1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.7
8 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
9 show print frame-arguments
10 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
11 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
13 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
14 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
16 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
19 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
20 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
21 and in inlined functions.
23 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
25 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
26 registers on PowerPC targets.
28 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
29 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
31 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
32 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
34 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
35 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
36 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
37 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
39 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
40 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
48 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
55 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
64 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
66 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
68 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
69 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
70 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
72 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
73 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
74 -Bsymbolic linker option.
76 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
77 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
80 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
81 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
83 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
84 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
86 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
88 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
89 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
90 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
92 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
93 automatically displayed as character or string data.
95 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
96 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
99 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
100 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
101 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
103 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
106 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
107 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
108 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
110 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
112 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
114 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
115 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
116 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
118 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
119 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
121 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
122 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
123 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
124 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
125 Windows and SymbianOS).
127 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
128 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
130 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
131 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
137 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
138 when debugging using remote targets.
140 set mem inaccessible-by-default
141 show mem inaccessible-by-default
142 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
143 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
144 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
145 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
146 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
148 set breakpoint auto-hw
149 show breakpoint auto-hw
150 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
151 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
152 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
153 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
154 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
155 including "next" and "finish".
158 catch exception unhandled
159 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
162 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
166 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
167 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
168 an alias to "set sysroot".
171 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
172 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
175 * New native configurations
177 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
182 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
183 not query the target for its built-in description.
187 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
188 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
189 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
194 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
195 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
198 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
203 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
204 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
206 qXfer:libraries:read:
207 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
208 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
209 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
210 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
214 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
223 i[34567]86-*-netware*
224 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
225 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
227 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
230 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
231 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
240 * Other removed features
247 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
254 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
259 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
260 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
265 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
266 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
268 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
270 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
271 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
272 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
273 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
277 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
278 in debugging information.
282 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
283 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
285 set mips stack-arg-size
286 set mips saved-gpreg-size
288 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
290 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
295 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
297 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
298 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
299 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
301 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
302 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
305 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
306 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
308 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
309 stub provides the required support.
311 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
312 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
317 unset substitute-path
319 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
320 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
321 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
322 between compilation and debugging.
326 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
327 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
328 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
332 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
334 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
335 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
337 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
342 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
343 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
344 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
345 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
349 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
350 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
352 qXfer:memory-map:read:
353 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
354 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
359 Erase and program a flash memory device.
361 * Removed remote packets
364 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
365 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
367 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
371 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
373 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
377 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
378 only if it doesn't already have a value.
380 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
382 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
384 restart <n> Return the program state to a
385 previously saved state.
387 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
389 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
391 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
392 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
394 info forks List forks of the user program that
395 are available to be debugged.
397 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
398 forks of the user program that are
399 available to be debugged.
401 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
402 that are available to be debugged (and
403 kill the forked process).
405 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
406 that are available to be debugged (and
407 allow the process to continue).
411 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
413 * Improved Windows host support
415 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
416 native console support, and remote communications using either
417 network sockets or serial ports.
419 * Improved Modula-2 language support
421 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
422 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
423 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
424 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
425 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
426 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
430 The ARM rdi-share module.
432 The Netware NLM debug server.
434 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
436 * New native configurations
438 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
439 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
443 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
445 * New command line options
447 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
448 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
449 the child (debugged) program exited with.
450 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
451 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
452 specified multiple times and in conjunction
453 with the --command (-x) option.
455 * Deprecated commands removed
457 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
461 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
462 othernames set arm disassembler
463 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
464 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
465 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
468 * New BSD user-level threads support
470 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
471 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
474 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
475 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
476 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
478 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
479 are not yet supported.
481 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
482 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
484 * REMOVED configurations and files
486 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
487 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
488 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
490 * New "set print array-indexes" command
492 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
493 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
496 * VAX floating point support
498 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
500 * User-defined command support
502 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
503 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
504 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
506 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
508 * New command line option
510 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
513 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
515 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
516 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
517 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
518 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
519 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
521 * Internationalization
523 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
524 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
525 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
529 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
530 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
531 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
533 * New native configurations
535 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
539 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
540 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
542 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
544 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
545 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
546 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
549 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
550 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
551 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
563 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
564 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
566 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
568 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
569 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
570 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
580 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
582 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
584 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
585 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
588 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
590 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
591 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
592 IRIX long double values).
596 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
597 command. This problem has been fixed.
599 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
601 * Fix for ``many threads''
603 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
604 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
607 ptrace: No such process.
608 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
610 This problem has been fixed.
612 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
614 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
617 * New ``start'' command.
619 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
621 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
623 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
624 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
625 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
627 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
628 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
629 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
630 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
631 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
632 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
633 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
634 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
635 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
637 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
639 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
640 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
641 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
642 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
643 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
645 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
646 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
647 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
649 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
651 * New native configurations
653 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
654 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
655 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
656 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
657 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
658 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
659 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
661 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
663 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
664 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
665 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
666 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
667 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
668 work, was also included.
670 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
671 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
681 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
682 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
684 * REMOVED configurations and files
686 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
687 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
688 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
689 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
690 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
691 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
692 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
693 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
694 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
696 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
698 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
700 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
702 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
703 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
704 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
705 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
708 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
710 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
711 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
712 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
713 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
714 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
715 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
718 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
720 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
722 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
723 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
724 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
726 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
728 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
729 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
731 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
733 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
734 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
735 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
737 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
739 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
740 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
742 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
744 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
745 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
746 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
748 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
750 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
751 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
752 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
754 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
756 * Removed --with-mmalloc
758 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
759 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
761 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
763 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
764 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
765 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
766 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
768 * Revised SPARC target
770 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
771 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
772 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
773 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
774 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
778 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
779 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
780 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
783 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
785 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
786 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
789 * C++ nested types and namespaces
791 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
792 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
793 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
794 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
795 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
796 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
797 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
798 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
799 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
801 * New native configurations
803 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
804 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
805 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
806 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
807 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
809 * New debugging protocols
811 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
813 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
815 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
816 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
817 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
819 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
821 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
822 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
823 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
826 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
827 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
828 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
829 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
830 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
831 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
832 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
833 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
834 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
836 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
838 * REMOVED configurations and files
840 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
841 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
842 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
843 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
844 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
845 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
846 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
847 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
848 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
849 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
850 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
851 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
852 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
853 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
854 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
855 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
856 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
858 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
862 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
865 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
867 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
868 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
869 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
872 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
873 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
878 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
879 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
880 remote protocol documentation for details.
882 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
884 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
885 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
886 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
889 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
891 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
892 per-thread variables.
894 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
896 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
897 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
899 * Separate debug info.
901 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
902 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
903 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
904 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
905 and optional debug files.
907 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
909 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
910 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
913 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
914 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
918 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
919 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
920 considered "useable".
922 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
924 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
925 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
928 * GDB supports logging output to a file
930 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
931 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
933 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
935 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
936 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
939 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
941 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
942 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
946 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
947 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
948 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
949 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
950 data, for more informative profiling results.
952 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
954 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
955 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
956 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
958 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
961 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
962 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
963 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
964 in a subsequent -var-update.
966 * New native configurations.
968 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
970 * Multi-arched targets.
972 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
973 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
975 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
977 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
978 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
979 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
982 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
983 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
984 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
985 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
986 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
987 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
988 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
989 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
990 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
991 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
992 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
993 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
995 * REMOVED configurations and files
998 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
999 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1000 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1001 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1002 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1003 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1005 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1006 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1007 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1008 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1009 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1010 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1012 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1014 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1015 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1016 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1017 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1018 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1020 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1022 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1024 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1025 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1026 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1027 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1028 shared libs like mad''.
1030 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1032 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1033 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1034 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1035 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1037 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1039 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1040 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1043 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1044 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1046 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1047 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1049 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1050 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1051 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1052 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1054 * Multi-arched targets.
1056 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1057 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1059 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1060 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1061 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1065 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1068 * New native configurations
1070 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1071 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1072 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1073 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1075 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1077 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1078 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1079 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1080 permanently REMOVED.
1082 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1083 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1084 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1085 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1086 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1087 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1088 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1089 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1090 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1091 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1093 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1094 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1096 * OBSOLETE languages
1098 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1100 * REMOVED configurations and files
1102 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1103 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1104 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1105 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1106 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1108 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1110 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1112 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1113 commands. The default is 1024.
1115 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1117 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1119 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1121 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1122 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1123 from a file into memory (restore).
1125 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1127 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1128 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1129 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1131 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1139 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1140 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1141 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1143 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1144 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1145 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1147 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1148 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1149 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1151 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1152 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1153 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1155 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1157 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1159 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1160 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1161 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1162 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1163 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1164 (notably embedded) targets.
1166 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1168 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1169 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1170 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1171 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1173 * New command line option
1175 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1177 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1179 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1180 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1181 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1182 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1183 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1184 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1185 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1186 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1187 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1188 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1190 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1192 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1193 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1195 * New native configurations
1197 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1198 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1199 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1200 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1204 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1206 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1208 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1209 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1210 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1211 permanently REMOVED.
1213 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1214 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1215 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1216 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1217 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1219 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1221 * REMOVED configurations and files
1223 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1225 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1226 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1227 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1228 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1229 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1230 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1231 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1232 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1233 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1234 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1235 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1237 * Changes to command line processing
1239 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1240 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1242 * Changes to key bindings
1244 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1246 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1248 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1250 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1253 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1255 Numerous documentation fixes.
1257 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1259 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1261 * New native configurations
1263 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1264 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1265 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1266 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1267 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1268 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1272 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1274 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1276 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1278 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1279 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1280 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1281 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1282 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1284 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1285 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1286 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1287 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1288 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1289 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1290 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1291 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1293 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1294 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1296 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1297 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1298 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1299 permanently REMOVED.
1301 * REMOVED configurations and files
1303 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1304 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1306 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1310 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1312 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1313 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1318 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1320 * The MI enabled by default.
1322 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1323 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1324 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1325 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1326 which is now deprecated.
1328 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1330 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1331 main features are supported:
1333 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1335 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1338 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1340 - a Pascal expression parser.
1342 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1344 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1346 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1348 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1349 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1351 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1353 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1355 * Changes in completion.
1357 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1358 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1359 users expect at the shell prompt.
1361 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1362 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1363 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1364 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1365 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1366 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1367 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1369 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1371 * New platform-independent commands:
1373 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1374 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1375 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1377 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1379 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1380 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1381 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1383 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1385 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1386 multi-threaded programs though.
1388 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1390 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1392 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1393 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1396 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1398 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1399 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1400 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1401 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1402 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1405 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1406 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1407 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1409 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1411 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1412 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1414 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1415 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1418 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1419 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1420 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1421 a given linear address.
1423 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1424 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1425 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1427 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1429 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1431 * Changes in documentation.
1433 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1434 Documentation License.
1436 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1439 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1441 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1444 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1445 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1446 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1448 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1450 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1451 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1452 contents of this file.
1456 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1458 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1460 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1462 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1463 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1464 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1465 greater level of detail.
1467 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1469 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1470 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1471 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1474 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1476 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1477 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1478 machines ``out of the box''.
1480 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1481 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1482 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1483 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1484 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1486 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1487 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1488 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1489 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1490 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1492 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1493 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1496 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1499 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1500 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1501 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1502 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1504 * New native configurations
1506 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1507 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1511 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1512 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1513 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1514 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1516 * OBSOLETE configurations
1518 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1519 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1521 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1524 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1525 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1526 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1527 be permanently REMOVED.
1529 * Gould support removed
1531 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1533 * New features for SVR4
1535 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1536 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1537 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1539 * Many C++ enhancements
1541 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1542 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1544 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1546 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1547 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1548 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1549 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1551 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1552 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1554 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1556 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1557 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1558 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1560 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1561 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1563 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1565 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1566 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1567 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1569 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1571 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1572 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1573 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1575 * ``apropos'' command added.
1577 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1578 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1579 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1583 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1584 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1585 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1586 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1587 enabled by configuring with:
1589 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1591 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1593 * New native configurations
1595 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1596 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1597 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1601 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1602 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1603 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1605 * OBSOLETE configurations
1607 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1609 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1610 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1611 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1612 be permanently REMOVED.
1616 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1617 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1618 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1619 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1620 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1621 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1622 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1627 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1629 * set extension-language
1631 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1632 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1633 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1634 set extension-language .c c++
1635 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1636 and their associated languages.
1638 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1640 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1641 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1642 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1646 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1647 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1649 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1650 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1652 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1653 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1654 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1655 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1656 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1657 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1658 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1659 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1661 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1662 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1663 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1664 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1668 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1669 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1670 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1671 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1672 for xdb and dbx commands.
1676 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1677 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1678 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1680 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1681 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1682 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1684 * Debugging across forks
1686 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1691 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1692 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1693 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1695 * GDB remote protocol additions
1697 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1698 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1699 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1700 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1702 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1703 full 64-bit address. The command
1705 set remoteaddresssize 32
1707 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1708 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1711 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1712 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1714 maint packet heythere
1716 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1717 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1720 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1721 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1722 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1724 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1726 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1727 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1728 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1730 * mask-address variable for Mips
1732 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1733 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1734 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1736 * Higher serial baud rates
1738 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1739 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1740 to achieve all of these rates.)
1744 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1745 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1748 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1750 * New native configurations
1752 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1753 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1754 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1755 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1756 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1757 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1758 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1762 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1763 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1764 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1765 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1766 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1767 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1768 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1769 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1770 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1771 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1772 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1774 * New debugging protocols
1776 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1777 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1778 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1779 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1780 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1781 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1785 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1786 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1791 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1792 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1794 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1796 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1797 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1798 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1800 * Live range splitting
1802 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1803 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1804 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1808 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1809 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1813 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1814 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1815 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1820 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1825 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1826 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1827 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1828 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1829 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1830 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1834 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1835 the symbol at the specified address.
1839 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1840 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1841 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1842 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1843 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1847 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1848 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1849 of most MIPS variants.
1853 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1854 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1855 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1859 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1860 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1861 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1862 the possible architectures.
1864 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1866 * New native configurations
1868 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1869 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1870 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1871 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1872 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1873 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1877 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1878 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1879 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1880 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1881 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1883 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1887 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1888 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1889 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1890 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1891 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1895 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1897 * Windows 95/NT native
1899 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1900 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1901 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1902 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1903 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1905 * dont-repeat command
1907 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1908 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1909 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1910 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1912 * Send break instead of ^C
1914 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1915 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1916 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1918 * Remote protocol timeout
1920 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1921 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1922 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1924 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1926 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1927 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1928 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1929 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1930 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1932 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1933 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1934 automatically on hpux10.
1936 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1938 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1940 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1942 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1943 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1944 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1945 every character. The default value is 1050.
1947 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1949 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1950 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1951 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1952 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1953 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1954 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1956 * Speedups for remote debugging
1958 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1959 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1960 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1962 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1964 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1965 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1967 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1969 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1971 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1972 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1974 * Remote targets use caching
1976 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1977 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1978 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1979 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1980 off' turns the the data cache off.
1982 * Remote targets may have threads
1984 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1985 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1986 gdb/remote.c for details.
1990 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1991 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1992 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1993 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1994 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1995 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1996 sequence is something like
1998 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2000 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2004 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2005 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2006 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2007 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2008 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2009 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2010 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2011 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2015 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2016 but does simplify configuration and building.
2020 GDB now supports hpux10.
2022 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2024 * New native configurations
2026 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2027 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2028 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2029 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2033 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2034 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2035 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2036 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2039 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2041 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2042 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2043 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2044 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2045 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2047 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2049 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2050 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2053 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2055 To execute the command use:
2058 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2059 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2060 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2062 * New `if' and `while' commands
2064 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2065 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2066 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2067 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2068 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2069 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2070 if the expression is zero.
2072 * Fortran source language mode
2074 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2075 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2076 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2077 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2080 * Better HPUX support
2082 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2083 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2084 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2085 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2086 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2092 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2093 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2099 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2100 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2103 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2104 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2106 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2108 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2109 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2110 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2111 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2112 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2113 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2115 * New DOS host serial code
2117 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2118 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2121 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2123 * New "complete" command
2125 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2126 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2128 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2130 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2131 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2133 * Breakpoint hit counts
2135 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2136 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2137 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2138 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2139 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2142 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2144 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2145 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2146 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2148 * Shared library breakpoints
2150 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2151 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2153 * Hardware watchpoints
2155 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2156 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2158 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2162 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2163 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2165 * Improved Irix 5 support
2167 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2169 * Improved HPPA support
2171 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2173 * New native configurations
2175 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2176 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2177 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2178 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2182 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2183 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2186 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2188 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2189 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2193 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2194 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2196 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2198 * Irix 5 is now supported
2202 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2203 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2204 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2205 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2206 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2209 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2211 * User visible changes:
2215 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2216 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2217 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2218 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2219 debugging info for the mips target).
2221 * DEC Alpha native support
2223 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2224 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2225 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2226 Alpha-specific notes.
2228 * Preliminary thread implementation
2230 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2232 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2234 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2235 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2238 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2240 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2241 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2242 call methods, ...etc.
2244 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2246 * User visible changes:
2248 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2249 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2250 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2251 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2253 Filename completion now works.
2255 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2256 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2257 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2259 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2260 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2261 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2262 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2263 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2267 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2268 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2271 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2275 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2276 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2277 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2281 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2282 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2283 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2284 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2285 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2289 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2290 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2291 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2293 * New targets supported
2295 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2296 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2297 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2298 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2299 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2301 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2302 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2303 GO32 memory extender.
2305 * New remote protocols
2307 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2309 * New source languages supported
2311 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2312 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2313 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2316 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2318 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2320 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2321 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2322 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2323 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2324 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2325 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2327 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2329 * Faster and better demangling
2331 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2332 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2333 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2334 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2335 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2336 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2339 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2340 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2341 compiler does not actually implement.
2343 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2345 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2346 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2347 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2348 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2349 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2350 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2353 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2354 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2356 * Improved configure script
2358 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2359 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2360 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2361 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2363 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2364 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2365 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2366 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2367 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2368 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2370 * Documentation improvements
2372 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2373 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2374 before submitting changes.
2376 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2377 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2378 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2379 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2380 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2382 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2383 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2384 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2385 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2386 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2387 around this problem.
2391 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2392 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2393 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2396 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2397 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2399 * New native hosts supported
2401 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2402 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2404 * New targets supported
2406 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2408 * New file formats supported
2410 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2411 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2415 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2417 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2418 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2420 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2421 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2422 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2424 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2425 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2427 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2428 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2429 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2432 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2433 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2434 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2435 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2436 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2438 * Internal improvements
2440 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2441 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2443 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2444 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2445 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2446 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2447 shared code that handles any of them.
2449 * New command line options
2451 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2455 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2456 General Public License.
2458 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2460 * Host/native/target split
2462 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2463 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2464 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2465 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2466 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2468 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2469 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2470 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2471 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2472 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2473 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2474 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2476 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2477 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2478 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2480 * New hosts supported
2482 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2483 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2484 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2486 * New targets supported
2488 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2489 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2491 * New native hosts supported
2493 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2494 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2495 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2497 * New file formats supported
2499 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2500 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2501 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2505 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2506 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2507 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2509 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2511 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2512 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2513 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2514 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2518 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2519 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2520 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2522 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2526 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2527 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2530 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2531 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2533 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2534 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2535 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2536 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2537 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2538 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2540 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2541 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2542 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2543 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2547 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2548 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2549 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2550 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2551 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2553 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2554 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2555 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2556 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2560 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2561 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2562 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2563 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2564 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2565 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2566 each instruction being stepped through.
2568 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2569 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2571 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2572 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2573 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2574 processor with a serial port.
2578 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2579 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2580 supported, and what files each one uses.
2584 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2585 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2586 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2587 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2589 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2590 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2591 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2592 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2596 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2597 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2598 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2599 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2600 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2601 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2603 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2606 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2608 * Better support for C++ function names
2610 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2611 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2612 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2613 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2614 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2616 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2617 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2618 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2619 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2620 for the list of formats.
2622 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2624 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2625 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2626 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2627 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2628 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2629 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2632 * New 'maintenance' command
2634 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2635 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2636 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2638 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2639 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2640 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2641 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2642 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2643 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2645 The following commands are new:
2647 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2648 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2649 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2651 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2653 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2654 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2655 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2656 read after argv processing.
2658 * New hosts supported
2660 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2662 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2664 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2665 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2666 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2667 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2668 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2671 * New targets supported
2673 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2675 * More smarts about finding #include files
2677 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2678 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2679 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2680 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2681 the one that contains your sources.
2683 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2684 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2685 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2687 * Interesting infernals change
2689 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2690 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2691 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2692 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2694 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2696 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2697 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2698 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2700 See the ChangeLog for details.
2702 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2704 * New machines supported (host and target)
2706 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2708 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2710 * New malloc package
2712 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2713 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2714 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2715 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2716 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2717 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2721 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2722 'help info proc' for details.
2724 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2726 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2727 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2730 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2732 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2733 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2734 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2735 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2736 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2737 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2739 * Cross byte order fixes
2741 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2742 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2744 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2746 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2747 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2748 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2749 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2750 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2751 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2752 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2753 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2754 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2755 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2757 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2758 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2759 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2760 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2762 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2763 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2764 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2767 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2769 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2770 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2771 shared across multiple host platforms.
2773 * longjmp() handling
2775 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2776 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2777 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2778 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2782 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2783 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2788 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2789 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2790 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2792 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2794 * New machines supported (host and target)
2796 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2798 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2799 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2801 * New machines supported (target)
2803 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2807 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2808 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2809 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2811 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2812 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2813 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2814 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2815 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2818 * New features for SVR4
2820 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2821 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2822 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2824 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2825 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2826 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2828 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2829 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2831 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2833 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2834 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2835 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2836 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2837 same code linked statically.
2841 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2842 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2843 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2844 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2845 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2846 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2850 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2851 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2852 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2855 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2857 * New machines supported (host and target)
2859 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2860 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2861 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2863 * Almost SCO Unix support
2865 We had hoped to support:
2866 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2867 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2868 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2869 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2871 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2873 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2874 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2875 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2876 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2881 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2882 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2883 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2887 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2888 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2889 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2891 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2893 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2894 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2895 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2897 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2898 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2899 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2900 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2903 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2904 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2905 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2906 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2909 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2910 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2913 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2914 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2915 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2918 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2920 * Improved configuration
2922 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2923 Porting BFD is simpler.
2927 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2928 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2929 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2930 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2934 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2936 * New host supported (not target)
2938 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2941 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2943 * Multiple source language support
2945 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2946 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2947 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2948 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2949 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2950 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2954 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2955 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2956 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2957 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2959 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2960 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2961 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2963 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2964 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2968 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2969 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2970 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2971 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2974 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2976 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2977 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2978 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2979 examining core files.
2983 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2986 * New machines supported (host and target)
2988 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2989 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2990 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2992 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2994 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2996 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2998 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2999 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3000 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3002 * New remote interfaces
3008 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3012 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3014 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3015 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3016 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3017 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3018 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3019 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3020 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3021 stub on the target system.
3023 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3025 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3026 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3027 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3029 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3030 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3033 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3035 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3036 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3038 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3039 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3040 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3042 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3043 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3044 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3045 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3047 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3048 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3049 it is already running. Default is ON.
3051 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3052 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3053 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3054 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3057 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3058 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3059 or the value of the environment variable
3062 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3063 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3066 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3067 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3068 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3070 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3071 history expansion will be performed on
3072 command line input. The default is OFF.
3074 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3075 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3076 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3078 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3079 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3080 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3083 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3084 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3085 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3088 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3089 ``set width'' instead.
3091 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3092 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3093 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3094 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3096 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3099 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3102 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3105 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3108 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3110 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3111 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3112 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3116 * Support for Shared Libraries
3118 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3119 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3120 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3121 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3122 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3123 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3124 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3125 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3127 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3128 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3129 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3131 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3136 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3137 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3138 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3139 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3140 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3141 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3143 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3145 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3147 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3148 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3149 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3152 * C++ multiple inheritance
3154 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3157 * C++ exception handling
3159 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3160 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3161 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3164 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3165 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3166 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3168 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3169 current stack frame.
3172 * Minor command changes
3174 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3175 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3176 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3178 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3179 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3180 frames without printing.
3182 * New directory command
3184 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3185 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3186 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3187 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3188 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3190 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3192 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3195 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3196 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3197 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3198 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob