
2410
2411 QAllow
2412
2413 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2414
2415 QTDPsrc
2416
2417 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2418 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2419
2420 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2421 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2422 a directory.
2423
2424 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2425
2426 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2427 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2428 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2429 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2430
2431 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2432 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2433 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2434 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2435 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2436 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2437 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2438
2439 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2440 for static tracepoints support.
2441
2442 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2443
2444 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2445 it understands register description.
2446
2447 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2448
2449 * X86 general purpose registers
2450
2451 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2452 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2453 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2454 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2455 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2456
2457 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2458 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2459 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2460 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2461 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2462 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2463
2464 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2465 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2466 in the specified file.
2467
2468 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2469 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2470 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2471 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2472 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2473 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2474 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2475 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2476 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2477 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2478
2479 * New commands
2480
2481 eval template, expressions...
2482 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2483 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2484
2485 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2486 show target-file-system-kind
2487 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2488 names.
2489
2490 save breakpoints <filename>
2491 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2492 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2493 definitions, use the `source' command.
2494
2495 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2496 is now deprecated.
2497
2498 info static-tracepoint-markers
2499 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2500
2501 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2502 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2503 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2504
2505 set observer on|off
2506 show observer
2507 Enable and disable observer mode.
2508
2509 set may-write-registers on|off
2510 set may-write-memory on|off
2511 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2512 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2513 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2514 set may-interrupt on|off
2515 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2516 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2517 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2518 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2519 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2520 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2521 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2522
2523 set record memory-query on|off
2524 show record memory-query
2525 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2526 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2527
2528 * Changed commands
2529
2530 disassemble
2531 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2532
2533 * Python scripting
2534
2535 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2536 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2537 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2538 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2539 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2540
2541 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
2542 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2543 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2544 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
2545
2546 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
2547 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2548
2549 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
2550
2551 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
2552
2553 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
2554
2555 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
2556 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
2557 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
2558
2559 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
2560 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
2561 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
2562 regular breakpoints.
2563
2564 * New targets
2565
2566 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2567
2568 * D language support.
2569 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
2570 language.
2571
2572 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
2573 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
2574 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
2575 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
2576 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
2577
2578 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
2579 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
2580 conditions of the form:
2581
2582 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
2583
2584 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
2585 interface mentioned above.
2586
2587 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
2588
2589 * C++ Improvements
2590
2591 ** Namespace Support
2592
2593 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
2594 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
2595 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
2596 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
2597 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
2598
2599 ** Bug Fixes
2600
2601 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
2602 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
2603 qualified name.
2604
2605 ** Cast Operators
2606
2607 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
2608 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
2609
2610 * New targets
2611
2612 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
2613 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2614
2615 * New Simulators
2616
2617 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
2618 Renesas RX rx
2619
2620 * Multi-program debugging.
2621
2622 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
2623 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
2624 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
2625 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
2626 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
2627 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
2628 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
2629 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
2630
2631 * New tracing features
2632
2633 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
2634
2635 ** Trace state variables
2636
2637 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
2638 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
2639 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
2640 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2641 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2642 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2643 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2644 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2645 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2646 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
2647
2648 ** Fast tracepoints
2649
2650 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2651 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2652 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2653 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2654 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2655 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2656 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2657 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2658 the regular trace command.
2659
2660 ** Disconnected tracing
2661
2662 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2663 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2664 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2665 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2666 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2667
2668 ** Trace files
2669
2670 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2671 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2672 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2673 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2674 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2675 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2676 <name>".
2677
2678 ** Circular trace buffer
2679
2680 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2681 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2682 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2683 not be available for all target agents.
2684
2685 * Changed commands
2686
2687 disassemble
2688 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2689 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2690
2691 info variables
2692 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2693 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2694
2695 source
2696 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2697 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2698 support.
2699
2700 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2701 "set script-extension" (see below).
2702
2703 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2704
2705 record save [<FILENAME>]
2706 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2707 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2708
2709 record restore <FILENAME>
2710 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2711 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2712
2713 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2714 Add a new inferior.
2715
2716 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2717 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2718 inferior has loaded.
2719
2720 remove-inferior ID
2721 Remove an inferior.
2722
2723 maint info program-spaces
2724 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2725
2726 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2727 show remote interrupt-sequence
2728 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2729 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2730 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2731 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2732 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2733
2734 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2735 show remote interrupt-on-connect
2736 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2737 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2738 Linux kernel.
2739
2740 set remotebreak [on | off]
2741 show remotebreak
2742 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2743
2744 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2745 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2746
2747 info tvariables
2748 List trace state variables and their values.
2749
2750 delete tvariable $NAME ...
2751 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2752
2753 teval EXPR, ...
2754 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2755 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2756
2757 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2758 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2759
2760 * New expression syntax
2761
2762 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2763 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2764
2765 * New options
2766
2767 set follow-exec-mode new|same
2768 show follow-exec-mode
2769 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2770 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2771 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2772
2773 set default-collect EXPR, ...
2774 show default-collect
2775 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2776 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2777 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2778
2779 set disconnected-tracing
2780 show disconnected-tracing
2781 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2782 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2783 upon disconnection.
2784
2785 set circular-trace-buffer
2786 show circular-trace-buffer
2787 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2788 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2789 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2790 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2791
2792 set script-extension off|soft|strict
2793 show script-extension
2794 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2795 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2796 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2797 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2798 evaluation failed.
2799 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2800
2801 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2802 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2803 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2804 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2805 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2806 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2807 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2808 is on.
2809
2810 * Python API Improvements
2811
2812 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2813 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2814 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2815
2816 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2817 `is_base_class' attribute.
2818
2819 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2820
2821 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2822 evaluate an expression.
2823
2824 * New remote packets
2825
2826 QTDV
2827 Define a trace state variable.
2828
2829 qTV
2830 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2831
2832 QTDisconnected
2833 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2834
2835 QTBuffer:circular
2836 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2837
2838 qTfP, qTsP
2839 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2840
2841 * Bug fixes
2842
2843 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2844
2845 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2846 much more reliable. In particular:
2847 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2848 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2849 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2850 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2851 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2852 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2853 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2854 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2855 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2856 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2857 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2858 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2859 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2860 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2861 non-threaded programs.
2862
2863 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2864 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2865 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2866 executable program.
2867
2868 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
2869
2870 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2871 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2872 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2873 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2874 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2875
2876 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2877 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2878 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2879 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2880 for tracepoint actions.
2881
2882 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2883 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2884 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
2885
2886 * Process record and replay
2887
2888 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2889 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2890 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2891 execute commands.
2892
2893 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2894 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2895 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2896 reverse execution.
2897
2898 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2899 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
2900 2.6.28 or later.
2901
2902 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2903 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2904 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2905 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2906 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2907 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2908 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2909 the installation instructions for more information.
2910
2911 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2912 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2913 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2914 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2915
2916 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2917 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2918
2919 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2920 now complete on file names.
2921
2922 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2923 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2924 For instance, consider:
2925
2926 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2927 # struct example variable;
2928 (gdb) p variable.
2929
2930 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2931 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2932
2933 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2934 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2935
2936 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2937 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2938 macros.
2939
2940 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
2941 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2942 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2943
2944 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2945 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2946 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2947 and simulator targets may also provide them.
2948
2949 * New remote packets
2950
2951 qSearch:memory:
2952 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2953
2954 QStartNoAckMode
2955 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2956 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2957 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2958
2959 vKill
2960 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2961 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2962
2963 qXfer:osdata:read
2964 Obtains additional operating system information
2965
2966 qXfer:siginfo:read
2967 qXfer:siginfo:write
2968 Read or write additional signal information.
2969
2970 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2971
2972 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2973 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2974 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2975
2976 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
2977 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
2978
2979 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
2980 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2981 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
2982
2983 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2984 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2985
2986 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2987
2988 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2989
2990 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2991 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2992
2993 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
2994 list of section offsets.
2995
2996 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2997 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2998 have also been fixed.
2999
3000 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3001 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3002 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3003
3004 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3005 example, given:
3006
3007 template<typename T> class C { };
3008 C<char const *> c;
3009
3010 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3011
3012 ptype C<char const *>
3013 ptype C<char const*>
3014 ptype C<const char *>
3015 ptype C<const char*>
3016
3017 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3018
3019 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3020 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3021
3022 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3023 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3024 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3025
3026 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3027 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3028
3029 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3030 gdbserver.
3031
3032 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3033 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3034
3035 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3036 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3037 as appropriate.
3038
3039 * Python scripting
3040
3041 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3042 available is determined at configure time.
3043
3044 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3045
3046 * Ada tasking support
3047
3048 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3049 been introduced:
3050
3051 info tasks
3052 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3053 info task N
3054 Print detailed information about task number N.
3055 task
3056 Print the task number of the current task.
3057 task N
3058 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3059
3060 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3061 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3062
3063 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3064
3065 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3066 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3067 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3068 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3069 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3070 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3071 below.
3072
3073 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3074 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3075 information.
3076
3077 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3078 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3079 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3080 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3081 more information.
3082
3083 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3084
3085 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3086 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3087 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3088 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3089 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3090
3091 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3092 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3093 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3094 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3095 --enable-targets configure option.
3096
3097 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3098
3099 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3100 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3101 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3102 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3103 section in the user manual for more information.
3104
3105 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3106 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3107 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3108 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3109 extensions on linux targets.
3110
3111 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3112
3113 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3114 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3115 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3116 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3117 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3118 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3119 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3120 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3121 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3122
3123 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3124 val1 [, val2, ...]
3125 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3126
3127 maint set python print-stack
3128 maint show python print-stack
3129 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3130
3131 python [CODE]
3132 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3133
3134 macro define
3135 macro list
3136 macro undef
3137 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3138 interactively.
3139
3140 info os processes
3141 Show operating system information about processes.
3142
3143 info inferiors
3144 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3145
3146 inferior NUM
3147 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3148
3149 detach inferior NUM
3150 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3151
3152 kill inferior NUM
3153 Kill inferior number NUM.
3154
3155 * New options
3156
3157 set spu stop-on-load
3158 show spu stop-on-load
3159 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3160
3161 set spu auto-flush-cache
3162 show spu auto-flush-cache
3163 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3164 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3165
3166 set sh calling-convention
3167 show sh calling-convention
3168 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3169
3170 set debug timestamp
3171 show debug timestamp
3172 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3173
3174 set disassemble-next-line
3175 show disassemble-next-line
3176 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3177 the debuggee stops.
3178
3179 set remote noack-packet
3180 show remote noack-packet
3181 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3182 under "New remote packets."
3183
3184 set remote query-attached-packet
3185 show remote query-attached-packet
3186 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3187
3188 set remote read-siginfo-object
3189 show remote read-siginfo-object
3190 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3191 packet.
3192
3193 set remote write-siginfo-object
3194 show remote write-siginfo-object
3195 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3196 packet.
3197
3198 set remote reverse-continue
3199 show remote reverse-continue
3200 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3201
3202 set remote reverse-step
3203 show remote reverse-step
3204 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3205
3206 set displaced-stepping
3207 show displaced-stepping
3208 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3209 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3210 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3211
3212 set debug displaced
3213 show debug displaced
3214 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3215
3216 maint set internal-error
3217 maint show internal-error
3218 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3219
3220 maint set internal-warning
3221 maint show internal-warning
3222 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3223
3224 set exec-wrapper
3225 show exec-wrapper
3226 unset exec-wrapper
3227 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3228
3229 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3230 show multiple-symbols
3231 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3232 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3233 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3234
3235 set breakpoint always-inserted
3236 show breakpoint always-inserted
3237 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3238 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3239 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3240
3241 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3242 show arm fallback-mode
3243 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3244 show arm force-mode
3245 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3246 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3247 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3248 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3249
3250 set disable-randomization
3251 show disable-randomization
3252 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3253 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3254 multiple debugging sessions.
3255
3256 set non-stop
3257 show non-stop
3258 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3259 a breakpoint.
3260
3261 set target-async
3262 show target-async
3263 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3264 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3265 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3266 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3267
3268 set target-wide-charset
3269 show target-wide-charset
3270 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3271 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3272
3273 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3274 show tcp auto-retry
3275 set tcp connect-timeout
3276 show tcp connect-timeout
3277 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3278 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3279 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3280
3281 set libthread-db-search-path
3282 show libthread-db-search-path
3283 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3284 libthread_db.
3285
3286 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3287 show schedule-multiple
3288 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3289 the current process.
3290
3291 set stack-cache
3292 show stack-cache
3293 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3294 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3295 affecting correctness.
3296
3297 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3298 show interactive-mode
3299 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3300 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3301 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3302 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3303 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3304
3305 * Removed commands
3306
3307 info forks
3308 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3309 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3310 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3311 command.
3312
3313 fork NUM
3314 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3315 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3316 alias for the `fork' command.
3317
3318 process PID
3319 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3320 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3321 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3322
3323 delete fork NUM
3324 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3325 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3326 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3327 fork' command.
3328
3329 detach fork NUM
3330 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3331 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3332 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3333 fork' command.
3334
3335 * New native configurations
3336
3337 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3338
3339 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3340
3341 * New targets
3342
3343 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3344 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3345 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3346 S+core 3 score-*-*
3347
3348 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3349 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3350
3351 * Removed commands
3352
3353 catch load
3354 catch unload
3355 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3356
3357 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3358
3359 * New native configurations
3360
3361 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3362 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3363
3364 * New targets
3365
3366 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3367 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3368
3369 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3370
3371 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3372 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3373 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3374 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3375
3376 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3377 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3378
3379 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3380 is resolved.
3381
3382 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3383 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3384 and in inlined functions.
3385
3386 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3387 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3388 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3389
3390 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3391
3392 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3393 registers on PowerPC targets.
3394
3395 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3396 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3397
3398 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3399 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3400
3401 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3402 extended-remote mode.
3403
3404 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3405 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3406 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3407 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3408
3409 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3410 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3411 target architectures.
3412
3413 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3414 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3415 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3416 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3417
3418 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3419 breakpoints now.
3420
3421 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3422 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3423 include:
3424 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3425 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3426 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3427 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3428 of an assignment
3429 - Improved command completion in Ada
3430 - Several bug fixes
3431
3432 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3433 process.
3434
3435 * New commands
3436
3437 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3438 show print frame-arguments
3439 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3440 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3441
3442 remote put
3443 remote get
3444 remote delete
3445 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3446
3447 * New MI commands
3448
3449 -target-file-put
3450 -target-file-get
3451 -target-file-delete
3452 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3453
3454 * New remote packets
3455
3456 vFile:open:
3457 vFile:close:
3458 vFile:pread:
3459 vFile:pwrite:
3460 vFile:unlink:
3461 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3462
3463 vAttach
3464 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3465 mode.
3466
3467 vRun
3468 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3469
3470 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3471
3472 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3473 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3474 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3475
3476 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3477 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3478 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3479
3480 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3481 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3482 is not supported.
3483
3484 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3485 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3486
3487 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3488 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3489
3490 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3491
3492 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3493 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3494 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3495
3496 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3497 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3498
3499 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3500 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3501 as strings.
3502
3503 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3504 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3505 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3506
3507 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3508 iWMMXt coprocessor.
3509
3510 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3511 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3512 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3513
3514 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3515
3516 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3517
3518 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3519 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3520 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3521
3522 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3523 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3524
3525 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3526 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3527 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3528 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3529 Windows and SymbianOS).
3530
3531 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3532 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3533
3534 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3535 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3536
3537 * New commands
3538
3539 set remoteflow
3540 show remoteflow
3541 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3542 when debugging using remote targets.
3543
3544 set mem inaccessible-by-default
3545 show mem inaccessible-by-default
3546 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3547 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3548 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3549 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3550 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3551
3552 set breakpoint auto-hw
3553 show breakpoint auto-hw
3554 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3555 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3556 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
3557 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
3558 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
3559 including "next" and "finish".
3560
3561 catch exception
3562 catch exception unhandled
3563 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
3564
3565 catch assert
3566 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
3567
3568 set sysroot
3569 show sysroot
3570 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
3571 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
3572 an alias to "set sysroot".
3573
3574 info spu
3575 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
3576 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
3577 architecture.
3578
3579 * New native configurations
3580
3581 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
3582
3583 set tdesc filename
3584 unset tdesc filename
3585 show tdesc filename
3586 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
3587 not query the target for its built-in description.
3588
3589 * New targets
3590
3591 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
3592 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
3593 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
3594
3595 * New remote packets
3596
3597 QPassSignals:
3598 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
3599 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
3600
3601 qXfer:features:read:
3602 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
3603 features.
3604
3605 qXfer:spu:read:
3606 qXfer:spu:write:
3607 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
3608 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
3609
3610 qXfer:libraries:read:
3611 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
3612 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
3613 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
3614 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
3615
3616 * Removed targets
3617
3618 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3619
3620 alpha*-*-osf1*
3621 alpha*-*-osf2*
3622 d10v-*-*
3623 hppa*-*-hiux*
3624 i[34567]86-ncr-*
3625 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
3626 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
3627 i[34567]86-*-netware*
3628 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
3629 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
3630 i[34567]86-*-sco*
3631 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
3632 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
3633 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
3634 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
3635 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
3636 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
3637 i[34567]86-*-isc*
3638 m68*-cisco*-*
3639 m68*-tandem-*
3640 mips*-*-pe
3641 rs6000-*-lynxos*
3642 sh*-*-pe
3643
3644 * Other removed features
3645
3646 target abug
3647 target cpu32bug
3648 target est
3649 target rom68k
3650
3651 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3652
3653 target hms
3654 target e7000
3655 target sh3
3656 target sh3e
3657
3658 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3659 H8/300.
3660
3661 target ocd
3662
3663 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3664 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3665 interfaces.
3666
3667 DWARF 1 support
3668
3669 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3670 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3671
3672 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3673
3674 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3675 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3676 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3677 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3678
3679 MIPS ".pdr" sections
3680
3681 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3682 in debugging information.
3683
3684 Scheme support
3685
3686 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3687 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3688
3689 set mips stack-arg-size
3690 set mips saved-gpreg-size
3691
3692 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3693
3694 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
3695
3696 * New targets
3697
3698 Xtensa xtensa-elf
3699 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
3700
3701 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3702 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3703 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3704
3705 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3706 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3707 supported.
3708
3709 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3710 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3711
3712 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3713 stub provides the required support.
3714
3715 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3716 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3717
3718 * New commands
3719
3720 set substitute-path
3721 unset substitute-path
3722 show substitute-path
3723 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3724 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3725 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3726 between compilation and debugging.
3727
3728 set trace-commands
3729 show trace-commands
3730 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3731 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3732 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3733
3734 * REMOVED features
3735
3736 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3737
3738 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3739 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3740
3741 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3742
3743 * New remote packets
3744
3745 qSupported:
3746 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3747 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3748 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3749 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3750 target.
3751
3752 qXfer:auxv:read:
3753 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3754 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3755
3756 qXfer:memory-map:read:
3757 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3758 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3759
3760 vFlashErase:
3761 vFlashWrite:
3762 vFlashDone:
3763 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3764
3765 * Removed remote packets
3766
3767 qPart:auxv:read:
3768 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3769 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3770
3771 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
3772
3773 * New targets
3774
3775 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3776
3777 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3778
3779 * New commands
3780
3781 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3782 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3783
3784 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3785
3786 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3787
3788 restart <n> Return the program state to a
3789 previously saved state.
3790
3791 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3792
3793 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3794
3795 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3796 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3797
3798 info forks List forks of the user program that
3799 are available to be debugged.
3800
3801 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3802 forks of the user program that are
3803 available to be debugged.
3804
3805 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3806 that are available to be debugged (and
3807 kill the forked process).
3808
3809 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3810 that are available to be debugged (and
3811 allow the process to continue).
3812
3813 * New architecture
3814
3815 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3816
3817 * Improved Windows host support
3818
3819 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3820 native console support, and remote communications using either
3821 network sockets or serial ports.
3822
3823 * Improved Modula-2 language support
3824
3825 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3826 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3827 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3828 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3829 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3830 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3831
3832 * REMOVED features
3833
3834 The ARM rdi-share module.
3835
3836 The Netware NLM debug server.
3837
3838 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
3839
3840 * New native configurations
3841
3842 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
3843 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3844
3845 * New targets
3846
3847 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3848
3849 * New command line options
3850
3851 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3852 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3853 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3854 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3855 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3856 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3857 with the --command (-x) option.
3858
3859 * Deprecated commands removed
3860
3861 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3862 removed:
3863
3864 Command Replacement
3865 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3866 othernames set arm disassembler
3867 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3868 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3869 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3870 regs info registers
3871
3872 * New BSD user-level threads support
3873
3874 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3875 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3876 configurations are:
3877
3878 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3879 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3880 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3881
3882 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3883 are not yet supported.
3884
3885 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3886 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3887
3888 * REMOVED configurations and files
3889
3890 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
3891 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3892 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
3893
3894 * New "set print array-indexes" command
3895
3896 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3897 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3898 behavior.
3899
3900 * VAX floating point support
3901
3902 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3903
3904 * User-defined command support
3905
3906 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3907 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3908 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3909
3910 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3911
3912 * New command line option
3913
3914 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3915 debugging.
3916
3917 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3918
3919 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3920 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3921 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3922 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3923 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
3924
3925 * Internationalization
3926
3927 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3928 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3929 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3930
3931 * Ada
3932
3933 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3934 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3935 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3936
3937 * New native configurations
3938
3939 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3940
3941 * Remote 'p' packet
3942
3943 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3944 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3945
3946 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3947
3948 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3949 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3950 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3951 i386 application).
3952
3953 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3954 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3955 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3956 configurations:
3957
3958 hppa-*-hpux
3959 ia64-*-aix
3960 mips-*-irix*
3961 *-*-lynx
3962 mips-*-linux-gnu
3963 sds protocol
3964 xdr protocol
3965 powerpc bdm protocol
3966
3967 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3968 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3969
3970 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3971
3972 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3973 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3974 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3975 permanently REMOVED.
3976
3977 h8300-*-*
3978 mcore-*-*
3979 mn10300-*-*
3980 ns32k-*-*
3981 sh64-*-*
3982 v850-*-*
3983
3984 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3985
3986 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3987
3988 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3989 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3990 been fixed.
3991
3992 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3993
3994 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3995 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3996 IRIX long double values).
3997
3998 * VAX and "next"
3999
4000 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4001 command. This problem has been fixed.
4002
4003 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4004
4005 * Fix for ``many threads''
4006
4007 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4008 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4009 error message:
4010
4011 ptrace: No such process.
4012 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4013
4014 This problem has been fixed.
4015
4016 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4017
4018 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4019 GDB to dump core).
4020
4021 * New ``start'' command.
4022
4023 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4024
4025 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4026
4027 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4028 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4029 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4030
4031 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4032 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4033 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4034 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4035 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4036 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4037 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4038 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4039 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4040
4041 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
4042
4043 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4044 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4045 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4046 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4047 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4048
4049 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4050 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4051 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4052
4053 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4054
4055 * New native configurations
4056
4057 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4058 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4059 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4060 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4061 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4062 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4063 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4064
4065 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4066
4067 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4068 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4069 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4070 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4071 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4072 work, was also included.
4073
4074 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4075 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4076
4077 h8300-*-*
4078 mcore-*-*
4079 mn10300-*-*
4080 ns32k-*-*
4081 sh64-*-*
4082 v850-*-*
4083 xstormy16-*-*
4084
4085 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4086 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4087
4088 * REMOVED configurations and files
4089
4090 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4091 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4092 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4093 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4094 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4095 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4096 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4097 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4098 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4099 sonymips mips-sony-*
4100 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4101
4102 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4103
4104 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4105
4106 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4107 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4108 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4109 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4110 with GDB".
4111
4112 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4113
4114 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4115 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4116 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4117 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4118 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4119 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4120 are created.
4121
4122 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4123
4124 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4125
4126 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4127 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4128 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4129
4130 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4131
4132 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4133 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4134
4135 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4136
4137 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4138 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4139 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4140
4141 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4142
4143 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4144 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4145
4146 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4147
4148 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4149 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4150 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4151
4152 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4153
4154 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4155 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4156 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4157
4158 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4159
4160 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4161
4162 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4163 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4164
4165 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4166
4167 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4168 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4169 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4170 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4171
4172 * Revised SPARC target
4173
4174 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4175 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4176 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4177 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4178 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4179
4180 * New C++ demangler
4181
4182 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4183 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4184 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4185 programs.
4186
4187 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4188
4189 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4190 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4191 encountered these.
4192
4193 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4194
4195 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4196 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4197 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4198 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4199 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4200 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4201 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4202 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4203 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4204
4205 * New native configurations
4206
4207 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4208 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4209 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4210 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4211 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4212
4213 * New debugging protocols
4214
4215 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4216
4217 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4218
4219 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4220 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4221 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4222
4223 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4224
4225 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4226 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4227 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4228 permanently REMOVED.
4229
4230 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4231 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4232 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4233 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4234 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4235 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4236 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4237 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4238 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4239 sonymips mips-sony-*
4240 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4241
4242 * REMOVED configurations and files
4243
4244 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4245 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4246 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4247 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4248 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4249 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4250 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4251 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4252 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4253 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4254 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4255 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4256 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4257 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4258 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4259 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4260 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4261
4262 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4263
4264 * Objective-C
4265
4266 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4267 integrated into GDB.
4268
4269 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4270
4271 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4272 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4273 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4274 backtraces.
4275
4276 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4277 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4278 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4279
4280 * Hosted file I/O.
4281
4282 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4283 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4284 remote protocol documentation for details.
4285
4286 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4287
4288 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4289 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4290 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4291 ppc32 on ppc64).
4292
4293 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4294
4295 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4296 per-thread variables.
4297
4298 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4299
4300 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4301 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4302
4303 * Separate debug info.
4304
4305 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4306 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4307 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4308 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4309 and optional debug files.
4310
4311 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4312
4313 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4314 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4315 debugger.
4316
4317 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4318 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4319
4320 * Java
4321
4322 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4323 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4324 considered "useable".
4325
4326 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4327
4328 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4329 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4330 kernel.
4331
4332 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4333
4334 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4335 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4336
4337 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4338
4339 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4340 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4341 command.
4342
4343 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4344
4345 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4346 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4347
4348 * Profiling support
4349
4350 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4351 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4352 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4353 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4354 data, for more informative profiling results.
4355
4356 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4357
4358 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4359 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4360 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4361
4362 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4363 removed.
4364
4365 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4366 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4367 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4368 in a subsequent -var-update.
4369
4370 * New native configurations.
4371
4372 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4373
4374 * Multi-arched targets.
4375
4376 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4377 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4378
4379 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4380
4381 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4382 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4383 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4384 permanently REMOVED.
4385
4386 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4387 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4388 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4389 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4390 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4391 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4392 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4393 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4394 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4395 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4396 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4397 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4398
4399 * REMOVED configurations and files
4400
4401 V850EA ISA
4402 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4403 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4404 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4405 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4406 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4407 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4408 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4409 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4410 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4411 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4412 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4413 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4414 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4415
4416 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4417
4418 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4419 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4420 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4421 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4422 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4423
4424 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4425
4426 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4427
4428 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4429 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4430 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4431 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4432 shared libs like mad''.
4433
4434 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4435
4436 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4437 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4438 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4439 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4440
4441 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4442
4443 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4444 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4445 they expand.
4446
4447 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4448 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4449
4450 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4451 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4452
4453 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4454 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4455 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4456 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4457
4458 * Multi-arched targets.
4459
4460 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4461 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4462 NEC V850 v850-*-*
4463 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4464 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4465 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4466
4467 * New targets.
4468
4469 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4470
4471
4472 * New native configurations
4473
4474 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4475 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4476 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4477 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4478
4479 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4480
4481 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4482 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4483 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4484 permanently REMOVED.
4485
4486 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4487 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4488 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4489 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4490 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4491 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4492 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4493 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4494 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4495 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4496 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4497 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4498 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4499
4500 * OBSOLETE languages
4501
4502 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4503
4504 * REMOVED configurations and files
4505
4506 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4507 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4508 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4509 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4510 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4511
4512 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4513
4514 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4515
4516 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4517 commands. The default is 1024.
4518
4519 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4520
4521 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4522
4523 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4524
4525 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4526 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4527 from a file into memory (restore).
4528
4529 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4530
4531 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4532 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4533 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4534
4535 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4536
4537 * New targets.
4538
4539 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
4540
4541 * Bug fixes
4542
4543 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4544 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4545 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4546
4547 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4548 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4549 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4550
4551 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
4552 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
4553 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
4554
4555 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
4556 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
4557 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
4558
4559 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
4560
4561 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
4562
4563 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
4564 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
4565 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
4566 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
4567 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
4568 (notably embedded) targets.
4569
4570 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
4571
4572 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
4573 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
4574 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
4575 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
4576
4577 * New command line option
4578
4579 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
4580
4581 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4582
4583 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
4584 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
4585 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
4586 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
4587 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4588 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4589 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4590 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4591 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4592 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4593
4594 * Changes in ARM configurations.
4595
4596 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
4597 configuration is fully multi-arch.
4598
4599 * New native configurations
4600
4601 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
4602 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
4603 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
4604 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
4605
4606 * New targets
4607
4608 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
4609
4610 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4611
4612 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4613 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4614 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4615 permanently REMOVED.
4616
4617 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4618 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4619 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4620 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4621 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4622
4623 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4624
4625 * REMOVED configurations and files
4626
4627 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4628 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4629 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4630 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4631 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4632 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4633 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4634 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4635 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4636 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4637 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4638 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4639 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
4640
4641 * Changes to command line processing
4642
4643 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4644 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4645
4646 * Changes to key bindings
4647
4648 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4649
4650 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4651
4652 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4653
4654 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4655 corrupted.
4656
4657 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4658
4659 Numerous documentation fixes.
4660
4661 Numerous testsuite fixes.
4662
4663 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
4664
4665 * New native configurations
4666
4667 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4668 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
4669 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
4670 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4671 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
4672 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
4673
4674 * New targets
4675
4676 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
4677 CRIS cris-axis
4678 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
4679
4680 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4681
4682 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
4683 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4684 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4685 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4686 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4687 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4688 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4689 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4690 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4691 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4692 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4693 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4694 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4695 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
4696
4697 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4698 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4699
4700 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4701 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4702 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4703 permanently REMOVED.
4704
4705 * REMOVED configurations and files
4706
4707 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4708 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4709 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4710 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4711 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
4712 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
4713
4714 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
4715
4716 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
4717 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4718 present.
4719
4720 * Other news:
4721
4722 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4723
4724 * The MI enabled by default.
4725
4726 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4727 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4728 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4729 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4730 which is now deprecated.
4731
4732 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4733
4734 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4735 main features are supported:
4736
4737 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4738
4739 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4740 extension;
4741
4742 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4743
4744 - a Pascal expression parser.
4745
4746 However, some important features are not yet supported.
4747
4748 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4749
4750 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4751
4752 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4753 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4754
4755 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4756
4757 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4758
4759 * Changes in completion.
4760
4761 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4762 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4763 users expect at the shell prompt.
4764
4765 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4766 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4767 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4768 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4769 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4770 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4771 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4772
4773 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4774
4775 * New platform-independent commands:
4776
4777 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4778 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4779 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4780
4781 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4782
4783 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4784 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4785 many threads as your system allows you to have.
4786
4787 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4788
4789 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4790 multi-threaded programs though.
4791
4792 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
4793
4794 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4795
4796 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4797 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4798 supported.)
4799
4800 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4801
4802 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4803 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4804 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4805 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4806 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4807 registers.
4808
4809 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4810 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4811 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4812
4813 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4814
4815 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4816 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4817
4818 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4819 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4820 IDT.
4821
4822 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4823 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4824 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4825 a given linear address.
4826
4827 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4828 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4829 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4830
4831 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4832
4833 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4834
4835 * Changes in documentation.
4836
4837 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4838 Documentation License.
4839
4840 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4841 manual.
4842
4843 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4844
4845 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4846 manual.
4847
4848 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4849 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4850 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4851
4852 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4853
4854 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4855 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4856 contents of this file.
4857
4858 * gdba.el deleted
4859
4860 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
4861
4862 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
4863
4864 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4865
4866 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4867 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4868 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4869 greater level of detail.
4870
4871 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4872
4873 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4874 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4875 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4876 written.
4877
4878 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4879
4880 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4881 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4882 machines ``out of the box''.
4883
4884 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4885 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4886 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4887 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4888 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4889
4890 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4891 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4892 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4893 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4894 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4895
4896 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4897 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4898 also works.
4899
4900 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4901 GDB.
4902
4903 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4904 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4905 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4906 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4907
4908 * New native configurations
4909
4910 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
4911 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4912
4913 * New targets
4914
4915 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
4916 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4917 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
4918 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4919
4920 * OBSOLETE configurations
4921
4922 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4923 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4924 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4925 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4926 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
4927
4928 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4929 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4930 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4931 be permanently REMOVED.
4932
4933 * Gould support removed
4934
4935 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4936
4937 * New features for SVR4
4938
4939 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4940 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4941 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4942
4943 * Many C++ enhancements
4944
4945 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4946 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4947
4948 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4949
4950 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4951 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4952 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4953 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4954
4955 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4956 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4957
4958 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
4959
4960 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4961 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4962 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4963
4964 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4965 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4966
4967 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4968
4969 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4970 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4971 include ``set remote P-packet''.
4972
4973 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4974
4975 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4976 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4977 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4978
4979 * ``apropos'' command added.
4980
4981 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4982 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4983 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4984
4985 * New MI interface
4986
4987 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4988 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
4989 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4990 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4991 enabled by configuring with:
4992
4993 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4994
4995 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4996
4997 * New native configurations
4998
4999 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5000 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5001 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5002
5003 * New targets
5004
5005 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5006 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5007 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5008
5009 * OBSOLETE configurations
5010
5011 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5012
5013 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5014 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5015 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5016 be permanently REMOVED.
5017
5018 * ANSI/ISO C
5019
5020 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5021 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5022 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5023 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5024 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5025 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5026 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5027 already.
5028
5029 * Readline 2.2
5030
5031 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5032
5033 * set extension-language
5034
5035 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5036 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5037 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5038 set extension-language .c c++
5039 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5040 and their associated languages.
5041
5042 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5043
5044 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5045 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5046 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5047
5048 set processor NAME
5049
5050 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5051 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5052
5053 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5054 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5055 403 IBM PowerPC 403
5056 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5057 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5058 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5059 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5060 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5061 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5062 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5063 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5064
5065 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5066 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5067 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5068 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5069
5070 * HP-UX support
5071
5072 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5073 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5074 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5075 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5076 for xdb and dbx commands.
5077
5078 * Catchpoints
5079
5080 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5081 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5082 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5083
5084 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5085 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5086 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5087
5088 * Debugging across forks
5089
5090 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5091 in the inferior.
5092
5093 * TUI
5094
5095 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5096 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5097 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5098
5099 * GDB remote protocol additions
5100
5101 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5102 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5103 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5104 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5105
5106 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5107 full 64-bit address. The command
5108
5109 set remoteaddresssize 32
5110
5111 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5112 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5113 will be discarded.
5114
5115 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5116 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5117
5118 maint packet heythere
5119
5120 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5121 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5122 time.
5123
5124 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5125 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5126 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5127
5128 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5129
5130 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5131 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5132 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5133
5134 * mask-address variable for Mips
5135
5136 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5137 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5138 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5139
5140 * Higher serial baud rates
5141
5142 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5143 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5144 to achieve all of these rates.)
5145
5146 * i960 simulator
5147
5148 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5149 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5150
5151
5152 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5153
5154 * New native configurations
5155
5156 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5157 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5158 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5159 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5160 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5161 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5162 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5163
5164 * New targets
5165
5166 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5167 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5168 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5169 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5170 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5171 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5172 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5173 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5174 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5175 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5176 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5177
5178 * New debugging protocols
5179
5180 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5181 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5182 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5183 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5184 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5185 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5186
5187 * DWARF 2
5188
5189 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5190 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5191 information.
5192
5193 * Java frontend
5194
5195 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5196 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5197
5198 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5199
5200 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5201 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5202 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5203
5204 * Live range splitting
5205
5206 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5207 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5208 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5209
5210 * Hurd support
5211
5212 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5213 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5214
5215 * ARM Thumb support
5216
5217 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5218 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5219 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5220 accordingly.
5221
5222 * MIPS16 support
5223
5224 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5225 instruction set.
5226
5227 * Overlay support
5228
5229 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5230 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5231 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5232 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5233 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5234 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5235
5236 * info symbol
5237
5238 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5239 the symbol at the specified address.
5240
5241 * Trace support
5242
5243 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5244 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5245 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5246 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5247 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5248
5249 * MIPS simulator
5250
5251 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5252 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5253 of most MIPS variants.
5254
5255 * Sparc simulator
5256
5257 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5258 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5259 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5260
5261 * set architecture
5262
5263 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5264 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5265 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5266 the possible architectures.
5267
5268 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5269
5270 * New native configurations
5271
5272 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5273 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5274 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5275 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5276 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5277 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5278
5279 * New targets
5280
5281 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5282 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5283 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5284 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5285 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5286 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
5287 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5288
5289 * PowerPC simulator
5290
5291 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5292 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5293 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5294 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5295 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5296
5297 * Solaris 2.5
5298
5299 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5300
5301 * Windows 95/NT native
5302
5303 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5304 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5305 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5306 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5307 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5308
5309 * dont-repeat command
5310
5311 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5312 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5313 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5314 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5315
5316 * Send break instead of ^C
5317
5318 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5319 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5320 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5321
5322 * Remote protocol timeout
5323
5324 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5325 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5326 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5327
5328 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5329
5330 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5331 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5332 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5333 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5334 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5335
5336 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5337 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5338 automatically on hpux10.
5339
5340 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5341
5342 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5343
5344 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5345
5346 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5347 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5348 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5349 every character. The default value is 1050.
5350
5351 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5352
5353 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5354 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5355 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5356 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5357 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5358 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5359
5360 * Speedups for remote debugging
5361
5362 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5363 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5364 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5365
5366 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5367
5368 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5369 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5370
5371 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5372
5373 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5374
5375 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5376 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5377
5378 * Remote targets use caching
5379
5380 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5381 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5382 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5383 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5384 off' turns the the data cache off.
5385
5386 * Remote targets may have threads
5387
5388 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5389 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5390 gdb/remote.c for details.
5391
5392 * NetROM support
5393
5394 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5395 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5396 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5397 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5398 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5399 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5400 sequence is something like
5401
5402 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5403 load <prog>
5404 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5405
5406 * Macintosh host
5407
5408 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5409 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5410 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5411 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5412 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5413 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5414 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5415 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5416
5417 * Autoconf
5418
5419 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5420 but does simplify configuration and building.
5421
5422 * hpux10
5423
5424 GDB now supports hpux10.
5425
5426 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5427
5428 * New native configurations
5429
5430 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5431 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5432 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5433 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5434
5435 * New targets
5436
5437 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5438 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5439 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5440 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5441 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5442
5443 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5444
5445 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5446 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5447 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5448 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5449 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5450
5451 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5452
5453 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5454 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5455 trivial example:
5456 define adder
5457 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5458
5459 To execute the command use:
5460 adder 1 2 3
5461
5462 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5463 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5464 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5465
5466 * New `if' and `while' commands
5467
5468 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5469 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5470 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5471 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5472 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5473 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5474 if the expression is zero.
5475
5476 * Fortran source language mode
5477
5478 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5479 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5480 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5481 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5482 Fortran compilers.
5483
5484 * Better HPUX support
5485
5486 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5487 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5488 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5489 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5490 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5491
5492 adb -w a.out
5493 __dld_flags?W 0x5
5494 control-d
5495
5496 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5497 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5498
5499 adb -w a.out
5500 __dld_flags?W 0x4
5501 control-d
5502
5503 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5504 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5505 external linkage.
5506
5507 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5508 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5509
5510 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5511
5512 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5513 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5514 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5515 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5516 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5517 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5518
5519 * New DOS host serial code
5520
5521 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5522 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5523 a PC's serial port.
5524
5525 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5526
5527 * New "complete" command
5528
5529 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5530 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5531
5532 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5533
5534 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5535 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5536
5537 * Breakpoint hit counts
5538
5539 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5540 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5541 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5542 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5543 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5544 that breakpoint.
5545
5546 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5547
5548 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5549 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5550 arrays actually contain only short strings.
5551
5552 * Shared library breakpoints
5553
5554 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
5555 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
5556
5557 * Hardware watchpoints
5558
5559 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
5560 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
5561
5562 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
5563
5564 * Annotations
5565
5566 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
5567 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
5568
5569 * Improved Irix 5 support
5570
5571 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
5572
5573 * Improved HPPA support
5574
5575 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
5576
5577 * New native configurations
5578
5579 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
5580 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5581 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
5582 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
5583
5584 * New targets
5585
5586 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5587 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5588 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
5589
5590 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5591
5592 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5593 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
5594
5595 * Fixes
5596
5597 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
5598 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
5599
5600 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
5601
5602 * Irix 5 is now supported
5603
5604 * HPPA support
5605
5606 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
5607 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
5608 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
5609 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
5610 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
5611
5612
5613 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
5614
5615 * User visible changes:
5616
5617 * Remote Debugging
5618
5619 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
5620 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
5621 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
5622 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
5623 debugging info for the mips target).
5624
5625 * DEC Alpha native support
5626
5627 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
5628 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
5629 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
5630 Alpha-specific notes.
5631
5632 * Preliminary thread implementation
5633
5634 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
5635
5636 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
5637
5638 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
5639 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
5640 for details).
5641
5642 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5643
5644 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5645 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5646 call methods, ...etc.
5647
5648 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5649
5650 * User visible changes:
5651
5652 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5653 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5654 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5655 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5656
5657 Filename completion now works.
5658
5659 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5660 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5661 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5662
5663 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5664 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5665 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5666 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5667 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5668
5669 * DEC alpha support
5670
5671 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5672 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5673
5674
5675 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5676
5677 * Testsuite
5678
5679 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5680 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5681 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5682
5683 * C++ demangling
5684
5685 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5686 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5687 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5688 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5689 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5690
5691 * Simulators
5692
5693 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5694 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5695 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5696
5697 * New targets supported
5698
5699 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5700 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5701 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5702 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5703 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5704
5705 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5706 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5707 GO32 memory extender.
5708
5709 * New remote protocols
5710
5711 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5712
5713 * New source languages supported
5714
5715 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5716 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5717 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5718
5719
5720 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5721
5722 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5723
5724 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5725 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5726 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5727 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5728 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5729 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5730
5731 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5732
5733 * Faster and better demangling
5734
5735 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5736 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5737 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5738 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5739 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5740 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5741 symbol lookups.
5742
5743 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5744 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5745 compiler does not actually implement.
5746
5747 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5748
5749 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5750 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5751 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5752 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5753 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5754 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5755 fix.
5756
5757 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5758 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5759
5760 * Improved configure script
5761
5762 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5763 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5764 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5765 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5766
5767 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5768 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5769 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5770 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5771 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5772 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5773
5774 * Documentation improvements
5775
5776 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5777 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5778 before submitting changes.
5779
5780 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5781 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5782 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5783 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5784 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5785
5786 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5787 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5788 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5789 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5790 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5791 around this problem.
5792
5793 * New features
5794
5795 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5796 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5797 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5798 the target program.
5799
5800 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5801 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5802
5803 * New native hosts supported
5804
5805 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5806 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5807
5808 * New targets supported
5809
5810 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5811
5812 * New file formats supported
5813
5814 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5815 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5816
5817 * Major bug fixes
5818
5819 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5820
5821 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5822 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5823
5824 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5825 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5826 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5827
5828 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5829 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5830
5831 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5832 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5833 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5834 libraries.
5835
5836 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5837 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5838 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5839 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5840 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5841
5842 * Internal improvements
5843
5844 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5845 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5846
5847 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5848 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5849 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5850 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5851 shared code that handles any of them.
5852
5853 * New command line options
5854
5855 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5856
5857 * Mmalloc licensing
5858
5859 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5860 General Public License.
5861
5862 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5863
5864 * Host/native/target split
5865
5866 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5867 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5868 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5869 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5870 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5871
5872 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5873 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5874 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5875 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5876 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5877 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5878 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5879
5880 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5881 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5882 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5883
5884 * New hosts supported
5885
5886 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5887 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5888 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5889
5890 * New targets supported
5891
5892 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5893 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5894
5895 * New native hosts supported
5896
5897 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5898 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5899 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5900
5901 * New file formats supported
5902
5903 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5904 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5905 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5906
5907 * New commands
5908
5909 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5910 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5911 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5912
5913 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5914
5915 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5916 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5917 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5918 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5919
5920 * C++ improvements
5921
5922 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5923 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5924 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5925
5926 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5927
5928 * Major bug fixes
5929
5930 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5931 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5932 by the compiler.
5933
5934 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5935 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5936
5937 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5938 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5939 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5940 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5941 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5942 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5943
5944 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5945 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5946 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5947 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5948
5949 * AMD 29k support
5950
5951 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5952 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5953 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5954 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5955 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5956
5957 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5958 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5959 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5960 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5961
5962 * Remote interfaces
5963
5964 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5965 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5966 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5967 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5968 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5969 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5970 each instruction being stepped through.
5971
5972 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5973 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5974
5975 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5976 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5977 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5978 processor with a serial port.
5979
5980 * Configuration
5981
5982 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5983 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5984 supported, and what files each one uses.
5985
5986 * Library changes
5987
5988 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5989 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5990 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5991 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5992
5993 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5994 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5995 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5996 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5997
5998 * Documentation
5999
6000 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6001 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6002 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6003 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6004 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6005 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6006
6007 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6008
6009
6010 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6011
6012 * Better support for C++ function names
6013
6014 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6015 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6016 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6017 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6018 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6019
6020 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6021 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6022 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6023 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6024 for the list of formats.
6025
6026 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6027
6028 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6029 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6030 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6031 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6032 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6033 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6034 this problem.)
6035
6036 * New 'maintenance' command
6037
6038 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6039 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6040 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6041
6042 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6043 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6044 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6045 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6046 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6047 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6048
6049 The following commands are new:
6050
6051 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6052 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6053 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6054
6055 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6056
6057 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6058 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6059 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6060 read after argv processing.
6061
6062 * New hosts supported
6063
6064 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6065
6066 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6067
6068 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6069 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6070 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6071 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6072 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6073 It costs extra.
6074
6075 * New targets supported
6076
6077 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6078
6079 * More smarts about finding #include files
6080
6081 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6082 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6083 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6084 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6085 the one that contains your sources.
6086
6087 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6088 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6089 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6090
6091 * Interesting infernals change
6092
6093 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6094 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6095 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6096 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6097
6098 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6099
6100 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6101 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6102 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6103
6104 See the ChangeLog for details.
6105
6106 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6107
6108 * New machines supported (host and target)
6109
6110 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6111
6112 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6113
6114 * New malloc package
6115
6116 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6117 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6118 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6119 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6120 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6121 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6122
6123 * info proc
6124
6125 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6126 'help info proc' for details.
6127
6128 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6129
6130 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6131 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6132 possible.
6133
6134 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6135
6136 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6137 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6138 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6139 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6140 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6141 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6142
6143 * Cross byte order fixes
6144
6145 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6146 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6147
6148 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6149
6150 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6151 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6152 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6153 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6154 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6155 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6156 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6157 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6158 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6159 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6160
6161 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6162 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6163 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6164 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6165
6166 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6167 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6168 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6169 use is:
6170
6171 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6172
6173 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6174 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6175 shared across multiple host platforms.
6176
6177 * longjmp() handling
6178
6179 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6180 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6181 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6182 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6183
6184 * Solaris 2.0
6185
6186 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6187 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6188 reading symbols.
6189
6190 * Bug fixes
6191
6192 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6193 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6194 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6195
6196 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6197
6198 * New machines supported (host and target)
6199
6200 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6201 (except core files)
6202 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6203 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6204
6205 * New machines supported (target)
6206
6207 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6208
6209 * C++ support
6210
6211 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6212 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6213 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6214
6215 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6216 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6217 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6218 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6219 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6220 released.
6221
6222 * New features for SVR4
6223
6224 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6225 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6226 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6227
6228 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6229 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6230 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6231
6232 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6233 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6234
6235 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6236
6237 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6238 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6239 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6240 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6241 same code linked statically.
6242
6243 * New Getopt
6244
6245 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6246 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6247 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6248 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6249 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6250 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6251
6252 * Bugs fixed
6253
6254 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6255 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6256 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6257
6258
6259 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6260
6261 * New machines supported (host and target)
6262
6263 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6264 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6265 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6266
6267 * Almost SCO Unix support
6268
6269 We had hoped to support:
6270 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6271 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6272 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6273 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6274
6275 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6276
6277 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6278 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6279 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6280 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6281 reqired (if any).
6282
6283 * New Readline
6284
6285 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6286 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6287 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6288
6289 * Bugs fixed
6290
6291 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6292 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6293 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6294
6295 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6296
6297 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6298 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6299 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6300
6301 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6302 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6303 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6304 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6305 version 2.
6306
6307 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6308 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6309 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6310 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6311 situation somewhat.
6312
6313 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6314 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6315 methods.
6316
6317 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6318 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6319 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6320
6321
6322 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6323
6324 * Improved configuration
6325
6326 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6327 Porting BFD is simpler.
6328
6329 * Stepping improved
6330
6331 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6332 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6333 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6334 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6335
6336 * Bug fixing
6337
6338 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6339
6340 * New host supported (not target)
6341
6342 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6343
6344
6345 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6346
6347 * Multiple source language support
6348
6349 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6350 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6351 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6352 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6353 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6354 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6355
6356 * GDB and Modula-2
6357
6358 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6359 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6360 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6361 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6362
6363 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6364 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6365 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6366
6367 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6368 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6369
6370 * set write on/off
6371
6372 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6373 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6374 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6375 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6376 effect immediately.
6377
6378 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6379
6380 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6381 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6382 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6383 examining core files.
6384
6385 * set listsize
6386
6387 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6388 The default is 10.
6389
6390 * New machines supported (host and target)
6391
6392 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6393 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6394 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6395
6396 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6397
6398 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6399
6400 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6401
6402 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6403 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6404 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6405
6406 * New remote interfaces
6407
6408 AMD 29000 Adapt
6409 AMD 29000 Minimon
6410
6411
6412 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6413
6414 * New Facilities
6415
6416 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6417
6418 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6419 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6420 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6421 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6422 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6423 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6424 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6425 stub on the target system.
6426
6427 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6428
6429 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6430 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6431 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6432
6433 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6434 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6435
6436
6437 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6438
6439 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6440 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6441
6442 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6443 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6444 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6445
6446 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6447 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6448 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6449 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6450
6451 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6452 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6453 it is already running. Default is ON.
6454
6455 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6456 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6457 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6458 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6459 Default is ON.
6460
6461 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6462 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6463 or the value of the environment variable
6464 GDBHISTFILE.
6465
6466 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6467 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6468 HISTSIZE.
6469
6470 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6471 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6472 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6473
6474 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6475 history expansion will be performed on
6476 command line input. The default is OFF.
6477
6478 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6479 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6480 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6481
6482 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6483 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6484 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6485 variable TERM.
6486
6487 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6488 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6489 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6490 variable TERM.
6491
6492 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6493 ``set width'' instead.
6494
6495 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6496 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6497 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6498 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6499
6500 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6501 is OFF.
6502
6503 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6504 "raw" form if off.
6505
6506 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6507 like instructions.
6508
6509 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6510
6511
6512 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6513
6514 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6515 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6516 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6517 window.
6518
6519
6520 * Support for Shared Libraries
6521
6522 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6523 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6524 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6525 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6526 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6527 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6528 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6529 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6530
6531 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6532 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6533 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6534
6535 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6536
6537
6538 * Watchpoints
6539
6540 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6541 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6542 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6543 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6544 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6545 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6546
6547 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6548
6549 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6550
6551 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6552 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6553 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6554
6555
6556 * C++ multiple inheritance
6557
6558 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
6559 for C++ programs.
6560
6561 * C++ exception handling
6562
6563 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
6564 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
6565 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
6566 handler's context).
6567
6568 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
6569 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
6570 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
6571
6572 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
6573 current stack frame.
6574
6575
6576 * Minor command changes
6577
6578 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
6579 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
6580 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
6581
6582 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
6583 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
6584 frames without printing.
6585
6586 * New directory command
6587
6588 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6589 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6590 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6591 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6592 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6593
6594 * Configuring GDB for compilation
6595
6596 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
6597 for more details.
6598
6599 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
6600 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
6601 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
6602 where the program that you are debugging will run.