1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.4
8 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
10 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
14 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
15 only if it doesn't already have a value.
17 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
19 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
21 restart <n> Return the program state to a
22 previously saved state.
24 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
26 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
28 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
29 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
31 info forks List forks of the user program that
32 are available to be debugged.
34 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
35 forks of the user program that are
36 available to be debugged.
38 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
39 that are available to be debugged (and
40 kill the forked process).
42 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
43 that are available to be debugged (and
44 allow the process to continue).
48 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
50 * Improved Windows host support
52 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
53 native console support, and remote communications using either
54 network sockets or serial ports.
58 The ARM rdi-share module.
60 The Netware NLM debug server.
62 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
64 * New native configurations
66 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
67 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
71 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
73 * New command line options
75 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
76 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
77 the child (debugged) program exited with.
78 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
79 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
80 specified multiple times and in conjunction
81 with the --command (-x) option.
83 * Deprecated commands removed
85 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
89 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
90 othernames set arm disassembler
91 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
92 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
93 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
96 * New BSD user-level threads support
98 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
99 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
102 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
103 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
104 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
106 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
107 are not yet supported.
109 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
110 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
112 * REMOVED configurations and files
114 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
115 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
116 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
118 * New "set print array-indexes" command
120 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
121 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
124 * VAX floating point support
126 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
128 * User-defined command support
130 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
131 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
132 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
134 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
136 * New command line option
138 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
141 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
143 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
144 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
145 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
146 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
147 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
149 * Internationalization
151 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
152 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
153 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
157 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
158 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
159 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
161 * New native configurations
163 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
167 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
168 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
170 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
172 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
173 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
174 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
177 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
178 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
179 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
191 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
192 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
194 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
196 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
197 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
198 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
208 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
210 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
212 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
213 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
216 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
218 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
219 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
220 IRIX long double values).
224 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
225 command. This problem has been fixed.
227 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
229 * Fix for ``many threads''
231 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
232 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
235 ptrace: No such process.
236 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
238 This problem has been fixed.
240 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
242 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
245 * New ``start'' command.
247 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
249 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
251 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
252 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
253 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
255 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
256 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
257 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
258 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
259 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
260 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
261 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
262 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
263 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
265 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
267 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
268 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
269 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
270 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
271 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
273 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
274 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
275 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
277 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
279 * New native configurations
281 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
282 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
283 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
284 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
285 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
286 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
287 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
289 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
291 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
292 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
293 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
294 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
295 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
296 work, was also included.
298 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
299 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
309 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
310 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
312 * REMOVED configurations and files
314 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
315 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
316 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
317 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
318 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
319 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
320 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
321 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
322 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
324 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
326 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
328 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
330 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
331 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
332 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
333 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
336 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
338 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
339 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
340 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
341 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
342 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
343 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
346 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
348 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
350 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
351 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
352 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
354 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
356 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
357 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
359 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
361 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
362 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
363 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
365 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
367 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
368 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
370 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
372 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
373 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
374 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
376 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
378 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
379 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
380 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
382 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
384 * Removed --with-mmalloc
386 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
387 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
389 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
391 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
392 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
393 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
394 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
396 * Revised SPARC target
398 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
399 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
400 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
401 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
402 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
406 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
407 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
408 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
411 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
413 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
414 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
417 * C++ nested types and namespaces
419 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
420 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
421 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
422 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
423 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
424 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
425 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
426 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
427 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
429 * New native configurations
431 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
432 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
433 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
434 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
435 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
437 * New debugging protocols
439 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
441 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
443 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
444 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
445 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
447 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
449 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
450 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
451 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
454 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
455 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
456 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
457 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
458 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
459 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
460 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
461 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
462 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
464 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
466 * REMOVED configurations and files
468 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
469 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
470 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
471 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
472 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
473 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
474 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
475 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
476 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
477 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
478 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
479 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
480 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
481 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
482 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
483 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
484 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
486 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
490 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
493 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
495 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
496 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
497 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
500 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
501 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
506 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
507 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
508 remote protocol documentation for details.
510 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
512 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
513 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
514 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
517 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
519 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
520 per-thread variables.
522 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
524 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
525 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
527 * Separate debug info.
529 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
530 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
531 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
532 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
533 and optional debug files.
535 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
537 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
538 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
541 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
542 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
546 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
547 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
548 considered "useable".
550 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
552 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
553 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
556 * GDB supports logging output to a file
558 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
559 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
561 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
563 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
564 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
567 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
569 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
570 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
574 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
575 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
576 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
577 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
578 data, for more informative profiling results.
580 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
582 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
583 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
584 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
586 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
589 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
590 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
591 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
592 in a subsequent -var-update.
594 * New native configurations.
596 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
598 * Multi-arched targets.
600 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
601 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
603 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
605 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
606 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
607 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
610 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
611 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
612 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
613 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
614 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
615 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
616 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
617 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
618 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
619 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
620 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
621 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
623 * REMOVED configurations and files
626 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
627 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
628 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
629 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
630 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
631 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
633 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
634 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
635 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
636 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
637 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
638 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
640 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
642 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
643 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
644 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
645 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
646 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
648 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
650 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
652 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
653 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
654 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
655 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
656 shared libs like mad''.
658 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
660 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
661 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
662 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
663 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
665 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
667 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
668 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
671 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
672 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
674 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
675 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
677 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
678 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
679 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
680 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
682 * Multi-arched targets.
684 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
685 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
687 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
688 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
689 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
693 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
696 * New native configurations
698 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
699 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
700 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
701 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
703 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
705 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
706 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
707 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
710 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
711 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
712 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
713 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
714 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
715 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
716 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
717 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
718 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
719 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
721 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
722 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
726 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
728 * REMOVED configurations and files
730 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
731 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
732 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
733 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
734 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
736 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
738 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
740 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
741 commands. The default is 1024.
743 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
745 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
747 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
749 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
750 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
751 from a file into memory (restore).
753 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
755 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
756 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
757 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
759 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
767 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
768 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
769 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
771 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
772 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
773 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
775 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
776 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
777 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
779 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
780 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
781 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
783 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
785 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
787 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
788 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
789 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
790 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
791 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
792 (notably embedded) targets.
794 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
796 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
797 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
798 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
799 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
801 * New command line option
803 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
805 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
807 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
808 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
809 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
810 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
811 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
812 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
813 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
814 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
815 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
816 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
818 * Changes in ARM configurations.
820 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
821 configuration is fully multi-arch.
823 * New native configurations
825 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
826 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
827 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
828 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
832 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
834 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
836 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
837 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
838 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
841 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
842 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
843 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
844 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
845 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
847 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
849 * REMOVED configurations and files
851 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
853 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
854 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
855 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
856 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
857 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
858 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
859 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
860 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
861 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
862 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
863 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
865 * Changes to command line processing
867 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
868 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
870 * Changes to key bindings
872 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
874 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
876 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
878 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
881 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
883 Numerous documentation fixes.
885 Numerous testsuite fixes.
887 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
889 * New native configurations
891 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
892 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
893 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
894 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
896 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
900 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
902 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
904 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
906 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
907 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
908 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
909 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
910 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
912 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
913 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
914 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
915 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
916 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
917 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
918 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
919 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
921 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
922 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
924 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
925 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
926 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
929 * REMOVED configurations and files
931 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
932 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
934 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
938 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
940 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
941 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
946 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
948 * The MI enabled by default.
950 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
951 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
952 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
953 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
954 which is now deprecated.
956 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
958 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
959 main features are supported:
961 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
963 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
966 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
968 - a Pascal expression parser.
970 However, some important features are not yet supported.
972 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
974 - there are some problems with boolean types;
976 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
977 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
979 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
981 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
983 * Changes in completion.
985 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
986 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
987 users expect at the shell prompt.
989 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
990 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
991 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
992 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
993 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
994 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
995 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
997 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
999 * New platform-independent commands:
1001 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1002 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1003 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1005 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1007 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1008 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1009 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1011 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1013 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1014 multi-threaded programs though.
1016 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1018 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1020 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1021 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1024 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1026 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1027 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1028 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1029 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1030 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1033 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1034 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1035 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1037 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1039 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1040 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1042 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1043 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1046 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1047 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1048 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1049 a given linear address.
1051 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1052 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1053 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1055 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1057 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1059 * Changes in documentation.
1061 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1062 Documentation License.
1064 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1067 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1069 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1072 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1073 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1074 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1076 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1078 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1079 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1080 contents of this file.
1084 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1086 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1088 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1090 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1091 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1092 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1093 greater level of detail.
1095 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1097 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1098 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1099 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1102 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1104 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1105 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1106 machines ``out of the box''.
1108 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1109 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1110 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1111 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1112 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1114 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1115 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1116 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1117 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1118 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1120 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1121 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1124 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1127 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1128 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1129 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1130 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1132 * New native configurations
1134 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1135 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1139 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1140 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1141 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1142 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1144 * OBSOLETE configurations
1146 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1147 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1149 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1152 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1153 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1154 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1155 be permanently REMOVED.
1157 * Gould support removed
1159 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1161 * New features for SVR4
1163 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1164 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1165 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1167 * Many C++ enhancements
1169 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1170 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1172 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1174 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1175 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1176 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1177 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1179 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1180 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1182 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1184 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1185 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1186 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1188 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1189 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1191 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1193 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1194 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1195 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1197 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1199 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1200 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1201 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1203 * ``apropos'' command added.
1205 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1206 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1207 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1211 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1212 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1213 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1214 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1215 enabled by configuring with:
1217 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1219 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1221 * New native configurations
1223 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1224 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1225 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1229 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1230 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1231 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1233 * OBSOLETE configurations
1235 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1237 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1238 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1239 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1240 be permanently REMOVED.
1244 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1245 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1246 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1247 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1248 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1249 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1250 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1255 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1257 * set extension-language
1259 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1260 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1261 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1262 set extension-language .c c++
1263 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1264 and their associated languages.
1266 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1268 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1269 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1270 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1274 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1275 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1277 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1278 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1280 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1281 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1282 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1283 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1284 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1285 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1286 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1287 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1289 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1290 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1291 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1292 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1296 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1297 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1298 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1299 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1300 for xdb and dbx commands.
1304 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1305 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1306 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1308 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1309 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1310 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1312 * Debugging across forks
1314 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1319 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1320 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1321 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1323 * GDB remote protocol additions
1325 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1326 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1327 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1328 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1330 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1331 full 64-bit address. The command
1333 set remoteaddresssize 32
1335 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1336 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1339 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1340 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1342 maint packet heythere
1344 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1345 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1348 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1349 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1350 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1352 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1354 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1355 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1356 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1358 * mask-address variable for Mips
1360 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1361 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1362 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1364 * Higher serial baud rates
1366 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1367 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1368 to achieve all of these rates.)
1372 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1373 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1376 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1378 * New native configurations
1380 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1381 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1382 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1383 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1384 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1385 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1386 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1390 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1391 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1392 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1393 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1394 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1395 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1396 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1397 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1398 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1399 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1400 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1402 * New debugging protocols
1404 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1405 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1406 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1407 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1408 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1409 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1413 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1414 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1419 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1420 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1422 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1424 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1425 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1426 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1428 * Live range splitting
1430 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1431 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1432 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1436 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1437 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1441 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1442 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1443 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1448 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1453 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1454 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1455 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1456 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1457 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1458 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1462 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1463 the symbol at the specified address.
1467 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1468 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1469 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1470 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1471 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1475 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1476 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1477 of most MIPS variants.
1481 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1482 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1483 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1487 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1488 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1489 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1490 the possible architectures.
1492 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1494 * New native configurations
1496 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1497 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1498 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1499 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1500 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1501 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1505 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1506 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1507 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1508 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1509 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1511 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1515 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1516 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1517 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1518 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1519 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1523 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1525 * Windows 95/NT native
1527 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1528 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1529 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1530 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1531 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1533 * dont-repeat command
1535 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1536 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1537 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1538 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1540 * Send break instead of ^C
1542 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1543 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1544 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1546 * Remote protocol timeout
1548 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1549 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1550 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1552 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1554 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1555 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1556 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1557 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1558 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1560 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1561 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1562 automatically on hpux10.
1564 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1566 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1568 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1570 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1571 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1572 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1573 every character. The default value is 1050.
1575 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1577 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1578 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1579 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1580 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1581 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1582 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1584 * Speedups for remote debugging
1586 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1587 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1588 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1590 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1592 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1593 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1595 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1597 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1599 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1600 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1602 * Remote targets use caching
1604 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1605 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1606 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1607 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1608 off' turns the the data cache off.
1610 * Remote targets may have threads
1612 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1613 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1614 gdb/remote.c for details.
1618 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1619 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1620 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1621 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1622 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1623 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1624 sequence is something like
1626 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1628 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1632 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1633 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1634 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1635 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1636 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1637 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1638 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1639 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1643 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1644 but does simplify configuration and building.
1648 GDB now supports hpux10.
1650 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1652 * New native configurations
1654 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1655 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1656 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1657 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1661 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1662 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1663 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1664 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1667 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1669 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1670 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1671 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1672 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1673 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1675 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1677 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1678 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1681 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1683 To execute the command use:
1686 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1687 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1688 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1690 * New `if' and `while' commands
1692 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1693 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1694 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1695 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1696 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1697 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1698 if the expression is zero.
1700 * Fortran source language mode
1702 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1703 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1704 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1705 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1708 * Better HPUX support
1710 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1711 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1712 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1713 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1714 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1720 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1721 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1727 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1728 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1731 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1732 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1734 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1736 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1737 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1738 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1739 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1740 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1741 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1743 * New DOS host serial code
1745 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1746 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1749 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1751 * New "complete" command
1753 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1754 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1756 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1758 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1759 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1761 * Breakpoint hit counts
1763 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1764 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1765 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1766 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1767 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1770 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1772 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1773 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1774 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1776 * Shared library breakpoints
1778 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1779 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1781 * Hardware watchpoints
1783 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1784 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1786 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1790 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1791 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1793 * Improved Irix 5 support
1795 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1797 * Improved HPPA support
1799 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1801 * New native configurations
1803 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1804 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1805 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1806 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1810 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1811 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1814 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1816 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1817 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1821 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1822 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1824 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1826 * Irix 5 is now supported
1830 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1831 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1832 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1833 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1834 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1837 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1839 * User visible changes:
1843 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1844 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1845 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1846 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1847 debugging info for the mips target).
1849 * DEC Alpha native support
1851 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1852 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1853 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1854 Alpha-specific notes.
1856 * Preliminary thread implementation
1858 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1860 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1862 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1863 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1866 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1868 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1869 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1870 call methods, ...etc.
1872 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1874 * User visible changes:
1876 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1877 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1878 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1879 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1881 Filename completion now works.
1883 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1884 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1885 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1887 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1888 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1889 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1890 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1891 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1895 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1896 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1899 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1903 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1904 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1905 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1909 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1910 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1911 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1912 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1913 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1917 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1918 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1919 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1921 * New targets supported
1923 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1924 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1925 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1926 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1927 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1929 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1930 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1931 GO32 memory extender.
1933 * New remote protocols
1935 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1937 * New source languages supported
1939 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1940 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1941 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1944 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1946 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1948 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1949 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1950 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1951 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1952 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1953 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1955 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1957 * Faster and better demangling
1959 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1960 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1961 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1962 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1963 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1964 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1967 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1968 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1969 compiler does not actually implement.
1971 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1973 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1974 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1975 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1976 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1977 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1978 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1981 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1982 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1984 * Improved configure script
1986 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1987 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1988 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1989 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1991 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1992 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1993 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1994 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1995 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1996 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1998 * Documentation improvements
2000 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2001 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2002 before submitting changes.
2004 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2005 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2006 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2007 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2008 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2010 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2011 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2012 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2013 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2014 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2015 around this problem.
2019 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2020 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2021 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2024 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2025 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2027 * New native hosts supported
2029 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2030 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2032 * New targets supported
2034 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2036 * New file formats supported
2038 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2039 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2043 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2045 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2046 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2048 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2049 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2050 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2052 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2053 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2055 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2056 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2057 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2060 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2061 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2062 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2063 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2064 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2066 * Internal improvements
2068 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2069 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2071 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2072 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2073 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2074 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2075 shared code that handles any of them.
2077 * New command line options
2079 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2083 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2084 General Public License.
2086 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2088 * Host/native/target split
2090 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2091 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2092 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2093 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2094 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2096 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2097 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2098 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2099 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2100 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2101 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2102 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2104 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2105 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2106 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2108 * New hosts supported
2110 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2111 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2112 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2114 * New targets supported
2116 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2117 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2119 * New native hosts supported
2121 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2122 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2123 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2125 * New file formats supported
2127 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2128 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2129 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2133 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2134 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2135 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2137 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2139 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2140 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2141 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2142 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2146 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2147 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2148 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2150 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2154 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2155 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2158 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2159 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2161 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2162 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2163 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2164 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2165 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2166 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2168 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2169 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2170 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2171 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2175 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2176 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2177 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2178 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2179 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2181 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2182 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2183 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2184 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2188 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2189 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2190 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2191 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2192 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2193 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2194 each instruction being stepped through.
2196 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2197 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2199 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2200 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2201 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2202 processor with a serial port.
2206 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2207 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2208 supported, and what files each one uses.
2212 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2213 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2214 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2215 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2217 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2218 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2219 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2220 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2224 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2225 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2226 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2227 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2228 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2229 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2231 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2234 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2236 * Better support for C++ function names
2238 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2239 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2240 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2241 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2242 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2244 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2245 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2246 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2247 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2248 for the list of formats.
2250 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2252 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2253 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2254 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2255 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2256 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2257 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2260 * New 'maintenance' command
2262 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2263 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2264 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2266 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2267 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2268 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2269 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2270 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2271 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2273 The following commands are new:
2275 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2276 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2277 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2279 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2281 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2282 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2283 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2284 read after argv processing.
2286 * New hosts supported
2288 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2290 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2292 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2293 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2294 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2295 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2296 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2299 * New targets supported
2301 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2303 * More smarts about finding #include files
2305 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2306 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2307 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2308 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2309 the one that contains your sources.
2311 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2312 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2313 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2315 * Interesting infernals change
2317 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2318 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2319 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2320 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2322 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2324 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2325 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2326 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2328 See the ChangeLog for details.
2330 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2332 * New machines supported (host and target)
2334 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2336 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2338 * New malloc package
2340 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2341 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2342 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2343 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2344 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2345 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2349 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2350 'help info proc' for details.
2352 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2354 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2355 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2358 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2360 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2361 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2362 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2363 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2364 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2365 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2367 * Cross byte order fixes
2369 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2370 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2372 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2374 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2375 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2376 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2377 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2378 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2379 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2380 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2381 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2382 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2383 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2385 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2386 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2387 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2388 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2390 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2391 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2392 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2395 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2397 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2398 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2399 shared across multiple host platforms.
2401 * longjmp() handling
2403 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2404 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2405 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2406 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2410 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2411 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2416 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2417 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2418 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2420 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2422 * New machines supported (host and target)
2424 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2426 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2427 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2429 * New machines supported (target)
2431 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2435 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2436 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2437 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2439 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2440 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2441 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2442 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2443 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2446 * New features for SVR4
2448 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2449 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2450 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2452 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2453 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2454 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2456 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2457 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2459 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2461 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2462 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2463 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2464 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2465 same code linked statically.
2469 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2470 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2471 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2472 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2473 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2474 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2478 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2479 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2480 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2483 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2485 * New machines supported (host and target)
2487 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2488 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2489 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2491 * Almost SCO Unix support
2493 We had hoped to support:
2494 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2495 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2496 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2497 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2499 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2501 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2502 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2503 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2504 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2509 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2510 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2511 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2515 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2516 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2517 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2519 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2521 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2522 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2523 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2525 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2526 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2527 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2528 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2531 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2532 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2533 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2534 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2537 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2538 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2541 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2542 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2543 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2546 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2548 * Improved configuration
2550 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2551 Porting BFD is simpler.
2555 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2556 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2557 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2558 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2562 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2564 * New host supported (not target)
2566 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2569 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2571 * Multiple source language support
2573 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2574 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2575 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2576 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2577 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2578 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2582 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2583 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2584 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2585 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2587 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2588 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2589 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2591 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2592 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2596 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2597 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2598 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2599 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2602 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2604 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2605 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2606 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2607 examining core files.
2611 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2614 * New machines supported (host and target)
2616 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2617 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2618 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2620 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2622 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2624 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2626 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2627 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2628 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2630 * New remote interfaces
2636 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2640 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2642 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2643 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2644 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2645 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2646 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2647 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2648 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2649 stub on the target system.
2651 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2653 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2654 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2655 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2657 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2658 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2661 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2663 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2664 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2666 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2667 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2668 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2670 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2671 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2672 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2673 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2675 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2676 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2677 it is already running. Default is ON.
2679 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2680 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2681 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2682 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2685 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2686 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2687 or the value of the environment variable
2690 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2691 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2694 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2695 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2696 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2698 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2699 history expansion will be performed on
2700 command line input. The default is OFF.
2702 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2703 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2704 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2706 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2707 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2708 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2711 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2712 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2713 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2716 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2717 ``set width'' instead.
2719 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2720 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2721 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2722 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2724 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2727 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2730 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2733 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2736 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2738 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2739 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2740 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2744 * Support for Shared Libraries
2746 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2747 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2748 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2749 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2750 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2751 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2752 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2753 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2755 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2756 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2757 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2759 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2764 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2765 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2766 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2767 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2768 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2769 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2771 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2773 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2775 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2776 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2777 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2780 * C++ multiple inheritance
2782 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2785 * C++ exception handling
2787 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2788 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2789 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2792 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2793 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2794 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2796 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2797 current stack frame.
2800 * Minor command changes
2802 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2803 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2804 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2806 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2807 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2808 frames without printing.
2810 * New directory command
2812 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2813 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2814 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2815 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2816 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2818 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2820 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2823 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2824 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2825 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2826 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob