[gdb/cli] Improve show logging output
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 11
5
6 * Configure changes
7
8 --enable-threading
9
10 Enable or disable multithreaded symbol loading. This is enabled
11 by default, but passing --disable-threading or --enable-threading=no
12 to configure will disable it.
13
14 Disabling this can cause a performance penalty when there are a lot of
15 symbols to load, but is useful for debugging purposes.
16
17 * New commands
18
19 maint set backtrace-on-fatal-signal on|off
20 maint show backtrace-on-fatal-signal
21 This setting is 'on' by default. When 'on' GDB will print a limited
22 backtrace to stderr in the situation where GDB terminates with a
23 fatal signal. This only supported on some platforms where the
24 backtrace and backtrace_symbols_fd functions are available.
25
26 set source open on|off
27 show source open
28 This setting, which is on by default, controls whether GDB will try
29 to open source code files. Switching this off will stop GDB trying
30 to open and read source code files, which can be useful if the files
31 are located over a slow network connection.
32
33 set varsize-limit
34 show varsize-limit
35 These are now deprecated aliases for "set max-value-size" and
36 "show max-value-size".
37
38 task apply [all | TASK-IDS...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
39 Like "thread apply", but applies COMMAND to Ada tasks.
40
41 watch [...] task ID
42 Watchpoints can now be restricted to a specific Ada task.
43
44 maint set internal-error backtrace on|off
45 maint show internal-error backtrace
46 maint set internal-warning backtrace on|off
47 maint show internal-warning backtrace
48 GDB can now print a backtrace of itself when it encounters either an
49 internal-error, or an internal-warning. This is on by default for
50 internal-error and off by default for internal-warning.
51
52 set logging on|off
53 Deprecated and replaced by "set logging enabled on|off".
54
55 set logging enabled on|off
56 show logging enabled
57 These commands set or show whether logging is enabled or disabled.
58
59 exit
60 You can now exit GDB by using the new command "exit", in addition to
61 the existing "quit" command.
62
63 set debug threads on|off
64 show debug threads
65 Print additional debug messages about thread creation and deletion.
66
67 * Changed commands
68
69 maint packet
70 This command can now print a reply, if the reply includes
71 non-printable characters. Any non-printable characters are printed
72 as escaped hex, e.g. \x?? where '??' is replaces with the value of
73 the non-printable character.
74
75 clone-inferior
76 The clone-inferior command now ensures that the TTY, CMD and ARGS
77 settings are copied from the original inferior to the new one.
78 All modifications to the environment variables done using the 'set
79 environment' or 'unset environment' commands are also copied to the new
80 inferior.
81
82 * Python API
83
84 ** New function gdb.add_history(), which takes a gdb.Value object
85 and adds the value it represents to GDB's history list. An
86 integer, the index of the new item in the history list, is
87 returned.
88
89 ** New gdb.events.gdb_exiting event. This event is called with a
90 gdb.GdbExitingEvent object which has the read-only attribute
91 'exit_code', which contains the value of the GDB exit code. This
92 event is triggered once GDB decides it is going to exit, but
93 before GDB starts to clean up its internal state.
94
95 ** New function gdb.architecture_names(), which returns a list
96 containing all of the possible Architecture.name() values. Each
97 entry is a string.
98
99 ** New function gdb.Architecture.integer_type(), which returns an
100 integer type given a size and a signed-ness.
101
102 ** New gdb.TargetConnection object type that represents a connection
103 (as displayed by the 'info connections' command). A sub-class,
104 gdb.RemoteTargetConnection, is used to represent 'remote' and
105 'extended-remote' connections.
106
107 ** The gdb.Inferior type now has a 'connection' property which is an
108 instance of gdb.TargetConnection, the connection used by this
109 inferior. This can be None if the inferior has no connection.
110
111 ** New 'gdb.events.connection_removed' event registry, which emits a
112 'gdb.ConnectionEvent' when a connection is removed from GDB.
113 This event has a 'connection' property, a gdb.TargetConnection
114 object for the connection being removed.
115
116 ** New gdb.connections() function that returns a list of all
117 currently active connections.
118
119 ** New gdb.RemoteTargetConnection.send_packet(PACKET) method. This
120 is equivalent to the existing 'maint packet' CLI command; it
121 allows a user specified packet to be sent to the remote target.
122
123 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
124
125 ** GDBserver is now supported on OpenRISC GNU/Linux.
126
127 * New native configurations
128
129 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
130
131 *** Changes in GDB 11
132
133 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
134 for the ARC target.
135
136 * GDB now supports general memory tagging functionality if the underlying
137 architecture supports the proper primitives and hooks. Currently this is
138 enabled only for AArch64 MTE.
139
140 This includes:
141
142 - Additional information when the inferior crashes with a SIGSEGV caused by
143 a memory tag violation.
144
145 - A new modifier 'm' for the "x" command, which displays allocation tags for a
146 particular memory range.
147
148 - Display of memory tag mismatches by "print", for addresses and
149 pointers, if memory tagging is supported by the architecture.
150
151 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
152 Library).
153
154 * MI changes
155
156 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
157
158 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
159 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
160 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
161 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
162 -qualified".
163
164 ** '-break-insert --force-condition' and '-dprintf-insert --force-condition'
165
166 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
167 '--force-condition' flag to forcibly define a condition even when
168 the condition is invalid at all locations of the breakpoint. This
169 is equivalent to the '-force-condition' flag of the CLI's "break"
170 command.
171
172 ** '-break-condition --force'
173
174 The MI -break-condition command now supports a '--force' flag to
175 forcibly define a condition even when the condition is invalid at
176 all locations of the selected breakpoint. This is equivalent to
177 the '-force' flag of the CLI's "cond" command.
178
179 ** '-file-list-exec-source-files [--group-by-objfile]
180 [--basename | --dirname]
181 [--] [REGEXP]'
182
183 The existing -file-list-exec-source-files command now takes an
184 optional REGEXP which is used to filter the source files that are
185 included in the results.
186
187 By default REGEXP is matched against the full filename of the
188 source file. When one of --basename or --dirname is given then
189 REGEXP is only matched against the specified part of the full
190 source filename.
191
192 When the optional --group-by-objfile flag is used the output
193 format is changed, the results are now a list of object files
194 (executable and libraries) with the source files that are
195 associated with each object file.
196
197 The results from -file-list-exec-source-files now include a
198 'debug-fully-read' field which takes the value 'true' or 'false'.
199 A 'true' value indicates the source file is from a compilation
200 unit that has had its debug information fully read in by GDB, a
201 value of 'false' indicates GDB has only performed a partial scan
202 of the debug information so far.
203
204 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
205
206 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
207 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
208 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
209 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
210 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
211
212 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
213 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
214 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
215 been added.
216
217 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
218 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
219 name following a GNAT-specific format).
220
221 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
222 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
223 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
224 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
225 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
226 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
227
228 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
229 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
230 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
231 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
232
233 * For RISC-V targets, the target feature "org.gnu.gdb.riscv.vector" is
234 now understood by GDB, and can be used to describe the vector
235 registers of a target. The precise requirements of this register
236 feature are documented in the GDB manual.
237
238 * For ARM targets, the "org.gnu.gdb.arm.m-profile-mve" feature is now
239 supported by GDB and describes a new VPR register from the ARM MVE
240 (Helium) extension. See the GDB manual for more information.
241
242 * TUI improvements
243
244 ** TUI windows now support mouse actions. The mouse wheel scrolls
245 the appropriate window.
246
247 ** Key combinations that do not have a specific action on the
248 focused window are passed to GDB. For example, you now can use
249 Ctrl-Left/Ctrl-Right to move between words in the command window
250 regardless of which window is in focus. Previously you would
251 need to focus on the command window for such key combinations to
252 work.
253
254 * New commands
255
256 set debug event-loop
257 show debug event-loop
258 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
259
260 set print memory-tag-violations
261 show print memory-tag-violations
262 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
263 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
264 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
265
266 maintenance flush symbol-cache
267 maintenance flush register-cache
268 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
269 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
270
271 maintenance flush dcache
272 A new command to flush the dcache.
273
274 maintenance info target-sections
275 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
276
277 maintenance info jit
278 Print the JIT code objects in the inferior known to GDB.
279
280 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
281 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
282 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
283 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
284 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
285 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
286 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
287 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
288 memory-tag check POINTER
289 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
290
291 set startup-quietly on|off
292 show startup-quietly
293 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
294 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
295 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
296 affect GDB.
297
298 set print type hex on|off
299 show print type hex
300 When 'on', the 'ptype' command uses hexadecimal notation to print sizes
301 and offsets of struct members. When 'off', decimal notation is used.
302
303 set python ignore-environment on|off
304 show python ignore-environment
305 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to ignore any
306 environment variables that would otherwise affect how Python
307 behaves. This command needs to be added to an early initialization
308 file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to affect GDB.
309
310 set python dont-write-bytecode auto|on|off
311 show python dont-write-bytecode
312 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to not write any
313 byte-code (.pyc files) to disk. This command needs to be added to
314 an early initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in
315 order to affect GDB. When 'off' byte-code will always be written.
316 When set to 'auto' (the default) Python will check the
317 PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable.
318
319 * Changed commands
320
321 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
322 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
323 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
324 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
325 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
326 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
327 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
328 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
329 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
330 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
331 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
332 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
333 load.
334
335 condition [-force] N COND
336 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
337 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
338 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
339 current locations of breakpoint N.
340
341 flushregs
342 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
343 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
344 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
345 symbol-cache' respectively.
346
347 set style version foreground COLOR
348 set style version background COLOR
349 set style version intensity VALUE
350 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
351
352 inferior [ID]
353 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
354 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
355 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
356 the current inferior.
357
358 maintenance info sections
359 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
360 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
361 even when -all-objects is passed.
362
363 ptype[/FLAGS] TYPE | EXPRESSION
364 The 'ptype' command has two new flags. When '/x' is set, hexadecimal
365 notation is used when printing sizes and offsets of struct members.
366 When '/d' is set, decimal notation is used when printing sizes and
367 offsets of struct members. Default behavior is given by 'show print
368 type hex'.
369
370 info sources
371 The info sources command output has been restructured. The results
372 are now based around a list of objfiles (executable and libraries),
373 and for each objfile the source files that are part of that objfile
374 are listed.
375
376 * Removed targets and native configurations
377
378 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
379
380 * New remote packets
381
382 qMemTags
383 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
384 QMemTags
385 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
386 memory range.
387
388 * Guile API
389
390 ** Improved support for rvalue reference values:
391 TYPE_CODE_RVALUE_REF is now exported as part of the API and the
392 value-referenced-value procedure now handles rvalue reference
393 values.
394
395 ** New procedures for obtaining value variants:
396 value-reference-value, value-rvalue-reference-value and
397 value-const-value.
398
399 ** Temporary breakpoints can now be created with make-breakpoint and
400 tested for using breakpoint-temporary?.
401
402 * Python API
403
404 ** Inferior objects now contain a read-only 'connection_num' attribute that
405 gives the connection number as seen in 'info connections' and
406 'info inferiors'.
407
408 ** New method gdb.Frame.level() which returns the stack level of the
409 frame object.
410
411 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.level() which returns the stack level
412 of the frame object.
413
414 ** When hitting a catchpoint, the Python API will now emit a
415 gdb.BreakpointEvent rather than a gdb.StopEvent. The
416 gdb.Breakpoint attached to the event will have type BP_CATCHPOINT.
417
418 ** Python TUI windows can now receive mouse click events. If the
419 Window object implements the click method, it is called for each
420 mouse click event in this window.
421
422 *** Changes in GDB 10
423
424 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
425 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
426 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
427 grace period.
428
429 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
430 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
431 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
432 and finally the description of the command.
433
434 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
435 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
436
437 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
438 debugging information as well as source code.
439
440 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
441 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
442 being debugged.
443
444 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
445 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
446
447 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
448
449 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
450
451 * Multi-target debugging support
452
453 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
454 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
455 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
456 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
457 debugging a core dump, etc.
458
459 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
460 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
461 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
462 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
463 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
464 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
465
466 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
467
468 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
469
470 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
471
472 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
473
474 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
475 powerpc-*-lynxos*
476 i[34567]86-*-nto*
477 bfin-*-*linux*
478 crisv32-*-linux*
479 cris-*-linux*
480 m32r*-*-linux*
481 tilegx-*-linux*
482 arm*-*-mingw32ce*
483 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
484
485 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
486 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
487
488 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
489 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
490 performance for programs with many symbols.
491
492 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
493 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
494
495 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
496
497 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
498 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
499 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
500 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
501 history.
502
503 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
504 64-bit GDB.
505
506 * New commands
507
508 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
509 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
510 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
511 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
512 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
513 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
514 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
515 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
516 attempt to detect a mismatch.
517
518 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
519 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
520 will be displayed.
521
522 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
523 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
524 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
525 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
526 reprinted.
527
528 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
529 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
530 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
531
532 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
533 show debug fortran-array-slicing
534 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
535
536 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
537 show fortran repack-array-slices
538 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
539 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
540 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
541 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
542 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
543 original parent value.
544
545 * Changed commands
546
547 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
548 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
549 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
550 provided explicitly by the user.
551 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
552 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
553 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
554 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
555 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
556 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
557 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
558 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
559
560 * New targets
561
562 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
563 BPF bpf-unknown-none
564 Z80 z80-unknown-*
565
566 * Python API
567
568 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
569 in Python.
570
571 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
572 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
573 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
574 as well.
575
576 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
577 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
578
579 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
580 architecture of the pending frame.
581
582 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
583 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
584 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
585 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
586
587 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
588 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
589 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
590 discover the available register groups.
591
592 * Guile API
593
594 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
595
596 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
597 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
598 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
599 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
600 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
601
602 *** Changes in GDB 9
603
604 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
605
606 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
607 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
608 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
609 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
610 such as in system-wide init files.
611
612 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
613 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
614 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
615 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
616 current GDB settings.
617
618 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
619 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
620 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
621 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
622
623 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
624 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
625 postfix [PAC].
626
627 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
628 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
629
630 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
631 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
632 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
633
634 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
635 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
636 commands.
637
638 * Command names can now use the . character.
639
640 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
641
642 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
643 messages.
644
645 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
646
647 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
648 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
649
650 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
651 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
652 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
653
654 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
655
656 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
657 not visible in the current scope.
658
659 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
660 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
661 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
662 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
663 compiled with support for that language.
664
665 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
666 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
667 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
668
669 * Python API
670
671 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
672 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
673 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
674 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
675 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
676
677 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
678 type was defined in.
679
680 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
681 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
682 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
683 is given.
684
685 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
686 symbols with static linkage.
687
688 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
689 all static symbols with static linkage.
690
691 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
692 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
693
694 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
695 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
696
697 * New commands
698
699 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
700 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
701 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
702 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
703 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
704 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
705 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
706
707 define-prefix COMMAND
708 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
709
710 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
711 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
712 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
713 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
714 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
715 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
716 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
717 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
718 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
719 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
720 of array elements to print.
721
722 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
723 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
724
725 set may-call-functions [on|off]
726 show may-call-functions
727 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
728 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
729 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
730 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
731 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
732 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
733 in the program.
734
735 set print finish [on|off]
736 show print finish
737 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
738 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
739 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
740 default is `on'.
741
742 set print max-depth
743 show print max-depth
744 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
745 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
746 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
747 the old behavior back.
748
749 set print raw-values [on|off]
750 show print raw-values
751 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
752 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
753 of commands. The default is 'off'.
754
755 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
756 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
757 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
758
759 set style title foreground COLOR
760 set style title background COLOR
761 set style title intensity VALUE
762 Control the styling of titles.
763
764 set style highlight foreground COLOR
765 set style highlight background COLOR
766 set style highlight intensity VALUE
767 Control the styling of highlightings.
768
769 maint set worker-threads
770 maint show worker-threads
771 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
772 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
773 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
774 the names of linker symbols.
775
776 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
777 set style tui-border background COLOR
778 Control the styling of TUI borders.
779
780 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
781 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
782 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
783
784 maint set test-settings KIND
785 maint show test-settings KIND
786 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
787 infrastructure.
788
789 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
790 maint show tui-resize-message
791 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
792 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
793 TUI.
794
795 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
796 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
797 show print frame-info
798 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
799 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
800 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
801 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
802
803 set tui compact-source
804 show tui compact-source
805
806 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
807 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
808 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
809 line numbers from the source.
810
811 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
812 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
813 no REGEXP is given.
814
815 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
816 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
817 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
818 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
819 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
820 matches against the function name.
821
822 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
823 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
824 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
825 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
826 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
827 against the variable name.
828
829 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
830 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
831 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
832 "set debug remote".
833 The default is 512 bytes.
834
835 info connections
836 Lists the target connections currently in use.
837
838 * Changed commands
839
840 help
841 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
842 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
843 command names.
844
845 apropos [-v] REGEXP
846 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
847 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
848 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
849 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
850 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
851
852 printf
853 eval
854 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
855 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
856 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
857 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
858
859 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
860 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
861 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
862 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
863 parts of the files.
864
865 show style
866 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
867 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
868 the user visualize the different styles.
869
870 set print frame-arguments
871 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
872 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
873
874 set print raw-frame-arguments
875 show print raw-frame-arguments
876
877 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
878 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
879 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
880 release.
881
882 add-inferior [-no-connection]
883 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
884 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
885 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
886 current inferior. See also "info connections".
887
888 info inferior
889 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
890 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
891 "info connections" above.
892
893 maint test-options require-delimiter
894 maint test-options unknown-is-error
895 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
896 maint show test-options-completion-result
897 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
898 framework.
899
900 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
901 These commands are now case-sensitive.
902
903 * New command options, command completion
904
905 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
906 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
907 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
908 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
909 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
910 number of commands got support for new command options in this
911 release:
912
913 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
914 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
915 set by "set print" subcommands:
916
917 -address [on|off]
918 -array [on|off]
919 -array-indexes [on|off]
920 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
921 -null-stop [on|off]
922 -object [on|off]
923 -pretty [on|off]
924 -raw-values [on|off]
925 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
926 -static-members [on|off]
927 -symbol [on|off]
928 -union [on|off]
929 -vtbl [on|off]
930
931 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
932 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
933 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
934 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
935
936 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
937 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
938 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
939
940 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
941 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
942 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
943 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
944 |location-and-address|short-location
945 -past-main [on|off]
946 -past-entry [on|off]
947
948 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
949 exposed as command options too:
950
951 -full
952 -no-filters
953 -hide
954
955 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
956 support the following options:
957
958 -past-main [on|off]
959 -past-entry [on|off]
960
961 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
962 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
963
964 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
965 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
966 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
967 like for example:
968
969 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
970
971 The above is equivalent to:
972
973 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
974
975 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
976 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
977 variables" and "info functions".
978
979 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
980 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
981 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
982 from the results.
983
984 * Completion improvements
985
986 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
987 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
988 abbreviated.
989
990 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
991 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
992 commands.
993
994 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
995 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
996 completes on filenames.
997
998 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
999 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
1000
1001 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
1002
1003 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
1004 elements unlimited".
1005
1006 * New MI commands
1007
1008 -complete
1009 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1010 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
1011 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
1012
1013 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
1014 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
1015 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
1016
1017 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
1018 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
1019 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
1020
1021 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
1022 modules' command.
1023
1024 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
1025 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
1026 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
1027
1028 * Other MI changes
1029
1030 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
1031
1032 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
1033 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
1034 the following commands and events:
1035
1036 - -break-insert
1037 - -break-info
1038 - =breakpoint-created
1039 - =breakpoint-modified
1040
1041 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
1042 this behavior with previous MI versions.
1043
1044 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
1045 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
1046 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
1047 present.
1048
1049 * Testsuite
1050
1051 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
1052 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
1053 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
1054 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
1055
1056 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
1057
1058 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
1059 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
1060
1061 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
1062
1063 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
1064 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
1065
1066 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
1067 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
1068 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
1069
1070 * Removed targets and native configurations
1071
1072 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
1073 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
1074 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
1075
1076 * New Simulators
1077
1078 TI PRU pru-*-elf
1079
1080 * Removed targets and native configurations
1081
1082 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
1083 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
1084
1085 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
1086
1087 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
1088 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
1089 HTM registers.
1090
1091 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
1092 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
1093 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
1094 and operators.
1095
1096 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
1097 (the C++ plug-in).
1098
1099 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
1100 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
1101 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
1102
1103 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
1104 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
1105
1106 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
1107 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1108 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1109 in the GDB user manual.
1110
1111 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
1112 executed failed.
1113
1114 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
1115
1116 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
1117 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
1118 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
1119 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
1120 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
1121 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
1122 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
1123 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
1124 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
1125 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
1126 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
1127 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
1128
1129 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
1130 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
1131 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
1132 information.
1133
1134 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
1135 lucid.
1136
1137 * New commands
1138
1139 set debug compile-cplus-types
1140 show debug compile-cplus-types
1141 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
1142 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
1143 for other languages.
1144
1145 set debug skip
1146 show debug skip
1147 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
1148 displayed.
1149
1150 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1151 Apply a command to some frames.
1152 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
1153 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
1154
1155 taas COMMAND
1156 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
1157 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
1158
1159 faas COMMAND
1160 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
1161 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
1162
1163 tfaas COMMAND
1164 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
1165 output).
1166 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
1167
1168 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
1169 maint show dwarf unwinders
1170 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
1171
1172 info proc files
1173 Display a list of open files for a process.
1174
1175 * Changed commands
1176
1177 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
1178 These commands all now take a frame specification which
1179 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
1180 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
1181 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
1182 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
1183 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
1184
1185 target remote FILENAME
1186 target extended-remote FILENAME
1187 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
1188 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
1189
1190 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1191 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1192 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1193 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1194 These commands can now print only the searched entities
1195 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
1196 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
1197 printing headers or informations messages.
1198
1199 info functions
1200 info types
1201 info variables
1202 rbreak
1203 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
1204 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
1205 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
1206 the shown entities.
1207
1208 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1209 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
1210 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
1211 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
1212
1213 set tui tab-width NCHARS
1214 show tui tab-width NCHARS
1215 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
1216
1217 set style enabled [on|off]
1218 show style enabled
1219 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
1220 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
1221
1222 set style sources [on|off]
1223 show style sources
1224 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
1225 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
1226 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
1227
1228 set style filename foreground COLOR
1229 set style filename background COLOR
1230 set style filename intensity VALUE
1231 Control the styling of file names.
1232
1233 set style function foreground COLOR
1234 set style function background COLOR
1235 set style function intensity VALUE
1236 Control the styling of function names.
1237
1238 set style variable foreground COLOR
1239 set style variable background COLOR
1240 set style variable intensity VALUE
1241 Control the styling of variable names.
1242
1243 set style address foreground COLOR
1244 set style address background COLOR
1245 set style address intensity VALUE
1246 Control the styling of addresses.
1247
1248 * MI changes
1249
1250 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
1251 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
1252 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
1253 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
1254 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
1255
1256 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
1257 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
1258
1259 * New native configurations
1260
1261 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1262 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1263
1264 * New targets
1265
1266 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1267 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
1268 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
1269 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1270 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
1271 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1272
1273 * Removed targets
1274
1275 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
1276 before Windows XP.
1277
1278 * Python API
1279
1280 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
1281
1282 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
1283 space associated to that inferior.
1284
1285 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
1286 of objfiles associated to that program space.
1287
1288 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
1289 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
1290 the gdb core.
1291
1292 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
1293 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
1294 correct and did not work properly.
1295
1296 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
1297 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
1298
1299 * Configure changes
1300
1301 --enable-ubsan
1302
1303 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
1304 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
1305 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
1306 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
1307 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
1308
1309 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
1310
1311 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1312 for the MIPS target.
1313
1314 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
1315 offset to all sections.
1316
1317 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
1318 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
1319 address of individual sections using '-s'.
1320
1321 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
1322 (address of the text section).
1323
1324 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
1325 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
1326 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
1327 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
1328 default.
1329
1330 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
1331 for the rest of the current command.
1332
1333 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
1334 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
1335
1336 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
1337 files created on FreeBSD systems.
1338
1339 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
1340 alignof.
1341
1342 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
1343 the vector length while the process is running.
1344
1345 * New commands
1346
1347 set debug fbsd-nat
1348 show debug fbsd-nat
1349 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
1350
1351 set|show varsize-limit
1352 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
1353 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
1354 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
1355
1356 set|show record btrace cpu
1357 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
1358 branch trace decode.
1359
1360 maint check libthread-db
1361 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
1362 library
1363
1364 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
1365 maint show check-libthread-db
1366 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
1367 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
1368 perform such checks.
1369
1370 * Python API
1371
1372 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
1373
1374 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
1375 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
1376
1377 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
1378
1379 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
1380 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
1381 of convenience variables.
1382
1383 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
1384 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
1385 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
1386
1387 * New targets
1388
1389 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
1390
1391 * Removed targets and native configurations
1392
1393 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
1394 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
1395 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
1396 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
1397
1398 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
1399
1400 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
1401 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
1402 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
1403 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
1404 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
1405 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
1406 reported.
1407
1408 * Configure changes
1409
1410 --enable-codesign=CERT
1411 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
1412 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
1413 gdb to work properly.
1414
1415 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
1416 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
1417
1418 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
1419
1420 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
1421 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
1422 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
1423
1424 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
1425 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
1426
1427 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
1428 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
1429 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
1430 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
1431 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
1432
1433 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
1434 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
1435 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
1436 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
1437
1438 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
1439 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
1440
1441 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
1442 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
1443 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
1444
1445 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
1446 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
1447 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
1448
1449 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
1450 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
1451 environment" command.
1452
1453 * Completion improvements
1454
1455 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
1456 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
1457 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
1458 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
1459 correctly:
1460
1461 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
1462 (gdb) b function(int)
1463
1464 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
1465 C++ anonymous namespaces:
1466
1467 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
1468 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
1469 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
1470 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
1471
1472 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
1473 completion support, that better understands what you're
1474 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
1475 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
1476 setting a breakpoint.
1477
1478 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
1479
1480 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
1481
1482 * New command line options (gcore)
1483
1484 -a
1485 Dump all memory mappings.
1486
1487 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
1488
1489 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
1490 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
1491 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
1492
1493 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
1494
1495 A::B::func()
1496 B::func()
1497
1498 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
1499 on both symbols.
1500
1501 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
1502 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
1503 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
1504 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
1505 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
1506 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
1507 a breakpoint from Python.
1508
1509 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1510
1511 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1512 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
1513 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
1514
1515 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
1516
1517 function[abi:cxx11](int)
1518 ^^^^^^^^^^^
1519
1520 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
1521 no tag, like:
1522
1523 (gdb) b function(int)
1524
1525 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
1526
1527 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
1528
1529 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
1530
1531 * Python Scripting
1532
1533 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
1534 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
1535 description of these.
1536
1537 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
1538 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
1539 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
1540
1541 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
1542 manual for a further description of this feature.
1543
1544
1545 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1546
1547 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
1548 specified initial working directory.
1549
1550 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
1551 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
1552
1553 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
1554 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
1555
1556 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
1557 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
1558
1559 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
1560 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1561 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1562 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1563 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1564
1565 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1566 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1567 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1568
1569 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1570 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1571 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1572 in the *stopped notification.
1573
1574 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1575 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1576
1577 * New remote packets
1578
1579 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1580 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1581 the inferior when starting it.
1582
1583 QEnvironmentUnset
1584 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1585 before starting the remote inferior.
1586
1587 QEnvironmentReset
1588 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1589 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1590
1591 QStartupWithShell
1592 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1593
1594 QSetWorkingDir
1595 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1596 working directory.
1597
1598 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1599 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1600
1601 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1602 filter the tests to be run.
1603
1604 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1605 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1606
1607 * New commands
1608
1609 set|show cwd
1610 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1611
1612 set|show compile-gcc
1613 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1614 with the 'compile' commands.
1615
1616 set debug separate-debug-file
1617 show debug separate-debug-file
1618 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1619
1620 set dump-excluded-mappings
1621 show dump-excluded-mappings
1622 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1623 dumped when generating a core file.
1624
1625 maint info selftests
1626 List the registered selftests.
1627
1628 starti
1629 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1630
1631 set|show debug or1k
1632 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1633
1634 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1635 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1636 type printer will show.
1637
1638 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1639 `o' for nexti.
1640
1641 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1642
1643 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1644 'int'.
1645
1646 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1647 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1648 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1649 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1650
1651 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1652 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1653 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1654 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1655 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1656 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1657
1658 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1659 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1660 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1661
1662 (gdb) p var
1663 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1664 (gdb) p (float) var
1665 $3 = 3.14
1666
1667 * New native configurations
1668
1669 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1670 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1671
1672 * New targets
1673
1674 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1675 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1676 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1677
1678 * Removed targets and native configurations
1679
1680 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1681
1682 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1683
1684 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1685 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1686 available in future Intel CPUs.
1687
1688 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1689
1690 * Python Scripting
1691
1692 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1693 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1694
1695 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1696 instructions.
1697
1698 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1699
1700 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1701
1702 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1703 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1704 removed.
1705
1706 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1707
1708 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1709 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1710
1711 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1712
1713 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1714 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1715 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1716 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1717 features.
1718
1719 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1720
1721 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1722 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1723 debugger.
1724
1725 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1726
1727 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1728 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1729
1730 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1731
1732 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1733
1734 define mycommand
1735 set $i = 0
1736 while $i < $argc
1737 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1738 set $i = $i + 1
1739 end
1740 end
1741
1742 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1743
1744 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1745 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1746
1747 * New native configurations
1748
1749 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1750
1751 * New targets
1752
1753 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1754 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1755
1756 * Removed targets and native configurations
1757
1758 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1759 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1760
1761 * New commands
1762
1763 flash-erase
1764 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1765
1766 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1767 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1768
1769 * New options
1770
1771 set disassembler-options
1772 show disassembler-options
1773 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1774 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1775 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1776 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1777 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1778
1779 * New MI commands
1780
1781 -target-flash-erase
1782 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1783 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1784
1785 -file-list-shared-libraries
1786 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1787 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1788
1789 -catch-handlers
1790 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1791 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1792
1793 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1794
1795 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1796
1797 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1798 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1799 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1800 option will be removed in a future release.
1801
1802 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1803 GDB connection.
1804
1805 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1806 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1807
1808 (gdb) bt
1809 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1810 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1811 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1812 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1813 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1814 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1815 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1816 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1817 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1818
1819 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1820 arrays of dynamic types.
1821
1822 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1823 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1824 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1825 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1826 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1827 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1828
1829 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1830 descriptions.
1831
1832 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1833 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1834 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1835
1836 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1837
1838 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1839 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1840 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1841 signal received and code location.
1842
1843 For example:
1844
1845 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1846 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1847 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1848 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1849
1850 * Rust language support.
1851 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1852 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1853 Rust.
1854
1855 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1856
1857 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1858 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1859 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1860 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1861 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1862 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1863 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1864 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1865 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1866 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1867 line.
1868
1869 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1870
1871 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1872 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1873
1874 * New commands
1875
1876 skip -file file
1877 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1878 skip -function function
1879 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1880 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1881 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1882 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1883
1884 maint info line-table REGEXP
1885 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
1886
1887 maint selftest
1888 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1889
1890 new-ui INTERP TTY
1891 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1892 using the TTY file for input/output.
1893
1894 * Python Scripting
1895
1896 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1897 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1898 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1899 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1900 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1901
1902 signal-event EVENTID
1903 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1904 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1905 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1906 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1907 signalling an event.
1908
1909 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1910 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1911 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1912
1913 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1914 been removed:
1915
1916 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1917 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1918 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1919 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1920 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1921 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1922
1923 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1924 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1925 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1926 bytecode into native code.
1927
1928 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1929 recording. For example:
1930
1931 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1932
1933 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1934
1935 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1936
1937 * New targets
1938
1939 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1940
1941 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1942
1943 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1944
1945 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1946
1947 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1948 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1949 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1950
1951 (gdb) info threads
1952 Id Target Id Frame
1953 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1954 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1955 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1956 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1957
1958 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1959 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1960 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1961
1962 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1963 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1964 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1965
1966 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1967 IDs.
1968
1969 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1970 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1971
1972 (gdb) thread 2.1
1973 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1974 (gdb)
1975
1976 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1977 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1978 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1979 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1980 threads 2.*".
1981
1982 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1983 all threads.
1984
1985 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1986 the current thread.
1987
1988 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1989 current inferior.
1990
1991 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1992 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1993 example:
1994
1995 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1996 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1997
1998 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1999
2000 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
2001
2002 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
2003 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
2004
2005 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
2006 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
2007 clients.
2008
2009 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2010 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
2011 at the same time.
2012
2013 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
2014 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
2015 into native code.
2016
2017 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2018
2019 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
2020 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
2021 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
2022
2023 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
2024 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
2025
2026 * New commands
2027
2028 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
2029 maint show target-non-stop
2030 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
2031 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
2032 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
2033
2034 maint set bfd-sharing
2035 maint show bfd-sharing
2036 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
2037
2038 set debug bfd-cache
2039 show debug bfd-cache
2040 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
2041
2042 set debug fbsd-lwp
2043 show debug fbsd-lwp
2044 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
2045
2046 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
2047 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
2048 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
2049
2050 set remote thread-events
2051 show remote thread-events
2052 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
2053
2054 set ada print-signatures on|off
2055 show ada print-signatures"
2056 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
2057 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
2058
2059 set max-value-size
2060 show max-value-size
2061 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
2062 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
2063 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
2064
2065 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
2066 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
2067 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
2068 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
2069 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
2070 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
2071
2072 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
2073 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
2074
2075 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
2076 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
2077
2078 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
2079
2080 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
2081 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
2082 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
2083 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
2084 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
2085 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
2086
2087 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
2088 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
2089
2090 catch handlers
2091 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
2092
2093 * New remote packets
2094
2095 exec stop reason
2096 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
2097
2098 exec-events feature in qSupported
2099 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
2100 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
2101 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
2102 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
2103
2104 vCtrlC
2105 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
2106 non-stop mode.
2107
2108 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
2109 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
2110
2111 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
2112 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
2113
2114 QThreadEvents
2115 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
2116 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
2117 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
2118 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
2119 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
2120 stop for that same thread.
2121
2122 N stop reply
2123 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
2124 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
2125 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
2126
2127 QCatchSyscalls
2128 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
2129 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
2130
2131 syscall_entry stop reason
2132 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
2133
2134 syscall_return stop reason
2135 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
2136
2137 * Extended-remote exec events
2138
2139 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
2140 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
2141 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
2142
2143 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
2144 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
2145 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
2146
2147 * Thread names in remote protocol
2148
2149 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
2150 thread.
2151
2152 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
2153
2154 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
2155 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
2156 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
2157 fork and exec catchpoints.
2158
2159 * Remote syscall events
2160
2161 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
2162 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
2163
2164 set remote catch-syscall-packet
2165 show remote catch-syscall-packet
2166 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
2167
2168 * MI changes
2169
2170 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
2171 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
2172 left.
2173
2174 * Python Scripting
2175
2176 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
2177 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
2178 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
2179 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
2180 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
2181 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
2182
2183 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
2184
2185 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
2186 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
2187 including advance SIMD instructions.
2188
2189 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
2190
2191 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
2192 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
2193 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
2194 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
2195 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
2196 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
2197 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
2198
2199 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2200 cpu information :
2201 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
2202
2203 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
2204 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
2205 remote serial I/O.
2206
2207 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
2208 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
2209 and may include things like its command line arguments.
2210
2211 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
2212 is now available on all platforms.
2213
2214 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
2215 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
2216 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
2217 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
2218 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
2219 backward compatibility.
2220
2221 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
2222 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
2223 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
2224 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
2225
2226 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
2227 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
2228 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
2229 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
2230 packets" below.
2231
2232 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
2233
2234 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
2235
2236 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
2237 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
2238 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
2239 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
2240 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
2241 See "New remote packets" below.
2242
2243 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
2244 available register groups, including target specific groups.
2245
2246 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
2247 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
2248 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
2249 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
2250 are ignored.
2251
2252 * Guile Scripting
2253
2254 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
2255
2256 * Python Scripting
2257
2258 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
2259 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
2260 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
2261 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
2262 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
2263 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
2264 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
2265 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
2266 "const" version of the value respectively.
2267
2268 * New commands
2269
2270 maint print symbol-cache
2271 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
2272
2273 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
2274 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
2275
2276 maint flush-symbol-cache
2277 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
2278
2279 record btrace bts
2280 record bts
2281 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
2282
2283 compile print
2284 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
2285
2286 tui enable
2287 tui disable
2288 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
2289
2290 show mpx bound
2291 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
2292 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
2293
2294 record btrace pt
2295 record pt
2296 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
2297
2298 maint info btrace
2299 Print information about branch tracing internals.
2300
2301 maint btrace packet-history
2302 Print the raw branch tracing data.
2303
2304 maint btrace clear-packet-history
2305 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
2306
2307 maint btrace clear
2308 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
2309 anew by the next "record" command.
2310
2311 * New options
2312
2313 set debug dwarf-die
2314 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
2315 show debug dwarf-die
2316 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
2317
2318 set debug dwarf-read
2319 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
2320 show debug dwarf-read
2321 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
2322
2323 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
2324 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2325 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
2326 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2327
2328 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
2329 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2330 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
2331 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2332
2333 set debug dwarf-line
2334 show debug dwarf-line
2335 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
2336
2337 set max-completions
2338 show max-completions
2339 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
2340 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
2341 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
2342 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
2343
2344 set history remove-duplicates
2345 show history remove-duplicates
2346 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
2347
2348 maint set symbol-cache-size
2349 maint show symbol-cache-size
2350 Control the size of the symbol cache.
2351
2352 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
2353 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2354 BTS format.
2355 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2356 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2357
2358 set debug linux-namespaces
2359 show debug linux-namespaces
2360 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
2361
2362 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
2363 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2364 Intel Processor Trace format.
2365 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2366 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2367
2368 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
2369 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
2370 packet history.
2371
2372 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
2373 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
2374
2375 * Python/Guile scripting
2376
2377 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
2378 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
2379
2380 * New remote packets
2381
2382 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
2383 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
2384
2385 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
2386 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
2387
2388 Qbtrace:pt
2389 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
2390 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
2391 qSupported query.
2392
2393 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
2394 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
2395 Trace format.
2396
2397 swbreak stop reason
2398 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
2399 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
2400 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
2401 mode operation.
2402
2403 hwbreak stop reason
2404 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
2405 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
2406
2407 vFile:fstat:
2408 Return information about files on the remote system.
2409
2410 qXfer:exec-file:read
2411 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
2412 create a process running on the remote system.
2413
2414 vFile:setfs:
2415 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
2416 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
2417 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
2418 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
2419
2420 fork stop reason
2421 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
2422
2423 vfork stop reason
2424 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
2425
2426 vforkdone stop reason
2427 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
2428 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
2429
2430 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
2431 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
2432 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
2433 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
2434 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
2435 whether these features are enabled.
2436
2437 * Extended-remote fork events
2438
2439 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
2440 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
2441 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
2442 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
2443
2444 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
2445 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
2446 the btrace record target.
2447 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
2448
2449 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
2450 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
2451
2452 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
2453 targets.
2454
2455 * Removed command line options
2456
2457 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
2458
2459 * Removed targets and native configurations
2460
2461 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
2462 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2463
2464 * New configure options
2465
2466 --with-intel-pt
2467 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
2468 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
2469
2470 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
2471 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
2472 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
2473 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
2474
2475 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
2476
2477 * Python Scripting
2478
2479 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
2480
2481 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
2482
2483 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
2484
2485 * Python Scripting
2486
2487 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
2488 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
2489 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
2490 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
2491 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
2492 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
2493 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
2494 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
2495 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
2496 selecting a new file to debug.
2497 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
2498 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
2499
2500 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
2501 inferior.
2502
2503 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
2504 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
2505 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
2506 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
2507
2508 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2509
2510 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2511 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2512 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2513 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2514
2515 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
2516 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
2517 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
2518 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
2519 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
2520 interface with this new feature are:
2521
2522 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
2523 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
2524
2525 * New commands
2526
2527 demangle [-l language] [--] name
2528 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
2529 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
2530 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
2531 as "maint demangler-warning".
2532
2533 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
2534 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
2535
2536 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
2537 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
2538 scripts.
2539
2540 maint print user-registers
2541 List all currently available "user" registers.
2542
2543 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
2544 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
2545 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
2546
2547 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
2548 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
2549 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
2550 provided.
2551
2552 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
2553 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
2554 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
2555 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
2556 at resume time.
2557
2558 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
2559 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
2560 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2561 switched threads meanwhile.
2562
2563 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2564
2565 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2566 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2567 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2568 is now the default mode.
2569
2570 * New options
2571
2572 set debug symbol-lookup
2573 show debug symbol-lookup
2574 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2575
2576 * MI changes
2577
2578 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2579 inferiors that have exited.
2580
2581 * New targets
2582
2583 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2584
2585 * Removed targets
2586
2587 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2588
2589 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2590 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2591 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2592 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2593 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2594
2595 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2596 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2597 its alias "share", instead.
2598
2599 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
2600
2601 * New command line options
2602
2603 -D data-directory
2604 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2605
2606 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2607 as specified in ISO C99.
2608
2609 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2610 with or without disassembly.
2611
2612 * Guile scripting
2613
2614 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2615 available is determined at configure time.
2616 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2617 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2618
2619 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2620
2621 guile [code]
2622 gu [code]
2623 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2624
2625 guile-repl
2626 gr
2627 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2628
2629 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2630 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2631
2632 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2633 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2634
2635 * New options
2636
2637 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2638 show print symbol-loading
2639 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2640 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2641 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2642 becomes less useful.
2643
2644 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2645 show guile print-stack
2646 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2647
2648 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2649 show auto-load guile-scripts
2650 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2651
2652 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2653 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2654 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2655 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2656 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2657 usage of this option.
2658
2659 set auto-connect-native-target
2660
2661 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2662 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2663 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2664
2665 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2666 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2667 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2668
2669 maint set target-async (on|off)
2670 maint show target-async
2671 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2672 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2673 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2674 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2675
2676 set mi-async (on|off)
2677 show mi-async
2678 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2679 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2680
2681 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2682 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2683
2684 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2685 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2686 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2687 "set target-async on" command.
2688
2689 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2690
2691 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2692 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2693 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2694 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2695 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2696
2697 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2698 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2699 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2700
2701 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2702 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2703 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2704 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2705 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2706 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2707 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2708
2709 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2710 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2711
2712 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2713 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2714 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2715
2716 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2717 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2718 memory or registers.
2719
2720 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2721
2722 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2723 remote. It now works with all targets.
2724
2725 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2726 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2727 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2728 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2729 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2730 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2731 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2732 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2733 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2734 target-stack".
2735
2736 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2737 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2738 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2739
2740 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2741
2742 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2743 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2744 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2745
2746 * New remote packets
2747
2748 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2749 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2750 branch trace incrementally.
2751
2752 * Python Scripting
2753
2754 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2755 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2756 available.
2757 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2758 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2759 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2760 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2761 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2762
2763 * New targets
2764 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2765
2766 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2767 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2768 its alias "share", instead.
2769
2770 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2771 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2772 instead.
2773
2774 * MI changes
2775
2776 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2777 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2778 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2779 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2780 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2781 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2782 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2783 commands and CLI execution commands.
2784
2785 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2786
2787 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2788 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2789 recording has been added.
2790
2791 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2792
2793 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2794 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2795
2796 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2797 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2798 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2799 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2800 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2801 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2802 "void".
2803
2804 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2805
2806 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2807
2808 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2809 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2810 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2811 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2812
2813 (gdb) p $rax
2814 $1 = <not saved>
2815
2816 (gdb) info registers rax
2817 rax <not saved>
2818
2819 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2820 "*value not available*".
2821
2822 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2823 to binaries.
2824
2825 * Python scripting
2826
2827 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2828 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2829 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2830 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2831 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2832 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2833
2834 * New targets
2835
2836 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2837 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2838 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2839
2840 * Removed native configurations
2841
2842 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2843 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2844
2845 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2846 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2847 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2848 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2849 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2850 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2851 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2852
2853 * New commands:
2854 catch rethrow
2855 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2856 maint check-psymtabs
2857 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2858 maint check-symtabs
2859 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2860 maint expand-symtabs
2861 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2862
2863 show configuration
2864 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2865
2866 maint set|show per-command
2867 maint set|show per-command space
2868 maint set|show per-command time
2869 maint set|show per-command symtab
2870 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2871
2872 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2873 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2874 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2875 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2876 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2877
2878 info exceptions
2879 info exceptions REGEXP
2880 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2881 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2882 are listed.
2883
2884 * New options
2885
2886 set debug symfile off|on
2887 show debug symfile
2888 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2889 symbol tables within those files
2890
2891 set print raw frame-arguments
2892 show print raw frame-arguments
2893 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2894 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2895
2896 set remote trace-status-packet
2897 show remote trace-status-packet
2898 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2899
2900 set debug nios2
2901 show debug nios2
2902 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2903
2904 set range-stepping
2905 show range-stepping
2906 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2907
2908 set startup-with-shell
2909 show startup-with-shell
2910 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2911 directly.
2912
2913 set code-cache
2914 show code-cache
2915 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2916 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2917
2918 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2919 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2920 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2921 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2922 "set height 0".
2923
2924 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2925 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2926 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2927
2928 * New command-line options
2929 --configuration
2930 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2931
2932 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2933 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2934
2935 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2936 GDB command gcore.
2937
2938 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2939
2940 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2941 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2942
2943 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2944 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2945
2946 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2947 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2948 due to an uncaught signal.
2949
2950 * MI changes
2951
2952 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2953 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2954 command, which should contain "language-option".
2955
2956 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2957 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2958
2959 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2960 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2961 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2962 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2963 "undefined-command-error-code".
2964
2965 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2966 Trace Format now.
2967
2968 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2969
2970 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2971 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2972 are displayed.
2973
2974 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2975 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2976
2977 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2978 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2979 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2980
2981 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2982 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2983 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2984 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2985 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2986 "exec-run-start-option".
2987
2988 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2989 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2990
2991 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2992 the new "info exceptions" command.
2993
2994 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2995 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2996 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2997 ** ElinOS
2998 ** Wind River Linux
2999
3000 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
3001 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
3002 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
3003 below.
3004
3005 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
3006 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
3007
3008 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
3009 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
3010 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
3011
3012 * New remote packets
3013
3014 vCont;r
3015
3016 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
3017 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
3018 involvemement at each single-step.
3019
3020 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
3021 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
3022 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
3023 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
3024 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
3025 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
3026 speedup.
3027
3028 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3029
3030 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
3031 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
3032
3033 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
3034 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
3035 trace state variables.
3036
3037 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
3038 target.
3039
3040 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
3041 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
3042
3043 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
3044
3045 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
3046 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
3047 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
3048 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3049
3050 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
3051
3052 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
3053 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
3054 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
3055 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
3056
3057 set|show record full insn-number-max
3058 set|show record full stop-at-limit
3059 set|show record full memory-query
3060
3061 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
3062 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
3063 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
3064 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
3065 This new recording method can be enabled using:
3066
3067 record btrace
3068
3069 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
3070 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
3071
3072 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
3073 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
3074 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
3075
3076 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
3077 instruction granularity
3078
3079 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
3080 function granularity
3081
3082 * New native configurations
3083
3084 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
3085 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
3086 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
3087 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
3088
3089 * New targets
3090
3091 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
3092 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
3093 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3094 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
3095 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
3096
3097 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
3098 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
3099 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
3100 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
3101 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
3102 --data-directory command-line option.
3103
3104 * New command line options:
3105
3106 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
3107 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
3108
3109 * Removed command line options
3110
3111 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
3112 Emacs.
3113
3114 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
3115 type formatting.
3116
3117 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
3118
3119 * Python scripting
3120
3121 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
3122
3123 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
3124
3125 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
3126
3127 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
3128
3129 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
3130 of architecture in the Python API.
3131
3132 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
3133 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
3134
3135 * New Python-based convenience functions:
3136
3137 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
3138 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
3139 ** $_strlen(str)
3140 ** $_regex(str, regex)
3141
3142 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
3143 given an argument.
3144
3145 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
3146 default for GCC since November 2000.
3147
3148 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
3149
3150 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
3151 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
3152
3153 * New configure options
3154
3155 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
3156 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
3157 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
3158 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
3159 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
3160 options allow the user to override that default.
3161 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
3162 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
3163 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
3164
3165 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3166
3167 catch signal
3168 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
3169 conditions to be attached.
3170
3171 maint info bfds
3172 List the BFDs known to GDB.
3173
3174 python-interactive [command]
3175 pi [command]
3176 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
3177 and print the result of expressions.
3178
3179 py [command]
3180 "py" is a new alias for "python".
3181
3182 enable type-printer [name]...
3183 disable type-printer [name]...
3184 Enable or disable type printers.
3185
3186 * Removed commands
3187
3188 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
3189 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
3190 instead.
3191
3192 * New options
3193
3194 set print type methods (on|off)
3195 show print type methods
3196 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
3197 The default is to show them.
3198
3199 set print type typedefs (on|off)
3200 show print type typedefs
3201 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
3202 The default is to show them.
3203
3204 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
3205 show filename-display
3206 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
3207 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
3208
3209 set trace-buffer-size
3210 show trace-buffer-size
3211 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
3212
3213 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
3214 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
3215 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
3216
3217 set debug aarch64
3218 show debug aarch64
3219 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
3220 The default is off.
3221
3222 set debug coff-pe-read
3223 show debug coff-pe-read
3224 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
3225 exported symbols.
3226
3227 set debug mach-o
3228 show debug mach-o
3229 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
3230 processing.
3231
3232 set debug notification
3233 show debug notification
3234 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
3235
3236 * MI changes
3237
3238 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
3239 "=cmd-param-changed".
3240 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
3241 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
3242 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
3243 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
3244 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
3245 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
3246 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
3247 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
3248 "=memory-changed".
3249 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
3250 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
3251 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
3252 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3253 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
3254 library load/unload events.
3255 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
3256 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
3257 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
3258 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
3259 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
3260 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
3261 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
3262 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
3263
3264 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
3265 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
3266 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
3267 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
3268
3269 * New remote packets
3270
3271 QTBuffer:size
3272 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
3273 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3274
3275 Qbtrace:bts
3276 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
3277 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
3278 qSupported query.
3279
3280 Qbtrace:off
3281 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
3282 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3283
3284 qXfer:btrace:read
3285 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
3286 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3287
3288 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
3289
3290 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
3291 for more x32 ABI info.
3292
3293 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
3294
3295 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
3296
3297 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3298 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
3299 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
3300 "info os files" lists file descriptors
3301 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
3302 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
3303 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
3304 "info os msg" lists message queues
3305 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
3306
3307 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
3308 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
3309 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
3310 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
3311 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
3312 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
3313
3314 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
3315 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
3316 record/replay support.
3317
3318 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
3319
3320 * Python scripting
3321
3322 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
3323 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
3324
3325 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
3326
3327 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
3328 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
3329
3330 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
3331
3332 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
3333 the source at which the symbol was defined.
3334
3335 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
3336 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
3337 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
3338 symbol's value.
3339
3340 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
3341 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
3342
3343 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
3344 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
3345 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
3346
3347 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
3348 object associated with a PC value.
3349
3350 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
3351 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
3352
3353 * Go language support.
3354 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
3355 language.
3356
3357 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
3358 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
3359
3360 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
3361 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
3362
3363 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
3364 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
3365 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
3366 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
3367 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
3368 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
3369
3370 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
3371 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
3372 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
3373 build/libcpp/expr.c.
3374
3375 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
3376 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
3377
3378 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
3379 since December 2007.
3380
3381 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
3382 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
3383 command does. For instance:
3384
3385 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
3386
3387 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
3388 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
3389 created, using the "condition" command.
3390
3391 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
3392 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
3393
3394 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
3395
3396 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
3397 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
3398 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
3399 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
3400 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
3401 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
3402 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
3403 files with older .gdb_index sections.
3404
3405 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
3406 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
3407 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
3408 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
3409 the .gdb_index section.
3410
3411 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
3412
3413 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
3414 target.
3415
3416 * MI changes
3417
3418 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
3419
3420 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
3421
3422 * New commands
3423
3424 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3425 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3426 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
3427
3428 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
3429 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
3430
3431 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
3432 several hits.
3433
3434 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
3435 C++ and Java objects.
3436
3437 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
3438 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
3439 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
3440 configured with '--with-python'.
3441
3442 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
3443 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
3444 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
3445 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
3446 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
3447 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
3448 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
3449
3450 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
3451 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
3452 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
3453 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
3454
3455 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
3456 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
3457 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
3458 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
3459
3460 ** "set print symbol"
3461 "show print symbol"
3462 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
3463 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
3464 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
3465
3466 * Deprecated commands
3467
3468 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
3469 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
3470
3471 * New targets
3472
3473 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3474 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
3475
3476 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
3477 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
3478 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
3479 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
3480 evaluates to true.
3481
3482 * New options
3483
3484 set mips compression
3485 show mips compression
3486 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
3487 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
3488 mips16
3489 micromips
3490 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
3491
3492 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
3493 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
3494 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
3495 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
3496 available mode.
3497 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
3498 target.
3499
3500 set auto-load off
3501 Disable auto-loading globally.
3502
3503 show auto-load
3504 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
3505
3506 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
3507 show auto-load gdb-scripts
3508 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
3509
3510 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
3511 show auto-load python-scripts
3512 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
3513
3514 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
3515 show auto-load local-gdbinit
3516 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
3517
3518 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
3519 show auto-load libthread-db
3520 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
3521
3522 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3523 show auto-load scripts-directory
3524 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
3525 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
3526 of the directories listed by this option.
3527 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3528
3529 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3530 show auto-load safe-path
3531 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
3532 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3533
3534 set debug auto-load on|off
3535 show debug auto-load
3536 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
3537
3538 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
3539 show dprintf-style
3540 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
3541 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
3542 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
3543 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
3544
3545 set dprintf-function <expr>
3546 show dprintf-function
3547 set dprintf-channel <expr>
3548 show dprintf-channel
3549 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
3550 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
3551
3552 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
3553 show disconnected-dprintf
3554 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
3555 after GDB disconnects.
3556
3557 * New configure options
3558
3559 --with-auto-load-dir
3560 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3561 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3562 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3563 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3564 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3565
3566 --with-auto-load-safe-path
3567 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3568 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3569
3570 --without-auto-load-safe-path
3571 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3572 security feature.
3573
3574 * New remote packets
3575
3576 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3577
3578 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3579 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3580 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3581 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3582
3583 QProgramSignals:
3584
3585 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3586 program without GDB involvement.
3587
3588 * New command line options
3589
3590 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3591 before loading inferior.
3592 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3593 execute it before loading inferior.
3594
3595 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
3596
3597 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3598 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3599 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3600 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3601 inferior changes.
3602
3603 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3604 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3605
3606 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3607 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3608 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3609 target hardware watchpoint.
3610
3611 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3612 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3613 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3614 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3615
3616 * Python scripting
3617
3618 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3619 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3620 existing one.
3621
3622 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3623 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3624 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3625 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3626 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3627 the stack trace.
3628
3629 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3630 Python API.
3631
3632 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3633 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3634 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3635 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3636 corresponding value.
3637
3638 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3639 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3640 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3641 on GDB start-up.
3642
3643 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3644 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3645 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3646 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3647
3648 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3649
3650 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3651 "gdb.breakpoints".
3652
3653 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3654 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3655 available in the CLI.
3656
3657 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3658 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3659 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3660 "some_type.items()".
3661
3662 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3663 new object file.
3664
3665 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3666 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3667 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3668 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3669 any anonymous fields.
3670
3671 * MI changes
3672
3673 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3674 "solib-event".
3675
3676 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3677 "=breakpoint-modified".
3678
3679 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3680
3681 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3682 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3683 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3684 lives.
3685
3686 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3687 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3688 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3689 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3690 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3691
3692 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3693 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3694
3695 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3696 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3697 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3698 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3699 use this option to specify where to find it.
3700
3701 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3702 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3703 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3704 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3705 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3706 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3707 section in the user manual for more details.
3708
3709 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3710 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3711 become available after that.
3712
3713 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3714
3715 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3716 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3717 gcc version 4.7.
3718
3719 * New commands
3720
3721 !SHELL COMMAND
3722 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3723 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3724
3725 * Changed commands
3726
3727 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3728 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3729 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3730
3731 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3732 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3733 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3734
3735 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3736 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3737 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3738 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3739 name starts with a hyphen.
3740
3741 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3742 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3743 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3744 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3745 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3746 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3747 number of bytes that will be collected.
3748
3749 tstart [NOTES]
3750 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3751 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3752 setting the variable trace-notes.
3753
3754 tstop [NOTES]
3755 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3756 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3757 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3758 trace-stop-notes.
3759
3760 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3761 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3762 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3763 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3764 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3765 is running.
3766
3767 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3768 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3769 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3770
3771 * New options
3772
3773 set debug dwarf2-read
3774 show debug dwarf2-read
3775 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3776 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3777
3778 set debug symtab-create
3779 show debug symtab-create
3780 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3781 creation. The default is off.
3782
3783 set extended-prompt
3784 show extended-prompt
3785 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3786 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3787 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3788 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3789 prompt is displayed.
3790
3791 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3792 show print entry-values
3793 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3794 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3795 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3796
3797 set debug entry-values
3798 show debug entry-values
3799 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3800 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3801
3802 set basenames-may-differ
3803 show basenames-may-differ
3804 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3805 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3806 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3807 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3808 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3809 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3810 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3811 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3812
3813 set trace-user
3814 show trace-user
3815 set trace-notes
3816 show trace-notes
3817 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3818 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3819 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3820 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3821
3822 set trace-stop-notes
3823 show trace-stop-notes
3824 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3825 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3826 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3827 started by someone else.
3828
3829 * New remote packets
3830
3831 QTEnable
3832
3833 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3834
3835 QTDisable
3836
3837 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3838
3839 QTNotes
3840
3841 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3842
3843 qTP
3844
3845 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3846
3847 qTMinFTPILen
3848
3849 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3850 be placed.
3851
3852 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3853 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3854
3855 * New targets
3856
3857 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3858
3859 * New Simulators
3860
3861 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3862
3863 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3864
3865 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3866
3867 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3868
3869 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3870 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3871 matches the given regular expression.
3872
3873 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3874
3875 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3876 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3877
3878 * New command line options
3879
3880 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3881 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3882
3883 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3884 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3885
3886 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3887 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3888 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3889
3890 * GDB now understands thread names.
3891
3892 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3893 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3894
3895 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3896 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3897
3898 * OpenCL C
3899 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3900 has been integrated into GDB.
3901
3902 * Python scripting
3903
3904 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3905 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3906 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3907
3908 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3909 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3910 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3911 and allows for more dynamic content.
3912
3913 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3914 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3915 have an is_valid method.
3916
3917 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3918 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3919 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3920
3921 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3922
3923 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3924 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3925 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3926 that function like so:
3927
3928 result = some_value (10,20)
3929
3930 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3931 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3932 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3933
3934 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3935 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3936 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3937 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3938 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3939
3940 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3941 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3942
3943 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3944
3945 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3946 selected thread.
3947
3948 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3949 holds the thread's name.
3950
3951 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3952 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3953 occurring in the process being debugged.
3954 The following events are currently supported:
3955 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3956 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3957 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3958
3959 * C++ Improvements:
3960
3961 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3962 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3963
3964 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3965
3966 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3967 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3968 was added to GCC 4.5.
3969
3970 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3971 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3972 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3973 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3974 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3975 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3976
3977 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3978 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3979 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3980 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3981 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3982
3983 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3984 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3985 execution to a label.
3986
3987 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3988 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3989 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3990 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3991
3992 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3993 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3994 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3995 of scope.
3996
3997 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3998
3999 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
4000 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
4001 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
4002 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
4003 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
4004 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
4005
4006 (gdb) info threads
4007 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
4008
4009 While now you see this:
4010
4011 (gdb) info threads
4012 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
4013
4014 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
4015 dumps.
4016
4017 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
4018 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
4019 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
4020 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
4021
4022 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
4023 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
4024 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
4025 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
4026 section in the user manual for more details.
4027
4028 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4029
4030 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
4031 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
4032
4033 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
4034
4035 * New native configurations
4036
4037 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
4038
4039 * New targets:
4040
4041 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
4042
4043 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
4044 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
4045 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
4046 in the GDB user manual.
4047
4048 * Guile support was removed.
4049
4050 * New features in the GNU simulator
4051
4052 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
4053
4054 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
4055
4056 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
4057
4058 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
4059
4060 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
4061 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
4062 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
4063 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
4064 was always disabled for such configurations.
4065
4066 * C++ Improvements:
4067
4068 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
4069
4070 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
4071 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
4072 For example:
4073 namespace A
4074 {
4075 class B { };
4076 void foo (B) { }
4077 }
4078 ...
4079 A::B b
4080 foo(b)
4081 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
4082 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
4083 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
4084
4085 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
4086
4087 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
4088 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
4089 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
4090 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
4091 entry.
4092 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
4093 mentioned flavors of operators.
4094
4095 ** static const class members
4096
4097 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
4098 class definition has been fixed.
4099
4100 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
4101
4102 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
4103 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
4104 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
4105 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
4106 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
4107 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
4108
4109 * Static tracepoints
4110
4111 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
4112 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
4113 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
4114 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
4115 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
4116 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
4117 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
4118 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
4119 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
4120 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
4121 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
4122 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
4123 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
4124 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
4125 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
4126 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
4127 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
4128 the "New remote packets" section below.
4129
4130 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
4131
4132 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
4133 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
4134 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
4135 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
4136
4137 * Observer mode
4138
4139 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
4140 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
4141 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
4142 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
4143 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
4144 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
4145 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
4146
4147 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
4148 current thread.
4149
4150 * New remote packets
4151
4152 qGetTIBAddr
4153
4154 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
4155
4156 qRelocInsn
4157
4158 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
4159 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
4160 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
4161 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
4162 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
4163 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
4164
4165 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
4166
4167 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
4168
4169 qTSTMat
4170
4171 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
4172 program.
4173
4174 qXfer:statictrace:read
4175
4176 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
4177 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
4178 to gdb's qSupported query.
4179
4180 QAllow
4181
4182 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
4183
4184 QTDPsrc
4185
4186 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
4187 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
4188
4189 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
4190 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
4191 a directory.
4192
4193 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4194
4195 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
4196 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
4197 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
4198 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
4199
4200 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
4201 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
4202 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
4203 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
4204 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
4205 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
4206 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
4207
4208 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
4209 for static tracepoints support.
4210
4211 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
4212
4213 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
4214 it understands register description.
4215
4216 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
4217
4218 * X86 general purpose registers
4219
4220 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
4221 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
4222 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
4223 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
4224 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
4225
4226 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
4227 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
4228 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
4229 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
4230 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
4231 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
4232
4233 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
4234 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
4235 in the specified file.
4236
4237 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
4238 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
4239 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
4240 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
4241 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
4242 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
4243 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
4244 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
4245 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
4246 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
4247
4248 * New commands
4249
4250 eval template, expressions...
4251 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
4252 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
4253
4254 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
4255 show target-file-system-kind
4256 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
4257 names.
4258
4259 save breakpoints <filename>
4260 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
4261 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
4262 definitions, use the `source' command.
4263
4264 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
4265 is now deprecated.
4266
4267 info static-tracepoint-markers
4268 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
4269
4270 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
4271 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
4272 function, line, address, or marker ID.
4273
4274 set observer on|off
4275 show observer
4276 Enable and disable observer mode.
4277
4278 set may-write-registers on|off
4279 set may-write-memory on|off
4280 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
4281 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
4282 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
4283 set may-interrupt on|off
4284 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
4285 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
4286 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
4287 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
4288 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
4289 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
4290 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
4291
4292 set record memory-query on|off
4293 show record memory-query
4294 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
4295 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
4296
4297 * Changed commands
4298
4299 disassemble
4300 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
4301
4302 * Python scripting
4303
4304 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
4305 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
4306 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
4307 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
4308 GDB using Python' in the manual.
4309
4310 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
4311 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
4312 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
4313 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
4314
4315 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
4316 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
4317
4318 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
4319
4320 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
4321
4322 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
4323
4324 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
4325 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
4326 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
4327
4328 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
4329 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
4330 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
4331 regular breakpoints.
4332
4333 * New targets
4334
4335 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
4336
4337 * D language support.
4338 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
4339 language.
4340
4341 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
4342 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
4343 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
4344 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
4345 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
4346
4347 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
4348 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
4349 conditions of the form:
4350
4351 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
4352
4353 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
4354 interface mentioned above.
4355
4356 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
4357
4358 * C++ Improvements
4359
4360 ** Namespace Support
4361
4362 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
4363 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
4364 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
4365 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
4366 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
4367
4368 ** Bug Fixes
4369
4370 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
4371 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
4372 qualified name.
4373
4374 ** Cast Operators
4375
4376 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
4377 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
4378
4379 * New targets
4380
4381 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
4382 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
4383
4384 * New Simulators
4385
4386 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
4387 Renesas RX rx
4388
4389 * Multi-program debugging.
4390
4391 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
4392 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
4393 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
4394 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
4395 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
4396 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
4397 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
4398 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
4399
4400 * New tracing features
4401
4402 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
4403
4404 ** Trace state variables
4405
4406 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
4407 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
4408 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
4409 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
4410 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
4411 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
4412 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
4413 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
4414 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
4415 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
4416
4417 ** Fast tracepoints
4418
4419 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
4420 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
4421 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
4422 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
4423 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
4424 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
4425 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
4426 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
4427 the regular trace command.
4428
4429 ** Disconnected tracing
4430
4431 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
4432 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
4433 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
4434 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
4435 connection is lost unexpectedly.
4436
4437 ** Trace files
4438
4439 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
4440 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
4441 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
4442 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
4443 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
4444 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
4445 <name>".
4446
4447 ** Circular trace buffer
4448
4449 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
4450 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
4451 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
4452 not be available for all target agents.
4453
4454 * Changed commands
4455
4456 disassemble
4457 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
4458 the arguments to be comma-separated.
4459
4460 info variables
4461 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
4462 which only declare a variable are not shown.
4463
4464 source
4465 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
4466 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
4467 support.
4468
4469 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
4470 "set script-extension" (see below).
4471
4472 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4473
4474 record save [<FILENAME>]
4475 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
4476 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
4477
4478 record restore <FILENAME>
4479 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
4480 earlier time, for replay debugging.
4481
4482 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
4483 Add a new inferior.
4484
4485 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
4486 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
4487 inferior has loaded.
4488
4489 remove-inferior ID
4490 Remove an inferior.
4491
4492 maint info program-spaces
4493 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
4494
4495 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
4496 show remote interrupt-sequence
4497 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
4498 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
4499 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
4500 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
4501 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
4502
4503 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
4504 show remote interrupt-on-connect
4505 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
4506 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
4507 Linux kernel.
4508
4509 set remotebreak [on | off]
4510 show remotebreak
4511 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
4512
4513 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
4514 Create or modify a trace state variable.
4515
4516 info tvariables
4517 List trace state variables and their values.
4518
4519 delete tvariable $NAME ...
4520 Delete one or more trace state variables.
4521
4522 teval EXPR, ...
4523 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
4524 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
4525
4526 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
4527 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
4528
4529 * New expression syntax
4530
4531 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
4532 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
4533
4534 * New options
4535
4536 set follow-exec-mode new|same
4537 show follow-exec-mode
4538 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
4539 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
4540 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
4541
4542 set default-collect EXPR, ...
4543 show default-collect
4544 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
4545 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
4546 such as registers or a critical global variable.
4547
4548 set disconnected-tracing
4549 show disconnected-tracing
4550 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
4551 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
4552 upon disconnection.
4553
4554 set circular-trace-buffer
4555 show circular-trace-buffer
4556 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
4557 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
4558 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
4559 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
4560
4561 set script-extension off|soft|strict
4562 show script-extension
4563 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4564 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4565 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4566 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4567 evaluation failed.
4568 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4569
4570 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4571 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4572 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4573 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4574 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4575 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4576 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4577 is on.
4578
4579 * Python API Improvements
4580
4581 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4582 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4583 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4584
4585 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4586 `is_base_class' attribute.
4587
4588 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4589
4590 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4591 evaluate an expression.
4592
4593 * New remote packets
4594
4595 QTDV
4596 Define a trace state variable.
4597
4598 qTV
4599 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4600
4601 QTDisconnected
4602 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4603
4604 QTBuffer:circular
4605 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4606
4607 qTfP, qTsP
4608 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4609
4610 * Bug fixes
4611
4612 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4613
4614 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4615 much more reliable. In particular:
4616 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4617 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4618 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4619 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4620 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4621 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4622 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4623 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4624 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4625 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4626 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4627 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4628 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4629 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4630 non-threaded programs.
4631
4632 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4633 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4634 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4635 executable program.
4636
4637 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4638
4639 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4640 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4641 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4642 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4643 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4644
4645 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4646 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4647 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4648 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4649 for tracepoint actions.
4650
4651 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4652 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4653 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4654
4655 * Process record and replay
4656
4657 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4658 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4659 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4660 execute commands.
4661
4662 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4663 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4664 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4665 reverse execution.
4666
4667 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4668 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4669 2.6.28 or later.
4670
4671 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4672 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4673 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4674 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4675 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4676 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4677 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4678 the installation instructions for more information.
4679
4680 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4681 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4682 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4683 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4684
4685 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4686 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4687
4688 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4689 now complete on file names.
4690
4691 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4692 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4693 For instance, consider:
4694
4695 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4696 # struct example variable;
4697 (gdb) p variable.
4698
4699 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4700 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4701
4702 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4703 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4704
4705 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4706 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4707 macros.
4708
4709 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4710 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4711 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4712
4713 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4714 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4715 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4716 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4717
4718 * New remote packets
4719
4720 qSearch:memory:
4721 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4722
4723 QStartNoAckMode
4724 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4725 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4726 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4727
4728 vKill
4729 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4730 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4731
4732 qXfer:osdata:read
4733 Obtains additional operating system information
4734
4735 qXfer:siginfo:read
4736 qXfer:siginfo:write
4737 Read or write additional signal information.
4738
4739 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4740
4741 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4742 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4743 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4744
4745 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4746 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4747
4748 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4749 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4750 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4751
4752 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4753 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4754
4755 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4756
4757 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4758
4759 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4760 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4761
4762 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
4763 list of section offsets.
4764
4765 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4766 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4767 have also been fixed.
4768
4769 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4770 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4771 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4772
4773 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4774 example, given:
4775
4776 template<typename T> class C { };
4777 C<char const *> c;
4778
4779 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4780
4781 ptype C<char const *>
4782 ptype C<char const*>
4783 ptype C<const char *>
4784 ptype C<const char*>
4785
4786 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4787
4788 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4789 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4790
4791 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4792 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4793 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4794
4795 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4796 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4797
4798 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4799 gdbserver.
4800
4801 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4802 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4803
4804 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4805 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4806 as appropriate.
4807
4808 * Python scripting
4809
4810 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4811 available is determined at configure time.
4812
4813 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4814
4815 * Ada tasking support
4816
4817 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4818 been introduced:
4819
4820 info tasks
4821 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4822 info task N
4823 Print detailed information about task number N.
4824 task
4825 Print the task number of the current task.
4826 task N
4827 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4828
4829 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4830 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4831
4832 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4833
4834 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4835 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4836 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4837 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4838 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4839 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4840 below.
4841
4842 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4843 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4844 information.
4845
4846 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4847 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4848 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4849 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4850 more information.
4851
4852 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4853
4854 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4855 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4856 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4857 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4858 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4859
4860 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4861 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4862 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4863 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4864 --enable-targets configure option.
4865
4866 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4867
4868 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4869 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4870 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4871 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4872 section in the user manual for more information.
4873
4874 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4875 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4876 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4877 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4878 extensions on linux targets.
4879
4880 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4881
4882 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4883 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4884 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4885 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4886 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4887 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4888 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4889 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4890 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4891
4892 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4893 val1 [, val2, ...]
4894 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4895
4896 maint set python print-stack
4897 maint show python print-stack
4898 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4899
4900 python [CODE]
4901 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4902
4903 macro define
4904 macro list
4905 macro undef
4906 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4907 interactively.
4908
4909 info os processes
4910 Show operating system information about processes.
4911
4912 info inferiors
4913 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4914
4915 inferior NUM
4916 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4917
4918 detach inferior NUM
4919 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4920
4921 kill inferior NUM
4922 Kill inferior number NUM.
4923
4924 * New options
4925
4926 set spu stop-on-load
4927 show spu stop-on-load
4928 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4929
4930 set spu auto-flush-cache
4931 show spu auto-flush-cache
4932 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4933 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4934
4935 set sh calling-convention
4936 show sh calling-convention
4937 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4938
4939 set debug timestamp
4940 show debug timestamp
4941 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4942
4943 set disassemble-next-line
4944 show disassemble-next-line
4945 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4946 the debuggee stops.
4947
4948 set remote noack-packet
4949 show remote noack-packet
4950 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4951 under "New remote packets."
4952
4953 set remote query-attached-packet
4954 show remote query-attached-packet
4955 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4956
4957 set remote read-siginfo-object
4958 show remote read-siginfo-object
4959 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4960 packet.
4961
4962 set remote write-siginfo-object
4963 show remote write-siginfo-object
4964 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4965 packet.
4966
4967 set remote reverse-continue
4968 show remote reverse-continue
4969 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4970
4971 set remote reverse-step
4972 show remote reverse-step
4973 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4974
4975 set displaced-stepping
4976 show displaced-stepping
4977 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4978 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4979 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4980
4981 set debug displaced
4982 show debug displaced
4983 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4984
4985 maint set internal-error
4986 maint show internal-error
4987 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4988
4989 maint set internal-warning
4990 maint show internal-warning
4991 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4992
4993 set exec-wrapper
4994 show exec-wrapper
4995 unset exec-wrapper
4996 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4997
4998 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4999 show multiple-symbols
5000 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
5001 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
5002 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
5003
5004 set breakpoint always-inserted
5005 show breakpoint always-inserted
5006 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
5007 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
5008 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
5009
5010 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
5011 show arm fallback-mode
5012 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
5013 show arm force-mode
5014 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
5015 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
5016 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
5017 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
5018
5019 set disable-randomization
5020 show disable-randomization
5021 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
5022 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
5023 multiple debugging sessions.
5024
5025 set non-stop
5026 show non-stop
5027 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
5028 a breakpoint.
5029
5030 set target-async
5031 show target-async
5032 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
5033 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
5034 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
5035 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
5036
5037 set target-wide-charset
5038 show target-wide-charset
5039 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
5040 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
5041
5042 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
5043 show tcp auto-retry
5044 set tcp connect-timeout
5045 show tcp connect-timeout
5046 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
5047 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
5048 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
5049
5050 set libthread-db-search-path
5051 show libthread-db-search-path
5052 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
5053 libthread_db.
5054
5055 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
5056 show schedule-multiple
5057 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
5058 the current process.
5059
5060 set stack-cache
5061 show stack-cache
5062 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
5063 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
5064 affecting correctness.
5065
5066 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
5067 show interactive-mode
5068 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
5069 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
5070 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
5071 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
5072 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
5073
5074 * Removed commands
5075
5076 info forks
5077 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
5078 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
5079 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
5080 command.
5081
5082 fork NUM
5083 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
5084 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
5085 alias for the `fork' command.
5086
5087 process PID
5088 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
5089 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
5090 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
5091
5092 delete fork NUM
5093 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
5094 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
5095 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
5096 fork' command.
5097
5098 detach fork NUM
5099 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
5100 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
5101 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
5102 fork' command.
5103
5104 * New native configurations
5105
5106 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
5107
5108 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
5109
5110 * New targets
5111
5112 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
5113 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
5114 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5115 S+core 3 score-*-*
5116
5117 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
5118 (mingw32ce) debugging.
5119
5120 * Removed commands
5121
5122 catch load
5123 catch unload
5124 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
5125
5126 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
5127
5128 * New native configurations
5129
5130 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
5131 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
5132
5133 * New targets
5134
5135 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
5136 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
5137
5138 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5139
5140 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
5141 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
5142 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
5143 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
5144
5145 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
5146 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
5147
5148 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
5149 is resolved.
5150
5151 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
5152 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
5153 and in inlined functions.
5154
5155 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
5156 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
5157 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
5158
5159 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
5160
5161 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
5162 registers on PowerPC targets.
5163
5164 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
5165 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
5166
5167 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
5168 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
5169
5170 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
5171 extended-remote mode.
5172
5173 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
5174 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
5175 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
5176 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
5177
5178 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
5179 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
5180 target architectures.
5181
5182 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
5183 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
5184 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
5185 stored in two consecutive float registers.
5186
5187 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
5188 breakpoints now.
5189
5190 * Improved support for debugging Ada
5191 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
5192 include:
5193 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
5194 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
5195 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
5196 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
5197 of an assignment
5198 - Improved command completion in Ada
5199 - Several bug fixes
5200
5201 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
5202 process.
5203
5204 * New commands
5205
5206 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
5207 show print frame-arguments
5208 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
5209 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
5210
5211 remote put
5212 remote get
5213 remote delete
5214 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5215
5216 * New MI commands
5217
5218 -target-file-put
5219 -target-file-get
5220 -target-file-delete
5221 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5222
5223 * New remote packets
5224
5225 vFile:open:
5226 vFile:close:
5227 vFile:pread:
5228 vFile:pwrite:
5229 vFile:unlink:
5230 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
5231
5232 vAttach
5233 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
5234 mode.
5235
5236 vRun
5237 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
5238
5239 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
5240
5241 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
5242 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
5243 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
5244
5245 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
5246 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
5247 -Bsymbolic linker option.
5248
5249 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
5250 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
5251 is not supported.
5252
5253 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
5254 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
5255
5256 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
5257 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
5258
5259 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
5260
5261 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
5262 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
5263 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
5264
5265 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
5266 automatically displayed as character or string data.
5267
5268 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
5269 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
5270 as strings.
5271
5272 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
5273 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
5274 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
5275
5276 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
5277 iWMMXt coprocessor.
5278
5279 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
5280 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
5281 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
5282
5283 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
5284
5285 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
5286
5287 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
5288 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
5289 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
5290
5291 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
5292 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
5293
5294 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
5295 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
5296 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
5297 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
5298 Windows and SymbianOS).
5299
5300 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
5301 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
5302
5303 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
5304 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
5305
5306 * New commands
5307
5308 set remoteflow
5309 show remoteflow
5310 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
5311 when debugging using remote targets.
5312
5313 set mem inaccessible-by-default
5314 show mem inaccessible-by-default
5315 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5316 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5317 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
5318 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
5319 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
5320
5321 set breakpoint auto-hw
5322 show breakpoint auto-hw
5323 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5324 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5325 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
5326 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
5327 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
5328 including "next" and "finish".
5329
5330 catch exception
5331 catch exception unhandled
5332 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
5333
5334 catch assert
5335 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
5336
5337 set sysroot
5338 show sysroot
5339 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
5340 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
5341 an alias to "set sysroot".
5342
5343 info spu
5344 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
5345 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
5346 architecture.
5347
5348 * New native configurations
5349
5350 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
5351
5352 set tdesc filename
5353 unset tdesc filename
5354 show tdesc filename
5355 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
5356 not query the target for its built-in description.
5357
5358 * New targets
5359
5360 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
5361 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
5362 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
5363
5364 * New remote packets
5365
5366 QPassSignals:
5367 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
5368 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
5369
5370 qXfer:features:read:
5371 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
5372 features.
5373
5374 qXfer:spu:read:
5375 qXfer:spu:write:
5376 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
5377 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
5378
5379 qXfer:libraries:read:
5380 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
5381 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
5382 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
5383 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
5384
5385 * Removed targets
5386
5387 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
5388
5389 alpha*-*-osf1*
5390 alpha*-*-osf2*
5391 d10v-*-*
5392 hppa*-*-hiux*
5393 i[34567]86-ncr-*
5394 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
5395 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
5396 i[34567]86-*-netware*
5397 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
5398 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
5399 i[34567]86-*-sco*
5400 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
5401 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
5402 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
5403 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
5404 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
5405 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
5406 i[34567]86-*-isc*
5407 m68*-cisco*-*
5408 m68*-tandem-*
5409 mips*-*-pe
5410 rs6000-*-lynxos*
5411 sh*-*-pe
5412
5413 * Other removed features
5414
5415 target abug
5416 target cpu32bug
5417 target est
5418 target rom68k
5419
5420 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
5421
5422 target hms
5423 target e7000
5424 target sh3
5425 target sh3e
5426
5427 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
5428 H8/300.
5429
5430 target ocd
5431
5432 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
5433 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
5434 interfaces.
5435
5436 DWARF 1 support
5437
5438 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
5439 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
5440
5441 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
5442
5443 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
5444 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
5445 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
5446 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
5447
5448 MIPS ".pdr" sections
5449
5450 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
5451 in debugging information.
5452
5453 Scheme support
5454
5455 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
5456 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
5457
5458 set mips stack-arg-size
5459 set mips saved-gpreg-size
5460
5461 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
5462
5463 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
5464
5465 * New targets
5466
5467 Xtensa xtensa-elf
5468 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
5469
5470 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
5471 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
5472 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
5473
5474 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
5475 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
5476 supported.
5477
5478 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
5479 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
5480
5481 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
5482 stub provides the required support.
5483
5484 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
5485 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
5486
5487 * New commands
5488
5489 set substitute-path
5490 unset substitute-path
5491 show substitute-path
5492 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
5493 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
5494 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
5495 between compilation and debugging.
5496
5497 set trace-commands
5498 show trace-commands
5499 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
5500 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
5501 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
5502
5503 * REMOVED features
5504
5505 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
5506
5507 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
5508 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
5509
5510 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
5511
5512 * New remote packets
5513
5514 qSupported:
5515 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
5516 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
5517 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
5518 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
5519 target.
5520
5521 qXfer:auxv:read:
5522 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
5523 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
5524
5525 qXfer:memory-map:read:
5526 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
5527 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
5528
5529 vFlashErase:
5530 vFlashWrite:
5531 vFlashDone:
5532 Erase and program a flash memory device.
5533
5534 * Removed remote packets
5535
5536 qPart:auxv:read:
5537 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
5538 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
5539
5540 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
5541
5542 * New targets
5543
5544 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
5545
5546 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5547
5548 * New commands
5549
5550 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
5551 only if it doesn't already have a value.
5552
5553 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
5554
5555 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
5556
5557 restart <n> Return the program state to a
5558 previously saved state.
5559
5560 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5561
5562 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5563
5564 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5565 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5566
5567 info forks List forks of the user program that
5568 are available to be debugged.
5569
5570 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5571 forks of the user program that are
5572 available to be debugged.
5573
5574 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5575 that are available to be debugged (and
5576 kill the forked process).
5577
5578 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5579 that are available to be debugged (and
5580 allow the process to continue).
5581
5582 * New architecture
5583
5584 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5585
5586 * Improved Windows host support
5587
5588 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5589 native console support, and remote communications using either
5590 network sockets or serial ports.
5591
5592 * Improved Modula-2 language support
5593
5594 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5595 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5596 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5597 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5598 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5599 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5600
5601 * REMOVED features
5602
5603 The ARM rdi-share module.
5604
5605 The Netware NLM debug server.
5606
5607 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5608
5609 * New native configurations
5610
5611 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5612 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5613
5614 * New targets
5615
5616 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5617
5618 * New command line options
5619
5620 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5621 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5622 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5623 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5624 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5625 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5626 with the --command (-x) option.
5627
5628 * Deprecated commands removed
5629
5630 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5631 removed:
5632
5633 Command Replacement
5634 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5635 othernames set arm disassembler
5636 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5637 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5638 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5639 regs info registers
5640
5641 * New BSD user-level threads support
5642
5643 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5644 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5645 configurations are:
5646
5647 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5648 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5649 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5650
5651 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5652 are not yet supported.
5653
5654 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5655 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5656
5657 * REMOVED configurations and files
5658
5659 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5660 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5661 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5662
5663 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5664
5665 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5666 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5667 behavior.
5668
5669 * VAX floating point support
5670
5671 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5672
5673 * User-defined command support
5674
5675 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5676 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5677 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5678
5679 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5680
5681 * New command line option
5682
5683 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5684 debugging.
5685
5686 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5687
5688 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5689 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5690 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5691 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5692 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5693
5694 * Internationalization
5695
5696 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5697 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5698 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5699
5700 * Ada
5701
5702 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5703 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5704 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5705
5706 * New native configurations
5707
5708 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5709
5710 * Remote 'p' packet
5711
5712 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5713 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5714
5715 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5716
5717 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5718 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5719 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5720 i386 application).
5721
5722 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
5723 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5724 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5725 configurations:
5726
5727 hppa-*-hpux
5728 ia64-*-aix
5729 mips-*-irix*
5730 *-*-lynx
5731 mips-*-linux-gnu
5732 sds protocol
5733 xdr protocol
5734 powerpc bdm protocol
5735
5736 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5737 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5738
5739 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5740
5741 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5742 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5743 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5744 permanently REMOVED.
5745
5746 h8300-*-*
5747 mcore-*-*
5748 mn10300-*-*
5749 ns32k-*-*
5750 sh64-*-*
5751 v850-*-*
5752
5753 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5754
5755 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5756
5757 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5758 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5759 been fixed.
5760
5761 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5762
5763 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5764 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5765 IRIX long double values).
5766
5767 * VAX and "next"
5768
5769 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5770 command. This problem has been fixed.
5771
5772 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5773
5774 * Fix for ``many threads''
5775
5776 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5777 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5778 error message:
5779
5780 ptrace: No such process.
5781 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5782
5783 This problem has been fixed.
5784
5785 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5786
5787 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5788 GDB to dump core).
5789
5790 * New ``start'' command.
5791
5792 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
5793
5794 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5795
5796 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5797 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5798 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5799
5800 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5801 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5802 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5803 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5804 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5805 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5806 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5807 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5808 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5809
5810 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5811
5812 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5813 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5814 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5815 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5816 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5817
5818 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5819 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5820 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5821
5822 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5823
5824 * New native configurations
5825
5826 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5827 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5828 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5829 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5830 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5831 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5832 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5833
5834 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5835
5836 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5837 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5838 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5839 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5840 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5841 work, was also included.
5842
5843 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5844 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5845
5846 h8300-*-*
5847 mcore-*-*
5848 mn10300-*-*
5849 ns32k-*-*
5850 sh64-*-*
5851 v850-*-*
5852 xstormy16-*-*
5853
5854 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5855 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5856
5857 * REMOVED configurations and files
5858
5859 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5860 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5861 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5862 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5863 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5864 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5865 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5866 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5867 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5868 sonymips mips-sony-*
5869 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5870
5871 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5872
5873 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5874
5875 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5876 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5877 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5878 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5879 with GDB".
5880
5881 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5882
5883 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5884 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5885 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5886 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5887 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5888 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5889 are created.
5890
5891 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5892
5893 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5894
5895 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5896 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5897 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5898
5899 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5900
5901 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5902 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5903
5904 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5905
5906 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5907 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5908 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5909
5910 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5911
5912 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5913 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5914
5915 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5916
5917 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5918 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5919 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5920
5921 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5922
5923 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5924 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5925 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5926
5927 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5928
5929 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5930
5931 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5932 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5933
5934 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5935
5936 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5937 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5938 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5939 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5940
5941 * Revised SPARC target
5942
5943 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5944 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5945 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5946 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5947 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5948
5949 * New C++ demangler
5950
5951 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5952 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5953 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5954 programs.
5955
5956 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5957
5958 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5959 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5960 encountered these.
5961
5962 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5963
5964 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5965 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5966 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5967 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5968 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5969 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5970 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5971 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5972 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5973
5974 * New native configurations
5975
5976 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5977 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5978 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5979 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5980 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5981
5982 * New debugging protocols
5983
5984 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5985
5986 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5987
5988 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5989 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5990 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5991
5992 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5993
5994 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5995 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5996 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5997 permanently REMOVED.
5998
5999 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6000 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6001 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6002 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6003 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6004 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6005 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6006 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6007 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6008 sonymips mips-sony-*
6009 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6010
6011 * REMOVED configurations and files
6012
6013 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6014 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6015 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6016 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6017 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6018 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
6019 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6020 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
6021 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
6022 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
6023 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
6024 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
6025 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
6026 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
6027 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
6028 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6029 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6030
6031 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
6032
6033 * Objective-C
6034
6035 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
6036 integrated into GDB.
6037
6038 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
6039
6040 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
6041 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
6042 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
6043 backtraces.
6044
6045 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
6046 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
6047 DWARF 2 CFI support.
6048
6049 * Hosted file I/O.
6050
6051 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
6052 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
6053 remote protocol documentation for details.
6054
6055 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
6056
6057 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
6058 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
6059 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
6060 ppc32 on ppc64).
6061
6062 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
6063
6064 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
6065 per-thread variables.
6066
6067 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
6068
6069 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
6070 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
6071
6072 * Separate debug info.
6073
6074 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
6075 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
6076 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
6077 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
6078 and optional debug files.
6079
6080 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
6081
6082 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
6083 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
6084 debugger.
6085
6086 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
6087 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
6088
6089 * Java
6090
6091 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
6092 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
6093 considered "useable".
6094
6095 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
6096
6097 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
6098 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
6099 kernel.
6100
6101 * GDB supports logging output to a file
6102
6103 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
6104 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
6105
6106 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
6107
6108 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
6109 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
6110 command.
6111
6112 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
6113
6114 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
6115 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
6116
6117 * Profiling support
6118
6119 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
6120 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
6121 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
6122 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
6123 data, for more informative profiling results.
6124
6125 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
6126
6127 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
6128 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
6129 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
6130
6131 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
6132 removed.
6133
6134 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
6135 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
6136 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
6137 in a subsequent -var-update.
6138
6139 * New native configurations.
6140
6141 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6142
6143 * Multi-arched targets.
6144
6145 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
6146 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6147
6148 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6149
6150 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6151 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6152 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6153 permanently REMOVED.
6154
6155 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6156 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6157 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6158 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
6159 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6160 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
6161 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
6162 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
6163 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
6164 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
6165 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6166 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6167
6168 * REMOVED configurations and files
6169
6170 V850EA ISA
6171 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6172 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6173 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6174 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6175 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6176 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6177 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
6178 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6179 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6180 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6181 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6182 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6183 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6184
6185 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
6186
6187 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
6188 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
6189 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
6190 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
6191 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
6192
6193 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
6194
6195 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
6196
6197 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
6198 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
6199 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
6200 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
6201 shared libs like mad''.
6202
6203 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6204
6205 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
6206 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
6207 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
6208 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6209
6210 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
6211
6212 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
6213 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
6214 they expand.
6215
6216 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
6217 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
6218
6219 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
6220 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
6221
6222 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
6223 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
6224 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
6225 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
6226
6227 * Multi-arched targets.
6228
6229 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
6230 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
6231 NEC V850 v850-*-*
6232 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
6233 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
6234 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
6235
6236 * New targets.
6237
6238 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
6239
6240
6241 * New native configurations
6242
6243 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
6244 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
6245 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
6246 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
6247
6248 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6249
6250 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6251 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6252 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6253 permanently REMOVED.
6254
6255 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6256 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6257 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6258 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6259 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6260 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6261 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6262 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6263 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6264 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6265 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
6266 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6267 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6268
6269 * OBSOLETE languages
6270
6271 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
6272
6273 * REMOVED configurations and files
6274
6275 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6276 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6277 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6278 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6279 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6280
6281 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6282
6283 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
6284
6285 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
6286 commands. The default is 1024.
6287
6288 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
6289
6290 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
6291
6292 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
6293
6294 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
6295 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
6296 from a file into memory (restore).
6297
6298 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
6299
6300 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
6301 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
6302 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
6303
6304 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
6305
6306 * New targets.
6307
6308 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
6309
6310 * Bug fixes
6311
6312 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
6313 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
6314 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
6315
6316 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
6317 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
6318 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
6319
6320 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
6321 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
6322 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
6323
6324 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
6325 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
6326 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
6327
6328 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
6329
6330 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
6331
6332 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
6333 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
6334 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
6335 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
6336 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
6337 (notably embedded) targets.
6338
6339 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
6340
6341 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
6342 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
6343 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
6344 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
6345
6346 * New command line option
6347
6348 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
6349
6350 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6351
6352 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
6353 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
6354 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
6355 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
6356 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
6357 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
6358 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
6359 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
6360 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
6361 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
6362
6363 * Changes in ARM configurations.
6364
6365 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
6366 configuration is fully multi-arch.
6367
6368 * New native configurations
6369
6370 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
6371 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
6372 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
6373 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
6374
6375 * New targets
6376
6377 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
6378
6379 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6380
6381 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6382 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6383 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6384 permanently REMOVED.
6385
6386 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6387 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6388 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6389 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6390 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6391
6392 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6393
6394 * REMOVED configurations and files
6395
6396 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6397 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6398 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6399 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6400 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6401 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6402 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6403 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6404 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6405 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6406 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6407 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6408 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
6409
6410 * Changes to command line processing
6411
6412 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
6413 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
6414
6415 * Changes to key bindings
6416
6417 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
6418
6419 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
6420
6421 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
6422
6423 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
6424 corrupted.
6425
6426 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
6427
6428 Numerous documentation fixes.
6429
6430 Numerous testsuite fixes.
6431
6432 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
6433
6434 * New native configurations
6435
6436 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
6437 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
6438 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
6439 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6440 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
6441 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
6442
6443 * New targets
6444
6445 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
6446 CRIS cris-axis
6447 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
6448
6449 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6450
6451 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
6452 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6453 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6454 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6455 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6456 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6457 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6458 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6459 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6460 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6461 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6462 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6463 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6464 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
6465
6466 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
6467 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
6468
6469 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6470 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6471 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6472 permanently REMOVED.
6473
6474 * REMOVED configurations and files
6475
6476 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6477 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6478 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6479 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6480 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6481 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
6482
6483 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
6484
6485 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
6486 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
6487 present.
6488
6489 * Other news:
6490
6491 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
6492
6493 * The MI enabled by default.
6494
6495 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
6496 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
6497 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
6498 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
6499 which is now deprecated.
6500
6501 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
6502
6503 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
6504 main features are supported:
6505
6506 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
6507
6508 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
6509 extension;
6510
6511 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
6512
6513 - a Pascal expression parser.
6514
6515 However, some important features are not yet supported.
6516
6517 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
6518
6519 - there are some problems with boolean types;
6520
6521 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
6522 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
6523
6524 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
6525
6526 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
6527
6528 * Changes in completion.
6529
6530 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
6531 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
6532 users expect at the shell prompt.
6533
6534 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
6535 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
6536 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
6537 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
6538 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
6539 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
6540 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
6541
6542 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
6543
6544 * New platform-independent commands:
6545
6546 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
6547 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
6548 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
6549
6550 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
6551
6552 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
6553 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
6554 many threads as your system allows you to have.
6555
6556 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
6557
6558 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
6559 multi-threaded programs though.
6560
6561 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
6562
6563 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6564
6565 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6566 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6567 supported.)
6568
6569 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6570
6571 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6572 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6573 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6574 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6575 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6576 registers.
6577
6578 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6579 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6580 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6581
6582 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6583
6584 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6585 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6586
6587 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6588 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6589 IDT.
6590
6591 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6592 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6593 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6594 a given linear address.
6595
6596 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6597 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6598 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6599
6600 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6601
6602 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6603
6604 * Changes in documentation.
6605
6606 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6607 Documentation License.
6608
6609 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6610 manual.
6611
6612 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6613
6614 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6615 manual.
6616
6617 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6618 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6619 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6620
6621 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6622
6623 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6624 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6625 contents of this file.
6626
6627 * gdba.el deleted
6628
6629 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6630
6631 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6632
6633 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6634
6635 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6636 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6637 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6638 greater level of detail.
6639
6640 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6641
6642 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6643 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6644 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6645 written.
6646
6647 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6648
6649 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6650 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6651 machines ``out of the box''.
6652
6653 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6654 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6655 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6656 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6657 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6658
6659 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6660 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6661 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6662 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6663 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6664
6665 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6666 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6667 also works.
6668
6669 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6670 GDB.
6671
6672 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6673 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6674 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6675 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6676
6677 * New native configurations
6678
6679 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6680 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6681
6682 * New targets
6683
6684 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6685 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6686 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6687 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6688
6689 * OBSOLETE configurations
6690
6691 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6692 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6693 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6694 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6695 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6696
6697 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6698 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6699 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6700 be permanently REMOVED.
6701
6702 * Gould support removed
6703
6704 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6705
6706 * New features for SVR4
6707
6708 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6709 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6710 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6711
6712 * Many C++ enhancements
6713
6714 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6715 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6716
6717 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6718
6719 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6720 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6721 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6722 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6723
6724 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6725 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6726
6727 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6728
6729 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6730 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6731 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6732
6733 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6734 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6735
6736 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6737
6738 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6739 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6740 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6741
6742 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6743
6744 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6745 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6746 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6747
6748 * ``apropos'' command added.
6749
6750 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6751 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6752 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6753
6754 * New MI interface
6755
6756 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6757 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6758 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6759 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6760 enabled by configuring with:
6761
6762 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6763
6764 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6765
6766 * New native configurations
6767
6768 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6769 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6770 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6771
6772 * New targets
6773
6774 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6775 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6776 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6777
6778 * OBSOLETE configurations
6779
6780 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6781
6782 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6783 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6784 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6785 be permanently REMOVED.
6786
6787 * ANSI/ISO C
6788
6789 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6790 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6791 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6792 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6793 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6794 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6795 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6796 already.
6797
6798 * Readline 2.2
6799
6800 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6801
6802 * set extension-language
6803
6804 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6805 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6806 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6807 set extension-language .c c++
6808 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6809 and their associated languages.
6810
6811 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6812
6813 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6814 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6815 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6816
6817 set processor NAME
6818
6819 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6820 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6821
6822 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6823 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6824 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6825 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6826 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6827 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6828 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6829 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6830 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6831 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6832 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6833
6834 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6835 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6836 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6837 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6838
6839 * HP-UX support
6840
6841 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6842 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6843 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6844 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6845 for xdb and dbx commands.
6846
6847 * Catchpoints
6848
6849 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6850 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6851 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6852
6853 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6854 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6855 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6856
6857 * Debugging across forks
6858
6859 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6860 in the inferior.
6861
6862 * TUI
6863
6864 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6865 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6866 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6867
6868 * GDB remote protocol additions
6869
6870 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6871 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6872 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6873 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6874
6875 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6876 full 64-bit address. The command
6877
6878 set remoteaddresssize 32
6879
6880 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6881 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6882 will be discarded.
6883
6884 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6885 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6886
6887 maint packet heythere
6888
6889 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6890 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6891 time.
6892
6893 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6894 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6895 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6896
6897 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6898
6899 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6900 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6901 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6902
6903 * mask-address variable for Mips
6904
6905 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6906 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6907 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6908
6909 * Higher serial baud rates
6910
6911 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6912 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6913 to achieve all of these rates.)
6914
6915 * i960 simulator
6916
6917 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6918 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6919
6920
6921 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6922
6923 * New native configurations
6924
6925 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6926 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6927 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6928 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6929 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6930 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6931 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6932
6933 * New targets
6934
6935 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6936 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6937 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6938 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6939 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6940 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6941 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6942 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6943 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6944 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6945 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6946
6947 * New debugging protocols
6948
6949 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6950 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6951 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6952 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6953 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6954 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6955
6956 * DWARF 2
6957
6958 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6959 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6960 information.
6961
6962 * Java frontend
6963
6964 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6965 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6966
6967 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6968
6969 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6970 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6971 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6972
6973 * Live range splitting
6974
6975 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6976 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6977 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6978
6979 * Hurd support
6980
6981 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6982 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6983
6984 * ARM Thumb support
6985
6986 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6987 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6988 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6989 accordingly.
6990
6991 * MIPS16 support
6992
6993 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6994 instruction set.
6995
6996 * Overlay support
6997
6998 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6999 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
7000 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
7001 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
7002 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
7003 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
7004
7005 * info symbol
7006
7007 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
7008 the symbol at the specified address.
7009
7010 * Trace support
7011
7012 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
7013 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
7014 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
7015 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
7016 file tracepoint.c for more details.
7017
7018 * MIPS simulator
7019
7020 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
7021 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
7022 of most MIPS variants.
7023
7024 * Sparc simulator
7025
7026 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
7027 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
7028 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
7029
7030 * set architecture
7031
7032 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
7033 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
7034 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
7035 the possible architectures.
7036
7037 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
7038
7039 * New native configurations
7040
7041 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
7042 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
7043 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
7044 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
7045 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
7046 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
7047
7048 * New targets
7049
7050 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
7051 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7052 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
7053 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
7054 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
7055 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
7056 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7057
7058 * PowerPC simulator
7059
7060 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
7061 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
7062 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
7063 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
7064 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
7065
7066 * Solaris 2.5
7067
7068 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
7069
7070 * Windows 95/NT native
7071
7072 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
7073 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
7074 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
7075 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
7076 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
7077
7078 * dont-repeat command
7079
7080 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
7081 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
7082 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
7083 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
7084
7085 * Send break instead of ^C
7086
7087 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
7088 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
7089 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
7090
7091 * Remote protocol timeout
7092
7093 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
7094 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
7095 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
7096
7097 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
7098
7099 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
7100 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
7101 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
7102 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
7103 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
7104
7105 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
7106 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
7107 automatically on hpux10.
7108
7109 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
7110
7111 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
7112
7113 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
7114
7115 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
7116 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
7117 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
7118 every character. The default value is 1050.
7119
7120 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
7121
7122 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
7123 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
7124 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
7125 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
7126 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
7127 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
7128
7129 * Speedups for remote debugging
7130
7131 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
7132 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
7133 and more efficient S-record downloading.
7134
7135 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
7136
7137 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
7138 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
7139
7140 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
7141
7142 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
7143
7144 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
7145 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
7146
7147 * Remote targets use caching
7148
7149 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
7150 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
7151 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
7152 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
7153 off' turns the data cache off.
7154
7155 * Remote targets may have threads
7156
7157 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
7158 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
7159 gdb/remote.c for details.
7160
7161 * NetROM support
7162
7163 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
7164 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
7165 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
7166 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
7167 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
7168 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
7169 sequence is something like
7170
7171 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
7172 load <prog>
7173 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
7174
7175 * Macintosh host
7176
7177 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
7178 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
7179 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
7180 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
7181 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
7182 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
7183 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
7184 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
7185
7186 * Autoconf
7187
7188 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
7189 but does simplify configuration and building.
7190
7191 * hpux10
7192
7193 GDB now supports hpux10.
7194
7195 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
7196
7197 * New native configurations
7198
7199 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
7200 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
7201 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
7202 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
7203
7204 * New targets
7205
7206 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7207 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
7208 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
7209 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
7210 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7211
7212 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
7213
7214 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
7215 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
7216 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
7217 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
7218 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
7219
7220 * Arguments to user-defined commands
7221
7222 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
7223 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
7224 trivial example:
7225 define adder
7226 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
7227
7228 To execute the command use:
7229 adder 1 2 3
7230
7231 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
7232 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
7233 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
7234
7235 * New `if' and `while' commands
7236
7237 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
7238 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
7239 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
7240 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
7241 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
7242 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
7243 if the expression is zero.
7244
7245 * Fortran source language mode
7246
7247 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
7248 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
7249 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
7250 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
7251 Fortran compilers.
7252
7253 * Better HPUX support
7254
7255 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
7256 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
7257 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
7258 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
7259 that behavior do the following before running the program:
7260
7261 adb -w a.out
7262 __dld_flags?W 0x5
7263 control-d
7264
7265 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
7266 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
7267
7268 adb -w a.out
7269 __dld_flags?W 0x4
7270 control-d
7271
7272 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
7273 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
7274 external linkage.
7275
7276 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
7277 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
7278
7279 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
7280
7281 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
7282 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
7283 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
7284 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
7285 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
7286 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
7287
7288 * New DOS host serial code
7289
7290 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
7291 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
7292 a PC's serial port.
7293
7294 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
7295
7296 * New "complete" command
7297
7298 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
7299 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
7300
7301 * Trailing space optional in prompt
7302
7303 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
7304 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
7305
7306 * Breakpoint hit counts
7307
7308 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
7309 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
7310 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
7311 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
7312 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
7313 that breakpoint.
7314
7315 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
7316
7317 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
7318 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
7319 arrays actually contain only short strings.
7320
7321 * Shared library breakpoints
7322
7323 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
7324 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
7325
7326 * Hardware watchpoints
7327
7328 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
7329 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
7330
7331 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
7332
7333 * Annotations
7334
7335 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
7336 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
7337
7338 * Improved Irix 5 support
7339
7340 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
7341
7342 * Improved HPPA support
7343
7344 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
7345
7346 * New native configurations
7347
7348 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
7349 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7350 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
7351 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
7352
7353 * New targets
7354
7355 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7356 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
7357 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
7358
7359 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
7360
7361 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
7362 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
7363
7364 * Fixes
7365
7366 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
7367 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
7368
7369 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
7370
7371 * Irix 5 is now supported
7372
7373 * HPPA support
7374
7375 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
7376 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
7377 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
7378 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
7379 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
7380
7381
7382 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
7383
7384 * User visible changes:
7385
7386 * Remote Debugging
7387
7388 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
7389 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
7390 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
7391 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
7392 debugging info for the mips target).
7393
7394 * DEC Alpha native support
7395
7396 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
7397 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
7398 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
7399 Alpha-specific notes.
7400
7401 * Preliminary thread implementation
7402
7403 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
7404
7405 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
7406
7407 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
7408 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
7409 for details).
7410
7411 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
7412
7413 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
7414 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
7415 call methods, ...etc.
7416
7417 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
7418
7419 * User visible changes:
7420
7421 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
7422 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
7423 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
7424 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
7425
7426 Filename completion now works.
7427
7428 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
7429 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
7430 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
7431
7432 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
7433 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
7434 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
7435 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
7436 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
7437
7438 * DEC alpha support
7439
7440 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
7441 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
7442
7443
7444 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
7445
7446 * Testsuite
7447
7448 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
7449 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
7450 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
7451
7452 * C++ demangling
7453
7454 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
7455 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
7456 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
7457 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
7458 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
7459
7460 * Simulators
7461
7462 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
7463 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
7464 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
7465
7466 * New targets supported
7467
7468 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7469 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7470 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
7471 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7472 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
7473
7474 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
7475 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
7476 GO32 memory extender.
7477
7478 * New remote protocols
7479
7480 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
7481
7482 * New source languages supported
7483
7484 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
7485 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
7486 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
7487
7488
7489 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
7490
7491 * HP Precision Architecture supported
7492
7493 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
7494 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
7495 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
7496 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
7497 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
7498 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
7499
7500 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
7501
7502 * Faster and better demangling
7503
7504 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
7505 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
7506 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
7507 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
7508 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
7509 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
7510 symbol lookups.
7511
7512 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
7513 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
7514 compiler does not actually implement.
7515
7516 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
7517
7518 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
7519 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
7520 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
7521 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
7522 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
7523 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
7524 fix.
7525
7526 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
7527 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
7528
7529 * Improved configure script
7530
7531 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
7532 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
7533 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
7534 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
7535
7536 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
7537 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
7538 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
7539 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
7540 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
7541 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
7542
7543 * Documentation improvements
7544
7545 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
7546 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
7547 before submitting changes.
7548
7549 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
7550 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
7551 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
7552 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
7553 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
7554
7555 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
7556 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
7557 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
7558 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
7559 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
7560 around this problem.
7561
7562 * New features
7563
7564 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7565 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7566 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7567 the target program.
7568
7569 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7570 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7571
7572 * New native hosts supported
7573
7574 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7575 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7576
7577 * New targets supported
7578
7579 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7580
7581 * New file formats supported
7582
7583 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7584 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7585
7586 * Major bug fixes
7587
7588 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7589
7590 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7591 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7592
7593 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7594 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7595 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7596
7597 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7598 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7599
7600 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7601 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7602 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7603 libraries.
7604
7605 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7606 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7607 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7608 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7609 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7610
7611 * Internal improvements
7612
7613 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7614 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7615
7616 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7617 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7618 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7619 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7620 shared code that handles any of them.
7621
7622 * New command line options
7623
7624 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7625
7626 * Mmalloc licensing
7627
7628 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7629 General Public License.
7630
7631 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7632
7633 * Host/native/target split
7634
7635 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7636 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7637 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7638 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7639 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7640
7641 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7642 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7643 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7644 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7645 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7646 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7647 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7648
7649 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7650 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7651 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7652
7653 * New hosts supported
7654
7655 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7656 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7657 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7658
7659 * New targets supported
7660
7661 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7662 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7663
7664 * New native hosts supported
7665
7666 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7667 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7668 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7669
7670 * New file formats supported
7671
7672 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7673 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7674 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7675
7676 * New commands
7677
7678 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7679 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7680 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7681
7682 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7683
7684 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7685 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7686 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7687 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7688
7689 * C++ improvements
7690
7691 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7692 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7693 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7694
7695 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7696
7697 * Major bug fixes
7698
7699 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7700 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7701 by the compiler.
7702
7703 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7704 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7705
7706 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7707 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7708 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7709 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7710 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7711 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7712
7713 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7714 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7715 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7716 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7717
7718 * AMD 29k support
7719
7720 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7721 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7722 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7723 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7724 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7725
7726 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7727 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7728 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7729 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7730
7731 * Remote interfaces
7732
7733 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7734 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7735 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7736 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7737 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7738 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7739 each instruction being stepped through.
7740
7741 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7742 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7743
7744 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7745 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7746 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7747 processor with a serial port.
7748
7749 * Configuration
7750
7751 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7752 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7753 supported, and what files each one uses.
7754
7755 * Library changes
7756
7757 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7758 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7759 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7760 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7761
7762 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7763 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7764 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7765 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7766
7767 * Documentation
7768
7769 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7770 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7771 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7772 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7773 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7774 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7775
7776 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7777
7778
7779 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7780
7781 * Better support for C++ function names
7782
7783 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7784 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7785 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7786 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7787 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7788
7789 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7790 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7791 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7792 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7793 for the list of formats.
7794
7795 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7796
7797 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7798 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7799 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7800 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
7801 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7802 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7803 this problem.)
7804
7805 * New 'maintenance' command
7806
7807 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7808 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7809 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7810
7811 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7812 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7813 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7814 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7815 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7816 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7817
7818 The following commands are new:
7819
7820 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7821 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7822 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7823
7824 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7825
7826 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7827 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7828 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7829 read after argv processing.
7830
7831 * New hosts supported
7832
7833 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7834
7835 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7836
7837 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7838 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7839 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7840 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7841 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7842 It costs extra.
7843
7844 * New targets supported
7845
7846 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7847
7848 * More smarts about finding #include files
7849
7850 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7851 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7852 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7853 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7854 the one that contains your sources.
7855
7856 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7857 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7858 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7859
7860 * Interesting infernals change
7861
7862 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7863 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7864 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7865 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7866
7867 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7868
7869 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7870 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7871 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7872
7873 See the ChangeLog for details.
7874
7875 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7876
7877 * New machines supported (host and target)
7878
7879 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7880
7881 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7882
7883 * New malloc package
7884
7885 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7886 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
7887 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7888 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7889 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7890 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7891
7892 * info proc
7893
7894 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7895 'help info proc' for details.
7896
7897 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7898
7899 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7900 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7901 possible.
7902
7903 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7904
7905 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7906 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7907 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7908 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7909 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7910 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7911
7912 * Cross byte order fixes
7913
7914 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7915 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7916
7917 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7918
7919 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7920 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7921 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7922 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7923 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7924 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7925 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7926 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7927 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7928 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7929
7930 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7931 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7932 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7933 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7934
7935 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7936 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7937 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7938 use is:
7939
7940 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7941
7942 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7943 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7944 shared across multiple host platforms.
7945
7946 * longjmp() handling
7947
7948 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7949 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7950 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7951 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7952
7953 * Solaris 2.0
7954
7955 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7956 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7957 reading symbols.
7958
7959 * Bug fixes
7960
7961 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7962 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7963 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7964
7965 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7966
7967 * New machines supported (host and target)
7968
7969 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7970 (except core files)
7971 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7972 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7973
7974 * New machines supported (target)
7975
7976 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7977
7978 * C++ support
7979
7980 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7981 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7982 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7983
7984 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7985 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7986 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7987 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7988 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7989 released.
7990
7991 * New features for SVR4
7992
7993 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7994 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7995 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7996
7997 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7998 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7999 it prints the address mappings of the process.
8000
8001 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
8002 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
8003
8004 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
8005
8006 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
8007 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
8008 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
8009 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
8010 same code linked statically.
8011
8012 * New Getopt
8013
8014 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
8015 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
8016 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
8017 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
8018 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
8019 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
8020
8021 * Bugs fixed
8022
8023 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
8024 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
8025 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
8026
8027
8028 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
8029
8030 * New machines supported (host and target)
8031
8032 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
8033 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
8034 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
8035
8036 * Almost SCO Unix support
8037
8038 We had hoped to support:
8039 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
8040 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
8041 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
8042 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
8043
8044 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
8045
8046 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
8047 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
8048 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
8049 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
8050 reqired (if any).
8051
8052 * New Readline
8053
8054 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
8055 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
8056 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
8057
8058 * Bugs fixed
8059
8060 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
8061 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
8062 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
8063
8064 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
8065
8066 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
8067 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
8068 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
8069
8070 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
8071 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
8072 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
8073 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
8074 version 2.
8075
8076 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
8077 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
8078 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
8079 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
8080 situation somewhat.
8081
8082 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
8083 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
8084 methods.
8085
8086 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
8087 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
8088 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
8089
8090
8091 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
8092
8093 * Improved configuration
8094
8095 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
8096 Porting BFD is simpler.
8097
8098 * Stepping improved
8099
8100 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
8101 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
8102 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
8103 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
8104
8105 * Bug fixing
8106
8107 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
8108
8109 * New host supported (not target)
8110
8111 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
8112
8113
8114 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
8115
8116 * Multiple source language support
8117
8118 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
8119 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
8120 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
8121 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
8122 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
8123 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
8124
8125 * GDB and Modula-2
8126
8127 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
8128 currently under development at the State University of New York at
8129 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
8130 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
8131
8132 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
8133 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
8134 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
8135
8136 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
8137 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
8138
8139 * set write on/off
8140
8141 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
8142 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
8143 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
8144 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
8145 effect immediately.
8146
8147 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
8148
8149 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
8150 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
8151 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
8152 examining core files.
8153
8154 * set listsize
8155
8156 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
8157 The default is 10.
8158
8159 * New machines supported (host and target)
8160
8161 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
8162 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
8163 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
8164
8165 * New hosts supported (not targets)
8166
8167 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
8168
8169 * New targets supported (not hosts)
8170
8171 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
8172 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
8173 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
8174
8175 * New remote interfaces
8176
8177 AMD 29000 Adapt
8178 AMD 29000 Minimon
8179
8180
8181 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
8182
8183 * New Facilities
8184
8185 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
8186
8187 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
8188 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
8189 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
8190 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
8191 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
8192 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
8193 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
8194 stub on the target system.
8195
8196 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
8197
8198 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
8199 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
8200 object file types such as a.out and coff.
8201
8202 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
8203 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
8204
8205
8206 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
8207
8208 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
8209 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
8210
8211 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
8212 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
8213 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
8214
8215 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
8216 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
8217 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
8218 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
8219
8220 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
8221 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
8222 it is already running. Default is ON.
8223
8224 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
8225 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
8226 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
8227 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
8228 Default is ON.
8229
8230 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
8231 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
8232 or the value of the environment variable
8233 GDBHISTFILE.
8234
8235 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
8236 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
8237 HISTSIZE.
8238
8239 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
8240 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
8241 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
8242
8243 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
8244 history expansion will be performed on
8245 command line input. The default is OFF.
8246
8247 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
8248 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
8249 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
8250
8251 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
8252 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
8253 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8254 variable TERM.
8255
8256 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
8257 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
8258 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8259 variable TERM.
8260
8261 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
8262 ``set width'' instead.
8263
8264 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
8265 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
8266 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
8267 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
8268
8269 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
8270 is OFF.
8271
8272 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
8273 "raw" form if off.
8274
8275 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
8276 like instructions.
8277
8278 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
8279
8280
8281 * Support for Epoch Environment.
8282
8283 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
8284 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
8285 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
8286 window.
8287
8288
8289 * Support for Shared Libraries
8290
8291 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
8292 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
8293 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
8294 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
8295 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
8296 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
8297 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
8298 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
8299
8300 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
8301 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
8302 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
8303
8304 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
8305
8306
8307 * Watchpoints
8308
8309 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
8310 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
8311 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
8312 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
8313 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
8314 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
8315
8316 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
8317
8318 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
8319
8320 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8321 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8322 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8323
8324
8325 * C++ multiple inheritance
8326
8327 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
8328 for C++ programs.
8329
8330 * C++ exception handling
8331
8332 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
8333 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
8334 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
8335 handler's context).
8336
8337 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
8338 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
8339 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
8340
8341 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
8342 current stack frame.
8343
8344
8345 * Minor command changes
8346
8347 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
8348 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
8349 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
8350
8351 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
8352 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
8353 frames without printing.
8354
8355 * New directory command
8356
8357 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
8358 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
8359 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
8360 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
8361 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
8362
8363 * Configuring GDB for compilation
8364
8365 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
8366 for more details.
8367
8368 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
8369 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
8370 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
8371 where the program that you are debugging will run.