d76157128beeaf980f0e020e680273e1bf4b48fd
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 12
5
6 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on FreeBSD/Aarch64.
7
8 * Remove support for building against Python 2, it is now only possible to
9 build GDB against Python 3.
10
11 * DBX mode has been removed.
12
13 * Python API
14
15 ** New function gdb.format_address(ADDRESS, PROGSPACE, ARCHITECTURE),
16 that formats ADDRESS as 'address <symbol+offset>', where symbol is
17 looked up in PROGSPACE, and ARCHITECTURE is used to format address.
18 This is the same format that GDB uses when printing address, symbol,
19 and offset information from the disassembler.
20
21 *** Changes in GDB 12
22
23 * DBX mode is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 13
24
25 * GDB 12 is the last release of GDB that will support building against
26 Python 2. From GDB 13, it will only be possible to build GDB itself
27 with Python 3 support.
28
29 * Improved C++ template support
30
31 GDB now treats functions/types involving C++ templates like it does function
32 overloads. Users may omit parameter lists to set breakpoints on families of
33 template functions, including types/functions composed of multiple template types:
34
35 (gdb) break template_func(template_1, int)
36
37 The above will set breakpoints at every function `template_func' where
38 the first function parameter is any template type named `template_1' and
39 the second function parameter is `int'.
40
41 TAB completion also gains similar improvements.
42
43 * The FreeBSD native target now supports async mode.
44
45 * Configure changes
46
47 --enable-threading
48
49 Enable or disable multithreaded symbol loading. This is enabled
50 by default, but passing --disable-threading or --enable-threading=no
51 to configure will disable it.
52
53 Disabling this can cause a performance penalty when there are a lot of
54 symbols to load, but is useful for debugging purposes.
55
56 * New commands
57
58 maint set backtrace-on-fatal-signal on|off
59 maint show backtrace-on-fatal-signal
60 This setting is 'on' by default. When 'on' GDB will print a limited
61 backtrace to stderr in the situation where GDB terminates with a
62 fatal signal. This only supported on some platforms where the
63 backtrace and backtrace_symbols_fd functions are available.
64
65 set source open on|off
66 show source open
67 This setting, which is on by default, controls whether GDB will try
68 to open source code files. Switching this off will stop GDB trying
69 to open and read source code files, which can be useful if the files
70 are located over a slow network connection.
71
72 set varsize-limit
73 show varsize-limit
74 These are now deprecated aliases for "set max-value-size" and
75 "show max-value-size".
76
77 task apply [all | TASK-IDS...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
78 Like "thread apply", but applies COMMAND to Ada tasks.
79
80 watch [...] task ID
81 Watchpoints can now be restricted to a specific Ada task.
82
83 maint set internal-error backtrace on|off
84 maint show internal-error backtrace
85 maint set internal-warning backtrace on|off
86 maint show internal-warning backtrace
87 GDB can now print a backtrace of itself when it encounters either an
88 internal-error, or an internal-warning. This is on by default for
89 internal-error and off by default for internal-warning.
90
91 set logging on|off
92 Deprecated and replaced by "set logging enabled on|off".
93
94 set logging enabled on|off
95 show logging enabled
96 These commands set or show whether logging is enabled or disabled.
97
98 exit
99 You can now exit GDB by using the new command "exit", in addition to
100 the existing "quit" command.
101
102 set debug threads on|off
103 show debug threads
104 Print additional debug messages about thread creation and deletion.
105
106 set debug linux-nat on|off
107 show debug linux-nat
108 These new commands replaced the old 'set debug lin-lwp' and 'show
109 debug lin-lwp' respectively. Turning this setting on prints debug
110 messages relating to GDB's handling of native Linux inferiors.
111
112 maint flush source-cache
113 Flush the contents of the source code cache.
114
115 maint set gnu-source-highlight enabled on|off
116 maint show gnu-source-highlight enabled
117 Whether GDB should use the GNU Source Highlight library for adding
118 styling to source code. When off, the library will not be used, even
119 when available. When GNU Source Highlight isn't used, or can't add
120 styling to a particular source file, then the Python Pygments
121 library will be used instead.
122
123 set suppress-cli-notifications (on|off)
124 show suppress-cli-notifications
125 This controls whether printing the notifications is suppressed for CLI.
126 CLI notifications occur when you change the selected context
127 (i.e., the current inferior, thread and/or the frame), or when
128 the program being debugged stops (e.g., because of hitting a
129 breakpoint, completing source-stepping, an interrupt, etc.).
130
131 set style disassembler enabled on|off
132 show style disassembler enabled
133 If GDB is compiled with Python support, and the Python Pygments
134 package is available, then, when this setting is on, disassembler
135 output will have styling applied.
136
137 set ada source-charset
138 show ada source-charset
139 Set the character set encoding that is assumed for Ada symbols. Valid
140 values for this follow the values that can be passed to the GNAT
141 compiler via the '-gnati' option. The default is ISO-8859-1.
142
143 tui layout
144 tui focus
145 tui refresh
146 tui window height
147 These are the new names for the old 'layout', 'focus', 'refresh',
148 and 'winheight' tui commands respectively. The old names still
149 exist as aliases to these new commands.
150
151 tui window width
152 winwidth
153 The new command 'tui window width', and the alias 'winwidth' allow
154 the width of a tui window to be adjusted when windows are laid out
155 in horizontal mode.
156
157 set debug tui on|off
158 show debug tui
159 Control the display of debug output about GDB's tui.
160
161 * Changed commands
162
163 print
164 Printing of floating-point values with base-modifying formats like
165 /x has been changed to display the underlying bytes of the value in
166 the desired base. This was GDB's documented behavior, but was never
167 implemented correctly.
168
169 maint packet
170 This command can now print a reply, if the reply includes
171 non-printable characters. Any non-printable characters are printed
172 as escaped hex, e.g. \x?? where '??' is replaces with the value of
173 the non-printable character.
174
175 clone-inferior
176 The clone-inferior command now ensures that the TTY, CMD and ARGS
177 settings are copied from the original inferior to the new one.
178 All modifications to the environment variables done using the 'set
179 environment' or 'unset environment' commands are also copied to the new
180 inferior.
181
182 set debug lin-lwp on|off
183 show debug lin-lwp
184 These commands have been removed from GDB. The new command 'set
185 debug linux-nat' and 'show debug linux-nat' should be used
186 instead.
187
188 info win
189 This command now includes information about the width of the tui
190 windows in its output.
191
192 layout
193 focus
194 refresh
195 winheight
196 These commands are now aliases for the 'tui layout', 'tui focus',
197 'tui refresh', and 'tui window height' commands respectively.
198
199 * GDB's Ada parser now supports an extension for specifying the exact
200 byte contents of a floating-point literal. This can be useful for
201 setting floating-point registers to a precise value without loss of
202 precision. The syntax is an extension of the based literal syntax.
203 Use, e.g., "16lf#0123abcd#" -- the number of "l"s controls the width
204 of the floating-point type, and the "f" is the marker for floating
205 point.
206
207 * MI changes
208
209 ** The '-add-inferior' with no option flags now inherits the
210 connection of the current inferior, this restores the behaviour of
211 GDB as it was prior to GDB 10.
212
213 ** The '-add-inferior' command now accepts a '--no-connection'
214 option, which causes the new inferior to start without a
215 connection.
216
217 * New targets
218
219 GNU/Linux/LoongArch loongarch*-*-linux*
220
221 * Removed targets
222
223 S+core score-*-*
224
225 * Python API
226
227 ** New function gdb.add_history(), which takes a gdb.Value object
228 and adds the value it represents to GDB's history list. An
229 integer, the index of the new item in the history list, is
230 returned.
231
232 ** New function gdb.history_count(), which returns the number of
233 values in GDB's value history.
234
235 ** New gdb.events.gdb_exiting event. This event is called with a
236 gdb.GdbExitingEvent object which has the read-only attribute
237 'exit_code', which contains the value of the GDB exit code. This
238 event is triggered once GDB decides it is going to exit, but
239 before GDB starts to clean up its internal state.
240
241 ** New function gdb.architecture_names(), which returns a list
242 containing all of the possible Architecture.name() values. Each
243 entry is a string.
244
245 ** New function gdb.Architecture.integer_type(), which returns an
246 integer type given a size and a signed-ness.
247
248 ** New gdb.TargetConnection object type that represents a connection
249 (as displayed by the 'info connections' command). A sub-class,
250 gdb.RemoteTargetConnection, is used to represent 'remote' and
251 'extended-remote' connections.
252
253 ** The gdb.Inferior type now has a 'connection' property which is an
254 instance of gdb.TargetConnection, the connection used by this
255 inferior. This can be None if the inferior has no connection.
256
257 ** New 'gdb.events.connection_removed' event registry, which emits a
258 'gdb.ConnectionEvent' when a connection is removed from GDB.
259 This event has a 'connection' property, a gdb.TargetConnection
260 object for the connection being removed.
261
262 ** New gdb.connections() function that returns a list of all
263 currently active connections.
264
265 ** New gdb.RemoteTargetConnection.send_packet(PACKET) method. This
266 is equivalent to the existing 'maint packet' CLI command; it
267 allows a user specified packet to be sent to the remote target.
268
269 ** New function gdb.host_charset(), returns a string, which is the
270 name of the current host charset.
271
272 ** New gdb.set_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This sets the gdb parameter
273 NAME to VALUE.
274
275 ** New gdb.with_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This returns a context
276 manager that temporarily sets the gdb parameter NAME to VALUE,
277 then resets it when the context is exited.
278
279 ** The gdb.Value.format_string method now takes a 'styling'
280 argument, which is a boolean. When true, the returned string can
281 include escape sequences to apply styling. The styling will only
282 be present if styling is otherwise turned on in GDB (see 'help
283 set styling'). When false, which is the default if the argument
284 is not given, then no styling is applied to the returned string.
285
286 ** New read-only attribute gdb.InferiorThread.details, which is
287 either a string, containing additional, target specific thread
288 state information, or None, if there is no such additional
289 information.
290
291 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_scalar, which is True for
292 scalar types, and False for all other types.
293
294 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_signed. This attribute
295 should only be read when Type.is_scalar is True, and will be True
296 for signed types, and False for all other types. Attempting to
297 read this attribute for non-scalar types will raise a ValueError.
298
299 ** It is now possible to add GDB/MI commands implemented in Python.
300
301 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
302
303 ** GDBserver is now supported on OpenRISC GNU/Linux.
304
305 * New native configurations
306
307 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
308
309 *** Changes in GDB 11
310
311 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
312 for the ARC target.
313
314 * GDB now supports general memory tagging functionality if the underlying
315 architecture supports the proper primitives and hooks. Currently this is
316 enabled only for AArch64 MTE.
317
318 This includes:
319
320 - Additional information when the inferior crashes with a SIGSEGV caused by
321 a memory tag violation.
322
323 - A new modifier 'm' for the "x" command, which displays allocation tags for a
324 particular memory range.
325
326 - Display of memory tag mismatches by "print", for addresses and
327 pointers, if memory tagging is supported by the architecture.
328
329 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
330 Library).
331
332 * MI changes
333
334 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
335
336 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
337 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
338 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
339 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
340 -qualified".
341
342 ** '-break-insert --force-condition' and '-dprintf-insert --force-condition'
343
344 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
345 '--force-condition' flag to forcibly define a condition even when
346 the condition is invalid at all locations of the breakpoint. This
347 is equivalent to the '-force-condition' flag of the CLI's "break"
348 command.
349
350 ** '-break-condition --force'
351
352 The MI -break-condition command now supports a '--force' flag to
353 forcibly define a condition even when the condition is invalid at
354 all locations of the selected breakpoint. This is equivalent to
355 the '-force' flag of the CLI's "cond" command.
356
357 ** '-file-list-exec-source-files [--group-by-objfile]
358 [--basename | --dirname]
359 [--] [REGEXP]'
360
361 The existing -file-list-exec-source-files command now takes an
362 optional REGEXP which is used to filter the source files that are
363 included in the results.
364
365 By default REGEXP is matched against the full filename of the
366 source file. When one of --basename or --dirname is given then
367 REGEXP is only matched against the specified part of the full
368 source filename.
369
370 When the optional --group-by-objfile flag is used the output
371 format is changed, the results are now a list of object files
372 (executable and libraries) with the source files that are
373 associated with each object file.
374
375 The results from -file-list-exec-source-files now include a
376 'debug-fully-read' field which takes the value 'true' or 'false'.
377 A 'true' value indicates the source file is from a compilation
378 unit that has had its debug information fully read in by GDB, a
379 value of 'false' indicates GDB has only performed a partial scan
380 of the debug information so far.
381
382 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
383
384 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
385 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
386 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
387 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
388 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
389
390 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
391 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
392 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
393 been added.
394
395 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
396 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
397 name following a GNAT-specific format).
398
399 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
400 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
401 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
402 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
403 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
404 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
405
406 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
407 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
408 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
409 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
410
411 * For RISC-V targets, the target feature "org.gnu.gdb.riscv.vector" is
412 now understood by GDB, and can be used to describe the vector
413 registers of a target. The precise requirements of this register
414 feature are documented in the GDB manual.
415
416 * For ARM targets, the "org.gnu.gdb.arm.m-profile-mve" feature is now
417 supported by GDB and describes a new VPR register from the ARM MVE
418 (Helium) extension. See the GDB manual for more information.
419
420 * TUI improvements
421
422 ** TUI windows now support mouse actions. The mouse wheel scrolls
423 the appropriate window.
424
425 ** Key combinations that do not have a specific action on the
426 focused window are passed to GDB. For example, you now can use
427 Ctrl-Left/Ctrl-Right to move between words in the command window
428 regardless of which window is in focus. Previously you would
429 need to focus on the command window for such key combinations to
430 work.
431
432 * New commands
433
434 set debug event-loop
435 show debug event-loop
436 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
437
438 set print memory-tag-violations
439 show print memory-tag-violations
440 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
441 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
442 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
443
444 maintenance flush symbol-cache
445 maintenance flush register-cache
446 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
447 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
448
449 maintenance flush dcache
450 A new command to flush the dcache.
451
452 maintenance info target-sections
453 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
454
455 maintenance info jit
456 Print the JIT code objects in the inferior known to GDB.
457
458 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
459 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
460 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
461 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
462 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
463 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
464 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
465 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
466 memory-tag check POINTER
467 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
468
469 set startup-quietly on|off
470 show startup-quietly
471 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
472 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
473 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
474 affect GDB.
475
476 set print type hex on|off
477 show print type hex
478 When 'on', the 'ptype' command uses hexadecimal notation to print sizes
479 and offsets of struct members. When 'off', decimal notation is used.
480
481 set python ignore-environment on|off
482 show python ignore-environment
483 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to ignore any
484 environment variables that would otherwise affect how Python
485 behaves. This command needs to be added to an early initialization
486 file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to affect GDB.
487
488 set python dont-write-bytecode auto|on|off
489 show python dont-write-bytecode
490 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to not write any
491 byte-code (.pyc files) to disk. This command needs to be added to
492 an early initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in
493 order to affect GDB. When 'off' byte-code will always be written.
494 When set to 'auto' (the default) Python will check the
495 PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable.
496
497 * Changed commands
498
499 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
500 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
501 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
502 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
503 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
504 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
505 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
506 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
507 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
508 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
509 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
510 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
511 load.
512
513 condition [-force] N COND
514 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
515 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
516 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
517 current locations of breakpoint N.
518
519 flushregs
520 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
521 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
522 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
523 symbol-cache' respectively.
524
525 set style version foreground COLOR
526 set style version background COLOR
527 set style version intensity VALUE
528 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
529
530 inferior [ID]
531 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
532 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
533 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
534 the current inferior.
535
536 maintenance info sections
537 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
538 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
539 even when -all-objects is passed.
540
541 ptype[/FLAGS] TYPE | EXPRESSION
542 The 'ptype' command has two new flags. When '/x' is set, hexadecimal
543 notation is used when printing sizes and offsets of struct members.
544 When '/d' is set, decimal notation is used when printing sizes and
545 offsets of struct members. Default behavior is given by 'show print
546 type hex'.
547
548 info sources
549 The info sources command output has been restructured. The results
550 are now based around a list of objfiles (executable and libraries),
551 and for each objfile the source files that are part of that objfile
552 are listed.
553
554 * Removed targets and native configurations
555
556 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
557
558 * New remote packets
559
560 qMemTags
561 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
562 QMemTags
563 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
564 memory range.
565
566 * Guile API
567
568 ** Improved support for rvalue reference values:
569 TYPE_CODE_RVALUE_REF is now exported as part of the API and the
570 value-referenced-value procedure now handles rvalue reference
571 values.
572
573 ** New procedures for obtaining value variants:
574 value-reference-value, value-rvalue-reference-value and
575 value-const-value.
576
577 ** Temporary breakpoints can now be created with make-breakpoint and
578 tested for using breakpoint-temporary?.
579
580 * Python API
581
582 ** Inferior objects now contain a read-only 'connection_num' attribute that
583 gives the connection number as seen in 'info connections' and
584 'info inferiors'.
585
586 ** New method gdb.Frame.level() which returns the stack level of the
587 frame object.
588
589 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.level() which returns the stack level
590 of the frame object.
591
592 ** When hitting a catchpoint, the Python API will now emit a
593 gdb.BreakpointEvent rather than a gdb.StopEvent. The
594 gdb.Breakpoint attached to the event will have type BP_CATCHPOINT.
595
596 ** Python TUI windows can now receive mouse click events. If the
597 Window object implements the click method, it is called for each
598 mouse click event in this window.
599
600 *** Changes in GDB 10
601
602 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
603 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
604 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
605 grace period.
606
607 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
608 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
609 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
610 and finally the description of the command.
611
612 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
613 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
614
615 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
616 debugging information as well as source code.
617
618 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
619 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
620 being debugged.
621
622 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
623 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
624
625 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
626
627 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
628
629 * Multi-target debugging support
630
631 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
632 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
633 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
634 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
635 debugging a core dump, etc.
636
637 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
638 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
639 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
640 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
641 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
642 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
643
644 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
645
646 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
647
648 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
649
650 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
651
652 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
653 powerpc-*-lynxos*
654 i[34567]86-*-nto*
655 bfin-*-*linux*
656 crisv32-*-linux*
657 cris-*-linux*
658 m32r*-*-linux*
659 tilegx-*-linux*
660 arm*-*-mingw32ce*
661 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
662
663 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
664 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
665
666 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
667 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
668 performance for programs with many symbols.
669
670 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
671 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
672
673 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
674
675 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
676 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
677 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
678 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
679 history.
680
681 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
682 64-bit GDB.
683
684 * New commands
685
686 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
687 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
688 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
689 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
690 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
691 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
692 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
693 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
694 attempt to detect a mismatch.
695
696 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
697 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
698 will be displayed.
699
700 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
701 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
702 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
703 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
704 reprinted.
705
706 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
707 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
708 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
709
710 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
711 show debug fortran-array-slicing
712 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
713
714 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
715 show fortran repack-array-slices
716 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
717 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
718 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
719 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
720 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
721 original parent value.
722
723 * Changed commands
724
725 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
726 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
727 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
728 provided explicitly by the user.
729 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
730 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
731 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
732 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
733 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
734 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
735 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
736 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
737
738 * New targets
739
740 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
741 BPF bpf-unknown-none
742 Z80 z80-unknown-*
743
744 * Python API
745
746 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
747 in Python.
748
749 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
750 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
751 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
752 as well.
753
754 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
755 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
756
757 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
758 architecture of the pending frame.
759
760 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
761 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
762 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
763 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
764
765 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
766 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
767 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
768 discover the available register groups.
769
770 * Guile API
771
772 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
773
774 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
775 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
776 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
777 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
778 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
779
780 *** Changes in GDB 9
781
782 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
783
784 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
785 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
786 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
787 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
788 such as in system-wide init files.
789
790 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
791 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
792 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
793 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
794 current GDB settings.
795
796 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
797 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
798 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
799 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
800
801 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
802 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
803 postfix [PAC].
804
805 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
806 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
807
808 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
809 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
810 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
811
812 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
813 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
814 commands.
815
816 * Command names can now use the . character.
817
818 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
819
820 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
821 messages.
822
823 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
824
825 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
826 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
827
828 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
829 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
830 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
831
832 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
833
834 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
835 not visible in the current scope.
836
837 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
838 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
839 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
840 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
841 compiled with support for that language.
842
843 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
844 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
845 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
846
847 * Python API
848
849 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
850 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
851 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
852 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
853 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
854
855 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
856 type was defined in.
857
858 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
859 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
860 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
861 is given.
862
863 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
864 symbols with static linkage.
865
866 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
867 all static symbols with static linkage.
868
869 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
870 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
871
872 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
873 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
874
875 * New commands
876
877 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
878 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
879 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
880 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
881 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
882 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
883 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
884
885 define-prefix COMMAND
886 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
887
888 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
889 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
890 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
891 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
892 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
893 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
894 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
895 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
896 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
897 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
898 of array elements to print.
899
900 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
901 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
902
903 set may-call-functions [on|off]
904 show may-call-functions
905 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
906 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
907 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
908 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
909 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
910 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
911 in the program.
912
913 set print finish [on|off]
914 show print finish
915 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
916 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
917 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
918 default is `on'.
919
920 set print max-depth
921 show print max-depth
922 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
923 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
924 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
925 the old behavior back.
926
927 set print raw-values [on|off]
928 show print raw-values
929 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
930 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
931 of commands. The default is 'off'.
932
933 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
934 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
935 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
936
937 set style title foreground COLOR
938 set style title background COLOR
939 set style title intensity VALUE
940 Control the styling of titles.
941
942 set style highlight foreground COLOR
943 set style highlight background COLOR
944 set style highlight intensity VALUE
945 Control the styling of highlightings.
946
947 maint set worker-threads
948 maint show worker-threads
949 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
950 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
951 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
952 the names of linker symbols.
953
954 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
955 set style tui-border background COLOR
956 Control the styling of TUI borders.
957
958 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
959 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
960 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
961
962 maint set test-settings KIND
963 maint show test-settings KIND
964 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
965 infrastructure.
966
967 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
968 maint show tui-resize-message
969 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
970 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
971 TUI.
972
973 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
974 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
975 show print frame-info
976 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
977 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
978 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
979 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
980
981 set tui compact-source
982 show tui compact-source
983
984 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
985 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
986 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
987 line numbers from the source.
988
989 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
990 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
991 no REGEXP is given.
992
993 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
994 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
995 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
996 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
997 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
998 matches against the function name.
999
1000 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1001 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
1002 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
1003 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1004 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
1005 against the variable name.
1006
1007 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
1008 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
1009 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
1010 "set debug remote".
1011 The default is 512 bytes.
1012
1013 info connections
1014 Lists the target connections currently in use.
1015
1016 * Changed commands
1017
1018 help
1019 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
1020 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
1021 command names.
1022
1023 apropos [-v] REGEXP
1024 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
1025 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
1026 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
1027 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
1028 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
1029
1030 printf
1031 eval
1032 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
1033 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
1034 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
1035 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
1036
1037 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
1038 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
1039 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
1040 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
1041 parts of the files.
1042
1043 show style
1044 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
1045 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
1046 the user visualize the different styles.
1047
1048 set print frame-arguments
1049 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
1050 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
1051
1052 set print raw-frame-arguments
1053 show print raw-frame-arguments
1054
1055 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
1056 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
1057 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
1058 release.
1059
1060 add-inferior [-no-connection]
1061 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
1062 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
1063 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
1064 current inferior. See also "info connections".
1065
1066 info inferior
1067 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
1068 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
1069 "info connections" above.
1070
1071 maint test-options require-delimiter
1072 maint test-options unknown-is-error
1073 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
1074 maint show test-options-completion-result
1075 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
1076 framework.
1077
1078 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
1079 These commands are now case-sensitive.
1080
1081 * New command options, command completion
1082
1083 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
1084 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
1085 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
1086 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
1087 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
1088 number of commands got support for new command options in this
1089 release:
1090
1091 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
1092 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
1093 set by "set print" subcommands:
1094
1095 -address [on|off]
1096 -array [on|off]
1097 -array-indexes [on|off]
1098 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
1099 -null-stop [on|off]
1100 -object [on|off]
1101 -pretty [on|off]
1102 -raw-values [on|off]
1103 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
1104 -static-members [on|off]
1105 -symbol [on|off]
1106 -union [on|off]
1107 -vtbl [on|off]
1108
1109 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
1110 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
1111 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
1112 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
1113
1114 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
1115 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
1116 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
1117
1118 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
1119 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
1120 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
1121 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
1122 |location-and-address|short-location
1123 -past-main [on|off]
1124 -past-entry [on|off]
1125
1126 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
1127 exposed as command options too:
1128
1129 -full
1130 -no-filters
1131 -hide
1132
1133 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
1134 support the following options:
1135
1136 -past-main [on|off]
1137 -past-entry [on|off]
1138
1139 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
1140 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
1141
1142 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
1143 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
1144 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
1145 like for example:
1146
1147 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
1148
1149 The above is equivalent to:
1150
1151 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
1152
1153 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
1154 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
1155 variables" and "info functions".
1156
1157 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
1158 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
1159 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
1160 from the results.
1161
1162 * Completion improvements
1163
1164 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
1165 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
1166 abbreviated.
1167
1168 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
1169 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
1170 commands.
1171
1172 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
1173 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
1174 completes on filenames.
1175
1176 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
1177 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
1178
1179 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
1180
1181 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
1182 elements unlimited".
1183
1184 * New MI commands
1185
1186 -complete
1187 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1188 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
1189 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
1190
1191 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
1192 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
1193 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
1194
1195 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
1196 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
1197 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
1198
1199 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
1200 modules' command.
1201
1202 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
1203 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
1204 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
1205
1206 * Other MI changes
1207
1208 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
1209
1210 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
1211 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
1212 the following commands and events:
1213
1214 - -break-insert
1215 - -break-info
1216 - =breakpoint-created
1217 - =breakpoint-modified
1218
1219 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
1220 this behavior with previous MI versions.
1221
1222 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
1223 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
1224 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
1225 present.
1226
1227 * Testsuite
1228
1229 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
1230 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
1231 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
1232 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
1233
1234 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
1235
1236 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
1237 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
1238
1239 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
1240
1241 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
1242 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
1243
1244 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
1245 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
1246 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
1247
1248 * Removed targets and native configurations
1249
1250 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
1251 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
1252 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
1253
1254 * New Simulators
1255
1256 TI PRU pru-*-elf
1257
1258 * Removed targets and native configurations
1259
1260 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
1261 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
1262
1263 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
1264
1265 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
1266 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
1267 HTM registers.
1268
1269 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
1270 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
1271 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
1272 and operators.
1273
1274 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
1275 (the C++ plug-in).
1276
1277 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
1278 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
1279 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
1280
1281 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
1282 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
1283
1284 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
1285 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1286 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1287 in the GDB user manual.
1288
1289 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
1290 executed failed.
1291
1292 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
1293
1294 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
1295 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
1296 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
1297 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
1298 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
1299 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
1300 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
1301 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
1302 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
1303 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
1304 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
1305 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
1306
1307 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
1308 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
1309 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
1310 information.
1311
1312 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
1313 lucid.
1314
1315 * New commands
1316
1317 set debug compile-cplus-types
1318 show debug compile-cplus-types
1319 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
1320 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
1321 for other languages.
1322
1323 set debug skip
1324 show debug skip
1325 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
1326 displayed.
1327
1328 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1329 Apply a command to some frames.
1330 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
1331 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
1332
1333 taas COMMAND
1334 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
1335 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
1336
1337 faas COMMAND
1338 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
1339 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
1340
1341 tfaas COMMAND
1342 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
1343 output).
1344 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
1345
1346 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
1347 maint show dwarf unwinders
1348 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
1349
1350 info proc files
1351 Display a list of open files for a process.
1352
1353 * Changed commands
1354
1355 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
1356 These commands all now take a frame specification which
1357 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
1358 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
1359 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
1360 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
1361 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
1362
1363 target remote FILENAME
1364 target extended-remote FILENAME
1365 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
1366 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
1367
1368 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1369 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1370 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1371 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1372 These commands can now print only the searched entities
1373 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
1374 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
1375 printing headers or informations messages.
1376
1377 info functions
1378 info types
1379 info variables
1380 rbreak
1381 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
1382 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
1383 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
1384 the shown entities.
1385
1386 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1387 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
1388 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
1389 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
1390
1391 set tui tab-width NCHARS
1392 show tui tab-width NCHARS
1393 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
1394
1395 set style enabled [on|off]
1396 show style enabled
1397 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
1398 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
1399
1400 set style sources [on|off]
1401 show style sources
1402 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
1403 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
1404 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
1405
1406 set style filename foreground COLOR
1407 set style filename background COLOR
1408 set style filename intensity VALUE
1409 Control the styling of file names.
1410
1411 set style function foreground COLOR
1412 set style function background COLOR
1413 set style function intensity VALUE
1414 Control the styling of function names.
1415
1416 set style variable foreground COLOR
1417 set style variable background COLOR
1418 set style variable intensity VALUE
1419 Control the styling of variable names.
1420
1421 set style address foreground COLOR
1422 set style address background COLOR
1423 set style address intensity VALUE
1424 Control the styling of addresses.
1425
1426 * MI changes
1427
1428 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
1429 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
1430 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
1431 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
1432 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
1433
1434 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
1435 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
1436
1437 * New native configurations
1438
1439 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1440 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1441
1442 * New targets
1443
1444 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1445 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
1446 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
1447 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1448 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
1449 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1450
1451 * Removed targets
1452
1453 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
1454 before Windows XP.
1455
1456 * Python API
1457
1458 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
1459
1460 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
1461 space associated to that inferior.
1462
1463 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
1464 of objfiles associated to that program space.
1465
1466 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
1467 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
1468 the gdb core.
1469
1470 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
1471 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
1472 correct and did not work properly.
1473
1474 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
1475 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
1476
1477 * Configure changes
1478
1479 --enable-ubsan
1480
1481 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
1482 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
1483 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
1484 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
1485 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
1486
1487 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
1488
1489 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1490 for the MIPS target.
1491
1492 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
1493 offset to all sections.
1494
1495 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
1496 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
1497 address of individual sections using '-s'.
1498
1499 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
1500 (address of the text section).
1501
1502 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
1503 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
1504 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
1505 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
1506 default.
1507
1508 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
1509 for the rest of the current command.
1510
1511 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
1512 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
1513
1514 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
1515 files created on FreeBSD systems.
1516
1517 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
1518 alignof.
1519
1520 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
1521 the vector length while the process is running.
1522
1523 * New commands
1524
1525 set debug fbsd-nat
1526 show debug fbsd-nat
1527 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
1528
1529 set|show varsize-limit
1530 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
1531 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
1532 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
1533
1534 set|show record btrace cpu
1535 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
1536 branch trace decode.
1537
1538 maint check libthread-db
1539 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
1540 library
1541
1542 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
1543 maint show check-libthread-db
1544 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
1545 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
1546 perform such checks.
1547
1548 * Python API
1549
1550 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
1551
1552 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
1553 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
1554
1555 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
1556
1557 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
1558 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
1559 of convenience variables.
1560
1561 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
1562 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
1563 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
1564
1565 * New targets
1566
1567 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
1568
1569 * Removed targets and native configurations
1570
1571 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
1572 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
1573 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
1574 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
1575
1576 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
1577
1578 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
1579 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
1580 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
1581 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
1582 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
1583 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
1584 reported.
1585
1586 * Configure changes
1587
1588 --enable-codesign=CERT
1589 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
1590 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
1591 gdb to work properly.
1592
1593 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
1594 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
1595
1596 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
1597
1598 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
1599 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
1600 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
1601
1602 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
1603 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
1604
1605 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
1606 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
1607 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
1608 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
1609 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
1610
1611 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
1612 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
1613 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
1614 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
1615
1616 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
1617 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
1618
1619 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
1620 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
1621 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
1622
1623 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
1624 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
1625 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
1626
1627 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
1628 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
1629 environment" command.
1630
1631 * Completion improvements
1632
1633 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
1634 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
1635 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
1636 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
1637 correctly:
1638
1639 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
1640 (gdb) b function(int)
1641
1642 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
1643 C++ anonymous namespaces:
1644
1645 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
1646 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
1647 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
1648 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
1649
1650 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
1651 completion support, that better understands what you're
1652 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
1653 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
1654 setting a breakpoint.
1655
1656 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
1657
1658 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
1659
1660 * New command line options (gcore)
1661
1662 -a
1663 Dump all memory mappings.
1664
1665 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
1666
1667 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
1668 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
1669 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
1670
1671 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
1672
1673 A::B::func()
1674 B::func()
1675
1676 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
1677 on both symbols.
1678
1679 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
1680 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
1681 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
1682 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
1683 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
1684 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
1685 a breakpoint from Python.
1686
1687 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1688
1689 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1690 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
1691 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
1692
1693 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
1694
1695 function[abi:cxx11](int)
1696 ^^^^^^^^^^^
1697
1698 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
1699 no tag, like:
1700
1701 (gdb) b function(int)
1702
1703 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
1704
1705 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
1706
1707 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
1708
1709 * Python Scripting
1710
1711 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
1712 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
1713 description of these.
1714
1715 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
1716 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
1717 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
1718
1719 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
1720 manual for a further description of this feature.
1721
1722
1723 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1724
1725 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
1726 specified initial working directory.
1727
1728 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
1729 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
1730
1731 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
1732 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
1733
1734 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
1735 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
1736
1737 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
1738 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1739 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1740 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1741 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1742
1743 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1744 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1745 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1746
1747 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1748 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1749 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1750 in the *stopped notification.
1751
1752 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1753 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1754
1755 * New remote packets
1756
1757 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1758 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1759 the inferior when starting it.
1760
1761 QEnvironmentUnset
1762 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1763 before starting the remote inferior.
1764
1765 QEnvironmentReset
1766 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1767 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1768
1769 QStartupWithShell
1770 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1771
1772 QSetWorkingDir
1773 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1774 working directory.
1775
1776 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1777 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1778
1779 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1780 filter the tests to be run.
1781
1782 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1783 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1784
1785 * New commands
1786
1787 set|show cwd
1788 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1789
1790 set|show compile-gcc
1791 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1792 with the 'compile' commands.
1793
1794 set debug separate-debug-file
1795 show debug separate-debug-file
1796 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1797
1798 set dump-excluded-mappings
1799 show dump-excluded-mappings
1800 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1801 dumped when generating a core file.
1802
1803 maint info selftests
1804 List the registered selftests.
1805
1806 starti
1807 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1808
1809 set|show debug or1k
1810 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1811
1812 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1813 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1814 type printer will show.
1815
1816 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1817 `o' for nexti.
1818
1819 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1820
1821 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1822 'int'.
1823
1824 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1825 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1826 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1827 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1828
1829 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1830 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1831 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1832 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1833 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1834 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1835
1836 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1837 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1838 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1839
1840 (gdb) p var
1841 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1842 (gdb) p (float) var
1843 $3 = 3.14
1844
1845 * New native configurations
1846
1847 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1848 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1849
1850 * New targets
1851
1852 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1853 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1854 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1855
1856 * Removed targets and native configurations
1857
1858 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1859
1860 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1861
1862 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1863 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1864 available in future Intel CPUs.
1865
1866 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1867
1868 * Python Scripting
1869
1870 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1871 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1872
1873 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1874 instructions.
1875
1876 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1877
1878 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1879
1880 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1881 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1882 removed.
1883
1884 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1885
1886 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1887 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1888
1889 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1890
1891 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1892 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1893 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1894 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1895 features.
1896
1897 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1898
1899 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1900 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1901 debugger.
1902
1903 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1904
1905 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1906 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1907
1908 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1909
1910 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1911
1912 define mycommand
1913 set $i = 0
1914 while $i < $argc
1915 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1916 set $i = $i + 1
1917 end
1918 end
1919
1920 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1921
1922 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1923 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1924
1925 * New native configurations
1926
1927 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1928
1929 * New targets
1930
1931 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1932 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1933
1934 * Removed targets and native configurations
1935
1936 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1937 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1938
1939 * New commands
1940
1941 flash-erase
1942 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1943
1944 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1945 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1946
1947 * New options
1948
1949 set disassembler-options
1950 show disassembler-options
1951 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1952 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1953 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1954 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1955 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1956
1957 * New MI commands
1958
1959 -target-flash-erase
1960 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1961 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1962
1963 -file-list-shared-libraries
1964 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1965 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1966
1967 -catch-handlers
1968 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1969 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1970
1971 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1972
1973 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1974
1975 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1976 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1977 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1978 option will be removed in a future release.
1979
1980 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1981 GDB connection.
1982
1983 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1984 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1985
1986 (gdb) bt
1987 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1988 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1989 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1990 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1991 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1992 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1993 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1994 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1995 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1996
1997 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1998 arrays of dynamic types.
1999
2000 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
2001 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2002 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2003 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2004 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2005 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
2006
2007 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
2008 descriptions.
2009
2010 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
2011 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
2012 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
2013
2014 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
2015
2016 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
2017 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
2018 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
2019 signal received and code location.
2020
2021 For example:
2022
2023 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
2024 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
2025 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
2026 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
2027
2028 * Rust language support.
2029 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
2030 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
2031 Rust.
2032
2033 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
2034
2035 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
2036 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
2037 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
2038 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
2039 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
2040 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
2041 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
2042 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
2043 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
2044 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
2045 line.
2046
2047 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
2048
2049 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
2050 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
2051
2052 * New commands
2053
2054 skip -file file
2055 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
2056 skip -function function
2057 skip -rfunction regular-expression
2058 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
2059 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
2060 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
2061
2062 maint info line-table REGEXP
2063 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
2064
2065 maint selftest
2066 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
2067
2068 new-ui INTERP TTY
2069 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
2070 using the TTY file for input/output.
2071
2072 * Python Scripting
2073
2074 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
2075 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
2076 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
2077 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
2078 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
2079
2080 signal-event EVENTID
2081 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
2082 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
2083 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
2084 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
2085 signalling an event.
2086
2087 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
2088 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
2089 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
2090
2091 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
2092 been removed:
2093
2094 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
2095 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
2096 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
2097 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
2098 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
2099 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
2100
2101 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
2102 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
2103 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
2104 bytecode into native code.
2105
2106 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
2107 recording. For example:
2108
2109 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
2110
2111 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
2112
2113 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
2114
2115 * New targets
2116
2117 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
2118
2119 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
2120
2121 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
2122
2123 * Per-inferior thread numbers
2124
2125 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
2126 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
2127 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
2128
2129 (gdb) info threads
2130 Id Target Id Frame
2131 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
2132 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
2133 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
2134 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
2135
2136 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
2137 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
2138 are no longer unique between inferiors.
2139
2140 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
2141 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
2142 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
2143
2144 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
2145 IDs.
2146
2147 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
2148 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
2149
2150 (gdb) thread 2.1
2151 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
2152 (gdb)
2153
2154 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
2155 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
2156 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
2157 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
2158 threads 2.*".
2159
2160 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
2161 all threads.
2162
2163 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
2164 the current thread.
2165
2166 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
2167 current inferior.
2168
2169 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
2170 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
2171 example:
2172
2173 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
2174 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
2175
2176 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
2177
2178 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
2179
2180 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
2181 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
2182
2183 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
2184 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
2185 clients.
2186
2187 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2188 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
2189 at the same time.
2190
2191 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
2192 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
2193 into native code.
2194
2195 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2196
2197 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
2198 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
2199 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
2200
2201 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
2202 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
2203
2204 * New commands
2205
2206 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
2207 maint show target-non-stop
2208 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
2209 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
2210 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
2211
2212 maint set bfd-sharing
2213 maint show bfd-sharing
2214 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
2215
2216 set debug bfd-cache
2217 show debug bfd-cache
2218 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
2219
2220 set debug fbsd-lwp
2221 show debug fbsd-lwp
2222 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
2223
2224 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
2225 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
2226 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
2227
2228 set remote thread-events
2229 show remote thread-events
2230 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
2231
2232 set ada print-signatures on|off
2233 show ada print-signatures"
2234 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
2235 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
2236
2237 set max-value-size
2238 show max-value-size
2239 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
2240 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
2241 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
2242
2243 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
2244 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
2245 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
2246 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
2247 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
2248 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
2249
2250 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
2251 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
2252
2253 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
2254 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
2255
2256 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
2257
2258 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
2259 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
2260 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
2261 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
2262 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
2263 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
2264
2265 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
2266 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
2267
2268 catch handlers
2269 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
2270
2271 * New remote packets
2272
2273 exec stop reason
2274 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
2275
2276 exec-events feature in qSupported
2277 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
2278 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
2279 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
2280 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
2281
2282 vCtrlC
2283 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
2284 non-stop mode.
2285
2286 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
2287 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
2288
2289 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
2290 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
2291
2292 QThreadEvents
2293 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
2294 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
2295 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
2296 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
2297 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
2298 stop for that same thread.
2299
2300 N stop reply
2301 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
2302 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
2303 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
2304
2305 QCatchSyscalls
2306 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
2307 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
2308
2309 syscall_entry stop reason
2310 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
2311
2312 syscall_return stop reason
2313 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
2314
2315 * Extended-remote exec events
2316
2317 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
2318 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
2319 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
2320
2321 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
2322 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
2323 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
2324
2325 * Thread names in remote protocol
2326
2327 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
2328 thread.
2329
2330 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
2331
2332 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
2333 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
2334 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
2335 fork and exec catchpoints.
2336
2337 * Remote syscall events
2338
2339 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
2340 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
2341
2342 set remote catch-syscall-packet
2343 show remote catch-syscall-packet
2344 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
2345
2346 * MI changes
2347
2348 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
2349 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
2350 left.
2351
2352 * Python Scripting
2353
2354 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
2355 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
2356 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
2357 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
2358 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
2359 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
2360
2361 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
2362
2363 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
2364 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
2365 including advance SIMD instructions.
2366
2367 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
2368
2369 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
2370 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
2371 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
2372 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
2373 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
2374 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
2375 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
2376
2377 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2378 cpu information :
2379 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
2380
2381 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
2382 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
2383 remote serial I/O.
2384
2385 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
2386 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
2387 and may include things like its command line arguments.
2388
2389 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
2390 is now available on all platforms.
2391
2392 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
2393 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
2394 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
2395 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
2396 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
2397 backward compatibility.
2398
2399 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
2400 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
2401 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
2402 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
2403
2404 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
2405 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
2406 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
2407 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
2408 packets" below.
2409
2410 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
2411
2412 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
2413
2414 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
2415 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
2416 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
2417 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
2418 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
2419 See "New remote packets" below.
2420
2421 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
2422 available register groups, including target specific groups.
2423
2424 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
2425 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
2426 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
2427 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
2428 are ignored.
2429
2430 * Guile Scripting
2431
2432 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
2433
2434 * Python Scripting
2435
2436 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
2437 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
2438 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
2439 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
2440 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
2441 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
2442 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
2443 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
2444 "const" version of the value respectively.
2445
2446 * New commands
2447
2448 maint print symbol-cache
2449 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
2450
2451 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
2452 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
2453
2454 maint flush-symbol-cache
2455 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
2456
2457 record btrace bts
2458 record bts
2459 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
2460
2461 compile print
2462 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
2463
2464 tui enable
2465 tui disable
2466 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
2467
2468 show mpx bound
2469 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
2470 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
2471
2472 record btrace pt
2473 record pt
2474 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
2475
2476 maint info btrace
2477 Print information about branch tracing internals.
2478
2479 maint btrace packet-history
2480 Print the raw branch tracing data.
2481
2482 maint btrace clear-packet-history
2483 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
2484
2485 maint btrace clear
2486 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
2487 anew by the next "record" command.
2488
2489 * New options
2490
2491 set debug dwarf-die
2492 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
2493 show debug dwarf-die
2494 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
2495
2496 set debug dwarf-read
2497 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
2498 show debug dwarf-read
2499 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
2500
2501 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
2502 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2503 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
2504 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2505
2506 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
2507 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2508 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
2509 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2510
2511 set debug dwarf-line
2512 show debug dwarf-line
2513 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
2514
2515 set max-completions
2516 show max-completions
2517 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
2518 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
2519 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
2520 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
2521
2522 set history remove-duplicates
2523 show history remove-duplicates
2524 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
2525
2526 maint set symbol-cache-size
2527 maint show symbol-cache-size
2528 Control the size of the symbol cache.
2529
2530 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
2531 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2532 BTS format.
2533 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2534 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2535
2536 set debug linux-namespaces
2537 show debug linux-namespaces
2538 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
2539
2540 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
2541 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2542 Intel Processor Trace format.
2543 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2544 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2545
2546 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
2547 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
2548 packet history.
2549
2550 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
2551 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
2552
2553 * Python/Guile scripting
2554
2555 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
2556 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
2557
2558 * New remote packets
2559
2560 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
2561 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
2562
2563 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
2564 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
2565
2566 Qbtrace:pt
2567 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
2568 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
2569 qSupported query.
2570
2571 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
2572 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
2573 Trace format.
2574
2575 swbreak stop reason
2576 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
2577 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
2578 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
2579 mode operation.
2580
2581 hwbreak stop reason
2582 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
2583 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
2584
2585 vFile:fstat:
2586 Return information about files on the remote system.
2587
2588 qXfer:exec-file:read
2589 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
2590 create a process running on the remote system.
2591
2592 vFile:setfs:
2593 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
2594 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
2595 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
2596 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
2597
2598 fork stop reason
2599 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
2600
2601 vfork stop reason
2602 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
2603
2604 vforkdone stop reason
2605 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
2606 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
2607
2608 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
2609 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
2610 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
2611 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
2612 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
2613 whether these features are enabled.
2614
2615 * Extended-remote fork events
2616
2617 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
2618 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
2619 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
2620 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
2621
2622 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
2623 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
2624 the btrace record target.
2625 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
2626
2627 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
2628 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
2629
2630 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
2631 targets.
2632
2633 * Removed command line options
2634
2635 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
2636
2637 * Removed targets and native configurations
2638
2639 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
2640 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2641
2642 * New configure options
2643
2644 --with-intel-pt
2645 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
2646 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
2647
2648 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
2649 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
2650 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
2651 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
2652
2653 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
2654
2655 * Python Scripting
2656
2657 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
2658
2659 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
2660
2661 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
2662
2663 * Python Scripting
2664
2665 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
2666 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
2667 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
2668 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
2669 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
2670 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
2671 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
2672 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
2673 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
2674 selecting a new file to debug.
2675 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
2676 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
2677
2678 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
2679 inferior.
2680
2681 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
2682 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
2683 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
2684 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
2685
2686 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2687
2688 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2689 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2690 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2691 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2692
2693 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
2694 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
2695 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
2696 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
2697 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
2698 interface with this new feature are:
2699
2700 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
2701 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
2702
2703 * New commands
2704
2705 demangle [-l language] [--] name
2706 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
2707 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
2708 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
2709 as "maint demangler-warning".
2710
2711 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
2712 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
2713
2714 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
2715 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
2716 scripts.
2717
2718 maint print user-registers
2719 List all currently available "user" registers.
2720
2721 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
2722 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
2723 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
2724
2725 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
2726 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
2727 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
2728 provided.
2729
2730 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
2731 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
2732 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
2733 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
2734 at resume time.
2735
2736 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
2737 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
2738 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2739 switched threads meanwhile.
2740
2741 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2742
2743 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2744 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2745 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2746 is now the default mode.
2747
2748 * New options
2749
2750 set debug symbol-lookup
2751 show debug symbol-lookup
2752 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2753
2754 * MI changes
2755
2756 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2757 inferiors that have exited.
2758
2759 * New targets
2760
2761 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2762
2763 * Removed targets
2764
2765 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2766
2767 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2768 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2769 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2770 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2771 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2772
2773 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2774 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2775 its alias "share", instead.
2776
2777 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
2778
2779 * New command line options
2780
2781 -D data-directory
2782 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2783
2784 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2785 as specified in ISO C99.
2786
2787 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2788 with or without disassembly.
2789
2790 * Guile scripting
2791
2792 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2793 available is determined at configure time.
2794 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2795 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2796
2797 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2798
2799 guile [code]
2800 gu [code]
2801 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2802
2803 guile-repl
2804 gr
2805 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2806
2807 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2808 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2809
2810 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2811 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2812
2813 * New options
2814
2815 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2816 show print symbol-loading
2817 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2818 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2819 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2820 becomes less useful.
2821
2822 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2823 show guile print-stack
2824 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2825
2826 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2827 show auto-load guile-scripts
2828 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2829
2830 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2831 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2832 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2833 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2834 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2835 usage of this option.
2836
2837 set auto-connect-native-target
2838
2839 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2840 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2841 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2842
2843 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2844 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2845 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2846
2847 maint set target-async (on|off)
2848 maint show target-async
2849 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2850 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2851 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2852 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2853
2854 set mi-async (on|off)
2855 show mi-async
2856 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2857 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2858
2859 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2860 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2861
2862 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2863 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2864 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2865 "set target-async on" command.
2866
2867 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2868
2869 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2870 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2871 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2872 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2873 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2874
2875 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2876 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2877 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2878
2879 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2880 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2881 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2882 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2883 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2884 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2885 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2886
2887 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2888 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2889
2890 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2891 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2892 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2893
2894 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2895 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2896 memory or registers.
2897
2898 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2899
2900 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2901 remote. It now works with all targets.
2902
2903 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2904 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2905 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2906 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2907 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2908 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2909 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2910 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2911 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2912 target-stack".
2913
2914 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2915 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2916 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2917
2918 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2919
2920 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2921 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2922 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2923
2924 * New remote packets
2925
2926 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2927 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2928 branch trace incrementally.
2929
2930 * Python Scripting
2931
2932 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2933 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2934 available.
2935 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2936 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2937 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2938 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2939 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2940
2941 * New targets
2942 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2943
2944 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2945 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2946 its alias "share", instead.
2947
2948 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2949 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2950 instead.
2951
2952 * MI changes
2953
2954 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2955 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2956 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2957 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2958 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2959 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2960 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2961 commands and CLI execution commands.
2962
2963 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2964
2965 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2966 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2967 recording has been added.
2968
2969 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2970
2971 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2972 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2973
2974 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2975 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2976 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2977 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2978 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2979 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2980 "void".
2981
2982 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2983
2984 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2985
2986 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2987 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2988 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2989 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2990
2991 (gdb) p $rax
2992 $1 = <not saved>
2993
2994 (gdb) info registers rax
2995 rax <not saved>
2996
2997 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2998 "*value not available*".
2999
3000 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
3001 to binaries.
3002
3003 * Python scripting
3004
3005 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
3006 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
3007 ** Line tables representation has been added.
3008 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
3009 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
3010 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
3011
3012 * New targets
3013
3014 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
3015 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
3016 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
3017
3018 * Removed native configurations
3019
3020 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
3021 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
3022
3023 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3024 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3025 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
3026 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
3027 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3028 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3029 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3030
3031 * New commands:
3032 catch rethrow
3033 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
3034 maint check-psymtabs
3035 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
3036 maint check-symtabs
3037 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
3038 maint expand-symtabs
3039 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
3040
3041 show configuration
3042 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3043
3044 maint set|show per-command
3045 maint set|show per-command space
3046 maint set|show per-command time
3047 maint set|show per-command symtab
3048 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
3049
3050 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
3051 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
3052 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
3053 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
3054 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
3055
3056 info exceptions
3057 info exceptions REGEXP
3058 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
3059 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
3060 are listed.
3061
3062 * New options
3063
3064 set debug symfile off|on
3065 show debug symfile
3066 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
3067 symbol tables within those files
3068
3069 set print raw frame-arguments
3070 show print raw frame-arguments
3071 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
3072 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
3073
3074 set remote trace-status-packet
3075 show remote trace-status-packet
3076 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
3077
3078 set debug nios2
3079 show debug nios2
3080 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
3081
3082 set range-stepping
3083 show range-stepping
3084 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
3085
3086 set startup-with-shell
3087 show startup-with-shell
3088 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
3089 directly.
3090
3091 set code-cache
3092 show code-cache
3093 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
3094 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
3095
3096 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
3097 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
3098 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
3099 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
3100 "set height 0".
3101
3102 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
3103 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
3104 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
3105
3106 * New command-line options
3107 --configuration
3108 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3109
3110 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
3111 buffer in Common Trace Format.
3112
3113 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
3114 GDB command gcore.
3115
3116 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
3117
3118 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
3119 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
3120
3121 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
3122 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
3123
3124 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
3125 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
3126 due to an uncaught signal.
3127
3128 * MI changes
3129
3130 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
3131 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
3132 command, which should contain "language-option".
3133
3134 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
3135 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
3136
3137 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
3138 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
3139 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
3140 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
3141 "undefined-command-error-code".
3142
3143 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
3144 Trace Format now.
3145
3146 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
3147
3148 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
3149 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
3150 are displayed.
3151
3152 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
3153 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
3154
3155 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
3156 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
3157 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
3158
3159 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
3160 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
3161 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
3162 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
3163 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
3164 "exec-run-start-option".
3165
3166 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
3167 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
3168
3169 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
3170 the new "info exceptions" command.
3171
3172 * New system-wide configuration scripts
3173 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
3174 configuration scripts for the following systems:
3175 ** ElinOS
3176 ** Wind River Linux
3177
3178 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
3179 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
3180 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
3181 below.
3182
3183 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
3184 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
3185
3186 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
3187 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
3188 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
3189
3190 * New remote packets
3191
3192 vCont;r
3193
3194 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
3195 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
3196 involvemement at each single-step.
3197
3198 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
3199 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
3200 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
3201 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
3202 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
3203 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
3204 speedup.
3205
3206 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3207
3208 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
3209 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
3210
3211 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
3212 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
3213 trace state variables.
3214
3215 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
3216 target.
3217
3218 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
3219 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
3220
3221 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
3222
3223 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
3224 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
3225 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
3226 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3227
3228 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
3229
3230 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
3231 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
3232 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
3233 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
3234
3235 set|show record full insn-number-max
3236 set|show record full stop-at-limit
3237 set|show record full memory-query
3238
3239 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
3240 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
3241 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
3242 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
3243 This new recording method can be enabled using:
3244
3245 record btrace
3246
3247 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
3248 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
3249
3250 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
3251 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
3252 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
3253
3254 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
3255 instruction granularity
3256
3257 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
3258 function granularity
3259
3260 * New native configurations
3261
3262 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
3263 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
3264 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
3265 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
3266
3267 * New targets
3268
3269 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
3270 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
3271 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3272 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
3273 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
3274
3275 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
3276 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
3277 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
3278 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
3279 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
3280 --data-directory command-line option.
3281
3282 * New command line options:
3283
3284 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
3285 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
3286
3287 * Removed command line options
3288
3289 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
3290 Emacs.
3291
3292 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
3293 type formatting.
3294
3295 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
3296
3297 * Python scripting
3298
3299 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
3300
3301 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
3302
3303 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
3304
3305 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
3306
3307 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
3308 of architecture in the Python API.
3309
3310 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
3311 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
3312
3313 * New Python-based convenience functions:
3314
3315 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
3316 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
3317 ** $_strlen(str)
3318 ** $_regex(str, regex)
3319
3320 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
3321 given an argument.
3322
3323 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
3324 default for GCC since November 2000.
3325
3326 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
3327
3328 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
3329 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
3330
3331 * New configure options
3332
3333 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
3334 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
3335 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
3336 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
3337 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
3338 options allow the user to override that default.
3339 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
3340 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
3341 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
3342
3343 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3344
3345 catch signal
3346 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
3347 conditions to be attached.
3348
3349 maint info bfds
3350 List the BFDs known to GDB.
3351
3352 python-interactive [command]
3353 pi [command]
3354 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
3355 and print the result of expressions.
3356
3357 py [command]
3358 "py" is a new alias for "python".
3359
3360 enable type-printer [name]...
3361 disable type-printer [name]...
3362 Enable or disable type printers.
3363
3364 * Removed commands
3365
3366 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
3367 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
3368 instead.
3369
3370 * New options
3371
3372 set print type methods (on|off)
3373 show print type methods
3374 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
3375 The default is to show them.
3376
3377 set print type typedefs (on|off)
3378 show print type typedefs
3379 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
3380 The default is to show them.
3381
3382 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
3383 show filename-display
3384 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
3385 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
3386
3387 set trace-buffer-size
3388 show trace-buffer-size
3389 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
3390
3391 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
3392 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
3393 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
3394
3395 set debug aarch64
3396 show debug aarch64
3397 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
3398 The default is off.
3399
3400 set debug coff-pe-read
3401 show debug coff-pe-read
3402 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
3403 exported symbols.
3404
3405 set debug mach-o
3406 show debug mach-o
3407 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
3408 processing.
3409
3410 set debug notification
3411 show debug notification
3412 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
3413
3414 * MI changes
3415
3416 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
3417 "=cmd-param-changed".
3418 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
3419 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
3420 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
3421 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
3422 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
3423 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
3424 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
3425 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
3426 "=memory-changed".
3427 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
3428 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
3429 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
3430 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3431 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
3432 library load/unload events.
3433 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
3434 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
3435 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
3436 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
3437 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
3438 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
3439 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
3440 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
3441
3442 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
3443 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
3444 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
3445 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
3446
3447 * New remote packets
3448
3449 QTBuffer:size
3450 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
3451 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3452
3453 Qbtrace:bts
3454 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
3455 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
3456 qSupported query.
3457
3458 Qbtrace:off
3459 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
3460 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3461
3462 qXfer:btrace:read
3463 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
3464 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3465
3466 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
3467
3468 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
3469 for more x32 ABI info.
3470
3471 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
3472
3473 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
3474
3475 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3476 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
3477 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
3478 "info os files" lists file descriptors
3479 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
3480 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
3481 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
3482 "info os msg" lists message queues
3483 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
3484
3485 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
3486 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
3487 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
3488 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
3489 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
3490 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
3491
3492 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
3493 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
3494 record/replay support.
3495
3496 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
3497
3498 * Python scripting
3499
3500 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
3501 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
3502
3503 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
3504
3505 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
3506 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
3507
3508 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
3509
3510 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
3511 the source at which the symbol was defined.
3512
3513 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
3514 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
3515 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
3516 symbol's value.
3517
3518 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
3519 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
3520
3521 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
3522 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
3523 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
3524
3525 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
3526 object associated with a PC value.
3527
3528 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
3529 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
3530
3531 * Go language support.
3532 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
3533 language.
3534
3535 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
3536 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
3537
3538 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
3539 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
3540
3541 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
3542 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
3543 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
3544 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
3545 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
3546 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
3547
3548 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
3549 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
3550 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
3551 build/libcpp/expr.c.
3552
3553 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
3554 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
3555
3556 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
3557 since December 2007.
3558
3559 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
3560 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
3561 command does. For instance:
3562
3563 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
3564
3565 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
3566 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
3567 created, using the "condition" command.
3568
3569 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
3570 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
3571
3572 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
3573
3574 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
3575 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
3576 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
3577 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
3578 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
3579 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
3580 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
3581 files with older .gdb_index sections.
3582
3583 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
3584 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
3585 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
3586 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
3587 the .gdb_index section.
3588
3589 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
3590
3591 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
3592 target.
3593
3594 * MI changes
3595
3596 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
3597
3598 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
3599
3600 * New commands
3601
3602 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3603 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3604 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
3605
3606 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
3607 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
3608
3609 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
3610 several hits.
3611
3612 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
3613 C++ and Java objects.
3614
3615 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
3616 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
3617 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
3618 configured with '--with-python'.
3619
3620 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
3621 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
3622 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
3623 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
3624 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
3625 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
3626 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
3627
3628 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
3629 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
3630 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
3631 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
3632
3633 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
3634 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
3635 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
3636 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
3637
3638 ** "set print symbol"
3639 "show print symbol"
3640 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
3641 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
3642 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
3643
3644 * Deprecated commands
3645
3646 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
3647 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
3648
3649 * New targets
3650
3651 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3652 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
3653
3654 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
3655 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
3656 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
3657 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
3658 evaluates to true.
3659
3660 * New options
3661
3662 set mips compression
3663 show mips compression
3664 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
3665 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
3666 mips16
3667 micromips
3668 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
3669
3670 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
3671 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
3672 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
3673 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
3674 available mode.
3675 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
3676 target.
3677
3678 set auto-load off
3679 Disable auto-loading globally.
3680
3681 show auto-load
3682 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
3683
3684 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
3685 show auto-load gdb-scripts
3686 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
3687
3688 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
3689 show auto-load python-scripts
3690 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
3691
3692 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
3693 show auto-load local-gdbinit
3694 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
3695
3696 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
3697 show auto-load libthread-db
3698 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
3699
3700 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3701 show auto-load scripts-directory
3702 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
3703 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
3704 of the directories listed by this option.
3705 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3706
3707 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3708 show auto-load safe-path
3709 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
3710 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3711
3712 set debug auto-load on|off
3713 show debug auto-load
3714 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
3715
3716 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
3717 show dprintf-style
3718 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
3719 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
3720 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
3721 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
3722
3723 set dprintf-function <expr>
3724 show dprintf-function
3725 set dprintf-channel <expr>
3726 show dprintf-channel
3727 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
3728 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
3729
3730 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
3731 show disconnected-dprintf
3732 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
3733 after GDB disconnects.
3734
3735 * New configure options
3736
3737 --with-auto-load-dir
3738 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3739 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3740 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3741 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3742 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3743
3744 --with-auto-load-safe-path
3745 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3746 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3747
3748 --without-auto-load-safe-path
3749 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3750 security feature.
3751
3752 * New remote packets
3753
3754 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3755
3756 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3757 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3758 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3759 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3760
3761 QProgramSignals:
3762
3763 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3764 program without GDB involvement.
3765
3766 * New command line options
3767
3768 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3769 before loading inferior.
3770 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3771 execute it before loading inferior.
3772
3773 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
3774
3775 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3776 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3777 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3778 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3779 inferior changes.
3780
3781 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3782 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3783
3784 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3785 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3786 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3787 target hardware watchpoint.
3788
3789 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3790 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3791 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3792 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3793
3794 * Python scripting
3795
3796 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3797 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3798 existing one.
3799
3800 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3801 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3802 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3803 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3804 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3805 the stack trace.
3806
3807 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3808 Python API.
3809
3810 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3811 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3812 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3813 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3814 corresponding value.
3815
3816 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3817 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3818 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3819 on GDB start-up.
3820
3821 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3822 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3823 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3824 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3825
3826 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3827
3828 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3829 "gdb.breakpoints".
3830
3831 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3832 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3833 available in the CLI.
3834
3835 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3836 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3837 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3838 "some_type.items()".
3839
3840 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3841 new object file.
3842
3843 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3844 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3845 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3846 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3847 any anonymous fields.
3848
3849 * MI changes
3850
3851 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3852 "solib-event".
3853
3854 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3855 "=breakpoint-modified".
3856
3857 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3858
3859 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3860 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3861 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3862 lives.
3863
3864 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3865 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3866 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3867 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3868 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3869
3870 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3871 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3872
3873 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3874 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3875 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3876 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3877 use this option to specify where to find it.
3878
3879 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3880 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3881 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3882 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3883 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3884 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3885 section in the user manual for more details.
3886
3887 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3888 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3889 become available after that.
3890
3891 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3892
3893 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3894 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3895 gcc version 4.7.
3896
3897 * New commands
3898
3899 !SHELL COMMAND
3900 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3901 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3902
3903 * Changed commands
3904
3905 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3906 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3907 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3908
3909 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3910 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3911 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3912
3913 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3914 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3915 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3916 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3917 name starts with a hyphen.
3918
3919 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3920 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3921 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3922 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3923 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3924 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3925 number of bytes that will be collected.
3926
3927 tstart [NOTES]
3928 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3929 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3930 setting the variable trace-notes.
3931
3932 tstop [NOTES]
3933 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3934 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3935 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3936 trace-stop-notes.
3937
3938 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3939 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3940 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3941 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3942 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3943 is running.
3944
3945 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3946 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3947 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3948
3949 * New options
3950
3951 set debug dwarf2-read
3952 show debug dwarf2-read
3953 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3954 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3955
3956 set debug symtab-create
3957 show debug symtab-create
3958 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3959 creation. The default is off.
3960
3961 set extended-prompt
3962 show extended-prompt
3963 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3964 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3965 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3966 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3967 prompt is displayed.
3968
3969 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3970 show print entry-values
3971 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3972 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3973 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3974
3975 set debug entry-values
3976 show debug entry-values
3977 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3978 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3979
3980 set basenames-may-differ
3981 show basenames-may-differ
3982 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3983 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3984 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3985 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3986 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3987 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3988 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3989 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3990
3991 set trace-user
3992 show trace-user
3993 set trace-notes
3994 show trace-notes
3995 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3996 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3997 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3998 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3999
4000 set trace-stop-notes
4001 show trace-stop-notes
4002 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
4003 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
4004 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
4005 started by someone else.
4006
4007 * New remote packets
4008
4009 QTEnable
4010
4011 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4012
4013 QTDisable
4014
4015 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4016
4017 QTNotes
4018
4019 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
4020
4021 qTP
4022
4023 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
4024
4025 qTMinFTPILen
4026
4027 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
4028 be placed.
4029
4030 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
4031 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
4032
4033 * New targets
4034
4035 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
4036
4037 * New Simulators
4038
4039 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
4040
4041 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
4042
4043 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
4044
4045 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
4046
4047 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
4048 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
4049 matches the given regular expression.
4050
4051 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
4052
4053 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
4054 dumping the instruction opcodes.
4055
4056 * New command line options
4057
4058 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
4059 This is mostly for testing purposes.
4060
4061 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
4062 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
4063
4064 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
4065 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
4066 source path list instead of augmenting it.
4067
4068 * GDB now understands thread names.
4069
4070 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
4071 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
4072
4073 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
4074 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
4075
4076 * OpenCL C
4077 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
4078 has been integrated into GDB.
4079
4080 * Python scripting
4081
4082 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
4083 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
4084 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
4085
4086 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4087 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
4088 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
4089 and allows for more dynamic content.
4090
4091 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
4092 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
4093 have an is_valid method.
4094
4095 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4096 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
4097 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
4098
4099 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
4100
4101 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
4102 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
4103 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
4104 that function like so:
4105
4106 result = some_value (10,20)
4107
4108 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
4109 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
4110 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
4111
4112 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
4113 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
4114 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
4115 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
4116 New function: register_pretty_printer.
4117
4118 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
4119 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
4120
4121 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
4122
4123 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
4124 selected thread.
4125
4126 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
4127 holds the thread's name.
4128
4129 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
4130 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
4131 occurring in the process being debugged.
4132 The following events are currently supported:
4133 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
4134 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
4135 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
4136
4137 * C++ Improvements:
4138
4139 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
4140 instantiation. For example, if you have:
4141
4142 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
4143
4144 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
4145 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
4146 was added to GCC 4.5.
4147
4148 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
4149 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
4150 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
4151 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
4152 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
4153 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
4154
4155 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
4156 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
4157 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
4158 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
4159 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
4160
4161 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
4162 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
4163 execution to a label.
4164
4165 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
4166 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
4167 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
4168 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
4169
4170 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
4171 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
4172 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
4173 of scope.
4174
4175 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
4176
4177 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
4178 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
4179 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
4180 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
4181 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
4182 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
4183
4184 (gdb) info threads
4185 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
4186
4187 While now you see this:
4188
4189 (gdb) info threads
4190 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
4191
4192 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
4193 dumps.
4194
4195 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
4196 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
4197 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
4198 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
4199
4200 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
4201 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
4202 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
4203 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
4204 section in the user manual for more details.
4205
4206 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4207
4208 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
4209 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
4210
4211 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
4212
4213 * New native configurations
4214
4215 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
4216
4217 * New targets:
4218
4219 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
4220
4221 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
4222 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
4223 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
4224 in the GDB user manual.
4225
4226 * Guile support was removed.
4227
4228 * New features in the GNU simulator
4229
4230 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
4231
4232 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
4233
4234 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
4235
4236 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
4237
4238 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
4239 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
4240 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
4241 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
4242 was always disabled for such configurations.
4243
4244 * C++ Improvements:
4245
4246 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
4247
4248 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
4249 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
4250 For example:
4251 namespace A
4252 {
4253 class B { };
4254 void foo (B) { }
4255 }
4256 ...
4257 A::B b
4258 foo(b)
4259 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
4260 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
4261 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
4262
4263 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
4264
4265 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
4266 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
4267 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
4268 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
4269 entry.
4270 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
4271 mentioned flavors of operators.
4272
4273 ** static const class members
4274
4275 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
4276 class definition has been fixed.
4277
4278 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
4279
4280 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
4281 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
4282 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
4283 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
4284 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
4285 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
4286
4287 * Static tracepoints
4288
4289 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
4290 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
4291 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
4292 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
4293 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
4294 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
4295 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
4296 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
4297 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
4298 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
4299 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
4300 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
4301 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
4302 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
4303 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
4304 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
4305 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
4306 the "New remote packets" section below.
4307
4308 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
4309
4310 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
4311 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
4312 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
4313 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
4314
4315 * Observer mode
4316
4317 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
4318 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
4319 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
4320 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
4321 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
4322 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
4323 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
4324
4325 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
4326 current thread.
4327
4328 * New remote packets
4329
4330 qGetTIBAddr
4331
4332 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
4333
4334 qRelocInsn
4335
4336 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
4337 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
4338 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
4339 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
4340 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
4341 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
4342
4343 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
4344
4345 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
4346
4347 qTSTMat
4348
4349 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
4350 program.
4351
4352 qXfer:statictrace:read
4353
4354 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
4355 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
4356 to gdb's qSupported query.
4357
4358 QAllow
4359
4360 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
4361
4362 QTDPsrc
4363
4364 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
4365 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
4366
4367 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
4368 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
4369 a directory.
4370
4371 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4372
4373 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
4374 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
4375 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
4376 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
4377
4378 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
4379 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
4380 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
4381 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
4382 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
4383 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
4384 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
4385
4386 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
4387 for static tracepoints support.
4388
4389 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
4390
4391 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
4392 it understands register description.
4393
4394 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
4395
4396 * X86 general purpose registers
4397
4398 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
4399 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
4400 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
4401 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
4402 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
4403
4404 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
4405 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
4406 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
4407 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
4408 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
4409 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
4410
4411 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
4412 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
4413 in the specified file.
4414
4415 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
4416 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
4417 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
4418 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
4419 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
4420 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
4421 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
4422 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
4423 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
4424 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
4425
4426 * New commands
4427
4428 eval template, expressions...
4429 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
4430 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
4431
4432 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
4433 show target-file-system-kind
4434 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
4435 names.
4436
4437 save breakpoints <filename>
4438 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
4439 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
4440 definitions, use the `source' command.
4441
4442 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
4443 is now deprecated.
4444
4445 info static-tracepoint-markers
4446 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
4447
4448 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
4449 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
4450 function, line, address, or marker ID.
4451
4452 set observer on|off
4453 show observer
4454 Enable and disable observer mode.
4455
4456 set may-write-registers on|off
4457 set may-write-memory on|off
4458 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
4459 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
4460 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
4461 set may-interrupt on|off
4462 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
4463 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
4464 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
4465 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
4466 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
4467 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
4468 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
4469
4470 set record memory-query on|off
4471 show record memory-query
4472 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
4473 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
4474
4475 * Changed commands
4476
4477 disassemble
4478 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
4479
4480 * Python scripting
4481
4482 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
4483 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
4484 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
4485 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
4486 GDB using Python' in the manual.
4487
4488 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
4489 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
4490 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
4491 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
4492
4493 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
4494 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
4495
4496 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
4497
4498 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
4499
4500 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
4501
4502 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
4503 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
4504 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
4505
4506 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
4507 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
4508 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
4509 regular breakpoints.
4510
4511 * New targets
4512
4513 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
4514
4515 * D language support.
4516 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
4517 language.
4518
4519 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
4520 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
4521 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
4522 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
4523 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
4524
4525 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
4526 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
4527 conditions of the form:
4528
4529 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
4530
4531 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
4532 interface mentioned above.
4533
4534 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
4535
4536 * C++ Improvements
4537
4538 ** Namespace Support
4539
4540 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
4541 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
4542 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
4543 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
4544 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
4545
4546 ** Bug Fixes
4547
4548 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
4549 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
4550 qualified name.
4551
4552 ** Cast Operators
4553
4554 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
4555 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
4556
4557 * New targets
4558
4559 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
4560 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
4561
4562 * New Simulators
4563
4564 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
4565 Renesas RX rx
4566
4567 * Multi-program debugging.
4568
4569 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
4570 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
4571 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
4572 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
4573 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
4574 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
4575 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
4576 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
4577
4578 * New tracing features
4579
4580 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
4581
4582 ** Trace state variables
4583
4584 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
4585 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
4586 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
4587 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
4588 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
4589 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
4590 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
4591 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
4592 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
4593 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
4594
4595 ** Fast tracepoints
4596
4597 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
4598 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
4599 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
4600 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
4601 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
4602 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
4603 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
4604 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
4605 the regular trace command.
4606
4607 ** Disconnected tracing
4608
4609 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
4610 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
4611 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
4612 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
4613 connection is lost unexpectedly.
4614
4615 ** Trace files
4616
4617 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
4618 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
4619 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
4620 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
4621 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
4622 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
4623 <name>".
4624
4625 ** Circular trace buffer
4626
4627 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
4628 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
4629 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
4630 not be available for all target agents.
4631
4632 * Changed commands
4633
4634 disassemble
4635 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
4636 the arguments to be comma-separated.
4637
4638 info variables
4639 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
4640 which only declare a variable are not shown.
4641
4642 source
4643 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
4644 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
4645 support.
4646
4647 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
4648 "set script-extension" (see below).
4649
4650 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4651
4652 record save [<FILENAME>]
4653 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
4654 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
4655
4656 record restore <FILENAME>
4657 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
4658 earlier time, for replay debugging.
4659
4660 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
4661 Add a new inferior.
4662
4663 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
4664 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
4665 inferior has loaded.
4666
4667 remove-inferior ID
4668 Remove an inferior.
4669
4670 maint info program-spaces
4671 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
4672
4673 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
4674 show remote interrupt-sequence
4675 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
4676 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
4677 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
4678 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
4679 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
4680
4681 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
4682 show remote interrupt-on-connect
4683 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
4684 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
4685 Linux kernel.
4686
4687 set remotebreak [on | off]
4688 show remotebreak
4689 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
4690
4691 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
4692 Create or modify a trace state variable.
4693
4694 info tvariables
4695 List trace state variables and their values.
4696
4697 delete tvariable $NAME ...
4698 Delete one or more trace state variables.
4699
4700 teval EXPR, ...
4701 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
4702 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
4703
4704 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
4705 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
4706
4707 * New expression syntax
4708
4709 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
4710 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
4711
4712 * New options
4713
4714 set follow-exec-mode new|same
4715 show follow-exec-mode
4716 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
4717 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
4718 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
4719
4720 set default-collect EXPR, ...
4721 show default-collect
4722 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
4723 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
4724 such as registers or a critical global variable.
4725
4726 set disconnected-tracing
4727 show disconnected-tracing
4728 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
4729 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
4730 upon disconnection.
4731
4732 set circular-trace-buffer
4733 show circular-trace-buffer
4734 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
4735 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
4736 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
4737 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
4738
4739 set script-extension off|soft|strict
4740 show script-extension
4741 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4742 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4743 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4744 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4745 evaluation failed.
4746 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4747
4748 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4749 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4750 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4751 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4752 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4753 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4754 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4755 is on.
4756
4757 * Python API Improvements
4758
4759 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4760 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4761 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4762
4763 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4764 `is_base_class' attribute.
4765
4766 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4767
4768 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4769 evaluate an expression.
4770
4771 * New remote packets
4772
4773 QTDV
4774 Define a trace state variable.
4775
4776 qTV
4777 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4778
4779 QTDisconnected
4780 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4781
4782 QTBuffer:circular
4783 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4784
4785 qTfP, qTsP
4786 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4787
4788 * Bug fixes
4789
4790 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4791
4792 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4793 much more reliable. In particular:
4794 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4795 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4796 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4797 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4798 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4799 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4800 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4801 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4802 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4803 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4804 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4805 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4806 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4807 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4808 non-threaded programs.
4809
4810 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4811 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4812 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4813 executable program.
4814
4815 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4816
4817 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4818 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4819 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4820 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4821 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4822
4823 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4824 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4825 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4826 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4827 for tracepoint actions.
4828
4829 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4830 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4831 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4832
4833 * Process record and replay
4834
4835 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4836 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4837 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4838 execute commands.
4839
4840 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4841 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4842 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4843 reverse execution.
4844
4845 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4846 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4847 2.6.28 or later.
4848
4849 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4850 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4851 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4852 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4853 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4854 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4855 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4856 the installation instructions for more information.
4857
4858 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4859 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4860 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4861 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4862
4863 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4864 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4865
4866 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4867 now complete on file names.
4868
4869 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4870 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4871 For instance, consider:
4872
4873 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4874 # struct example variable;
4875 (gdb) p variable.
4876
4877 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4878 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4879
4880 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4881 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4882
4883 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4884 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4885 macros.
4886
4887 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4888 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4889 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4890
4891 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4892 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4893 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4894 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4895
4896 * New remote packets
4897
4898 qSearch:memory:
4899 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4900
4901 QStartNoAckMode
4902 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4903 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4904 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4905
4906 vKill
4907 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4908 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4909
4910 qXfer:osdata:read
4911 Obtains additional operating system information
4912
4913 qXfer:siginfo:read
4914 qXfer:siginfo:write
4915 Read or write additional signal information.
4916
4917 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4918
4919 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4920 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4921 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4922
4923 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4924 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4925
4926 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4927 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4928 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4929
4930 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4931 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4932
4933 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4934
4935 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4936
4937 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4938 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4939
4940 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
4941 list of section offsets.
4942
4943 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4944 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4945 have also been fixed.
4946
4947 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4948 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4949 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4950
4951 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4952 example, given:
4953
4954 template<typename T> class C { };
4955 C<char const *> c;
4956
4957 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4958
4959 ptype C<char const *>
4960 ptype C<char const*>
4961 ptype C<const char *>
4962 ptype C<const char*>
4963
4964 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4965
4966 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4967 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4968
4969 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4970 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4971 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4972
4973 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4974 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4975
4976 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4977 gdbserver.
4978
4979 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4980 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4981
4982 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4983 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4984 as appropriate.
4985
4986 * Python scripting
4987
4988 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4989 available is determined at configure time.
4990
4991 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4992
4993 * Ada tasking support
4994
4995 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4996 been introduced:
4997
4998 info tasks
4999 Print the list of Ada tasks.
5000 info task N
5001 Print detailed information about task number N.
5002 task
5003 Print the task number of the current task.
5004 task N
5005 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
5006
5007 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
5008 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
5009
5010 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
5011
5012 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
5013 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
5014 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
5015 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
5016 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
5017 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
5018 below.
5019
5020 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
5021 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
5022 information.
5023
5024 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
5025 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
5026 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
5027 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
5028 more information.
5029
5030 * Multi-architecture debugging.
5031
5032 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
5033 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
5034 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
5035 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
5036 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
5037
5038 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
5039 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
5040 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
5041 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
5042 --enable-targets configure option.
5043
5044 * Non-stop mode debugging.
5045
5046 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
5047 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
5048 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
5049 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
5050 section in the user manual for more information.
5051
5052 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
5053 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
5054 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
5055 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
5056 extensions on linux targets.
5057
5058 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
5059
5060 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
5061 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
5062 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
5063 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
5064 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
5065 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
5066 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
5067 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
5068 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
5069
5070 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
5071 val1 [, val2, ...]
5072 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
5073
5074 maint set python print-stack
5075 maint show python print-stack
5076 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
5077
5078 python [CODE]
5079 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
5080
5081 macro define
5082 macro list
5083 macro undef
5084 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
5085 interactively.
5086
5087 info os processes
5088 Show operating system information about processes.
5089
5090 info inferiors
5091 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
5092
5093 inferior NUM
5094 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
5095
5096 detach inferior NUM
5097 Detach from inferior number NUM.
5098
5099 kill inferior NUM
5100 Kill inferior number NUM.
5101
5102 * New options
5103
5104 set spu stop-on-load
5105 show spu stop-on-load
5106 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
5107
5108 set spu auto-flush-cache
5109 show spu auto-flush-cache
5110 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
5111 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
5112
5113 set sh calling-convention
5114 show sh calling-convention
5115 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
5116
5117 set debug timestamp
5118 show debug timestamp
5119 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
5120
5121 set disassemble-next-line
5122 show disassemble-next-line
5123 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
5124 the debuggee stops.
5125
5126 set remote noack-packet
5127 show remote noack-packet
5128 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
5129 under "New remote packets."
5130
5131 set remote query-attached-packet
5132 show remote query-attached-packet
5133 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
5134
5135 set remote read-siginfo-object
5136 show remote read-siginfo-object
5137 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
5138 packet.
5139
5140 set remote write-siginfo-object
5141 show remote write-siginfo-object
5142 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
5143 packet.
5144
5145 set remote reverse-continue
5146 show remote reverse-continue
5147 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
5148
5149 set remote reverse-step
5150 show remote reverse-step
5151 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
5152
5153 set displaced-stepping
5154 show displaced-stepping
5155 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
5156 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
5157 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
5158
5159 set debug displaced
5160 show debug displaced
5161 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
5162
5163 maint set internal-error
5164 maint show internal-error
5165 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
5166
5167 maint set internal-warning
5168 maint show internal-warning
5169 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
5170
5171 set exec-wrapper
5172 show exec-wrapper
5173 unset exec-wrapper
5174 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
5175
5176 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
5177 show multiple-symbols
5178 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
5179 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
5180 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
5181
5182 set breakpoint always-inserted
5183 show breakpoint always-inserted
5184 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
5185 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
5186 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
5187
5188 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
5189 show arm fallback-mode
5190 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
5191 show arm force-mode
5192 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
5193 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
5194 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
5195 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
5196
5197 set disable-randomization
5198 show disable-randomization
5199 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
5200 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
5201 multiple debugging sessions.
5202
5203 set non-stop
5204 show non-stop
5205 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
5206 a breakpoint.
5207
5208 set target-async
5209 show target-async
5210 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
5211 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
5212 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
5213 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
5214
5215 set target-wide-charset
5216 show target-wide-charset
5217 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
5218 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
5219
5220 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
5221 show tcp auto-retry
5222 set tcp connect-timeout
5223 show tcp connect-timeout
5224 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
5225 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
5226 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
5227
5228 set libthread-db-search-path
5229 show libthread-db-search-path
5230 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
5231 libthread_db.
5232
5233 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
5234 show schedule-multiple
5235 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
5236 the current process.
5237
5238 set stack-cache
5239 show stack-cache
5240 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
5241 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
5242 affecting correctness.
5243
5244 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
5245 show interactive-mode
5246 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
5247 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
5248 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
5249 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
5250 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
5251
5252 * Removed commands
5253
5254 info forks
5255 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
5256 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
5257 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
5258 command.
5259
5260 fork NUM
5261 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
5262 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
5263 alias for the `fork' command.
5264
5265 process PID
5266 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
5267 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
5268 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
5269
5270 delete fork NUM
5271 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
5272 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
5273 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
5274 fork' command.
5275
5276 detach fork NUM
5277 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
5278 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
5279 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
5280 fork' command.
5281
5282 * New native configurations
5283
5284 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
5285
5286 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
5287
5288 * New targets
5289
5290 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
5291 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
5292 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5293 S+core 3 score-*-*
5294
5295 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
5296 (mingw32ce) debugging.
5297
5298 * Removed commands
5299
5300 catch load
5301 catch unload
5302 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
5303
5304 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
5305
5306 * New native configurations
5307
5308 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
5309 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
5310
5311 * New targets
5312
5313 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
5314 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
5315
5316 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5317
5318 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
5319 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
5320 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
5321 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
5322
5323 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
5324 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
5325
5326 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
5327 is resolved.
5328
5329 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
5330 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
5331 and in inlined functions.
5332
5333 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
5334 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
5335 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
5336
5337 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
5338
5339 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
5340 registers on PowerPC targets.
5341
5342 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
5343 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
5344
5345 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
5346 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
5347
5348 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
5349 extended-remote mode.
5350
5351 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
5352 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
5353 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
5354 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
5355
5356 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
5357 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
5358 target architectures.
5359
5360 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
5361 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
5362 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
5363 stored in two consecutive float registers.
5364
5365 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
5366 breakpoints now.
5367
5368 * Improved support for debugging Ada
5369 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
5370 include:
5371 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
5372 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
5373 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
5374 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
5375 of an assignment
5376 - Improved command completion in Ada
5377 - Several bug fixes
5378
5379 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
5380 process.
5381
5382 * New commands
5383
5384 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
5385 show print frame-arguments
5386 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
5387 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
5388
5389 remote put
5390 remote get
5391 remote delete
5392 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5393
5394 * New MI commands
5395
5396 -target-file-put
5397 -target-file-get
5398 -target-file-delete
5399 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5400
5401 * New remote packets
5402
5403 vFile:open:
5404 vFile:close:
5405 vFile:pread:
5406 vFile:pwrite:
5407 vFile:unlink:
5408 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
5409
5410 vAttach
5411 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
5412 mode.
5413
5414 vRun
5415 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
5416
5417 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
5418
5419 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
5420 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
5421 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
5422
5423 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
5424 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
5425 -Bsymbolic linker option.
5426
5427 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
5428 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
5429 is not supported.
5430
5431 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
5432 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
5433
5434 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
5435 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
5436
5437 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
5438
5439 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
5440 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
5441 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
5442
5443 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
5444 automatically displayed as character or string data.
5445
5446 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
5447 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
5448 as strings.
5449
5450 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
5451 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
5452 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
5453
5454 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
5455 iWMMXt coprocessor.
5456
5457 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
5458 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
5459 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
5460
5461 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
5462
5463 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
5464
5465 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
5466 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
5467 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
5468
5469 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
5470 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
5471
5472 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
5473 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
5474 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
5475 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
5476 Windows and SymbianOS).
5477
5478 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
5479 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
5480
5481 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
5482 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
5483
5484 * New commands
5485
5486 set remoteflow
5487 show remoteflow
5488 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
5489 when debugging using remote targets.
5490
5491 set mem inaccessible-by-default
5492 show mem inaccessible-by-default
5493 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5494 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5495 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
5496 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
5497 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
5498
5499 set breakpoint auto-hw
5500 show breakpoint auto-hw
5501 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5502 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5503 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
5504 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
5505 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
5506 including "next" and "finish".
5507
5508 catch exception
5509 catch exception unhandled
5510 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
5511
5512 catch assert
5513 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
5514
5515 set sysroot
5516 show sysroot
5517 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
5518 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
5519 an alias to "set sysroot".
5520
5521 info spu
5522 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
5523 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
5524 architecture.
5525
5526 * New native configurations
5527
5528 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
5529
5530 set tdesc filename
5531 unset tdesc filename
5532 show tdesc filename
5533 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
5534 not query the target for its built-in description.
5535
5536 * New targets
5537
5538 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
5539 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
5540 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
5541
5542 * New remote packets
5543
5544 QPassSignals:
5545 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
5546 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
5547
5548 qXfer:features:read:
5549 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
5550 features.
5551
5552 qXfer:spu:read:
5553 qXfer:spu:write:
5554 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
5555 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
5556
5557 qXfer:libraries:read:
5558 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
5559 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
5560 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
5561 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
5562
5563 * Removed targets
5564
5565 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
5566
5567 alpha*-*-osf1*
5568 alpha*-*-osf2*
5569 d10v-*-*
5570 hppa*-*-hiux*
5571 i[34567]86-ncr-*
5572 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
5573 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
5574 i[34567]86-*-netware*
5575 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
5576 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
5577 i[34567]86-*-sco*
5578 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
5579 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
5580 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
5581 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
5582 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
5583 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
5584 i[34567]86-*-isc*
5585 m68*-cisco*-*
5586 m68*-tandem-*
5587 mips*-*-pe
5588 rs6000-*-lynxos*
5589 sh*-*-pe
5590
5591 * Other removed features
5592
5593 target abug
5594 target cpu32bug
5595 target est
5596 target rom68k
5597
5598 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
5599
5600 target hms
5601 target e7000
5602 target sh3
5603 target sh3e
5604
5605 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
5606 H8/300.
5607
5608 target ocd
5609
5610 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
5611 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
5612 interfaces.
5613
5614 DWARF 1 support
5615
5616 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
5617 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
5618
5619 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
5620
5621 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
5622 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
5623 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
5624 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
5625
5626 MIPS ".pdr" sections
5627
5628 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
5629 in debugging information.
5630
5631 Scheme support
5632
5633 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
5634 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
5635
5636 set mips stack-arg-size
5637 set mips saved-gpreg-size
5638
5639 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
5640
5641 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
5642
5643 * New targets
5644
5645 Xtensa xtensa-elf
5646 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
5647
5648 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
5649 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
5650 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
5651
5652 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
5653 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
5654 supported.
5655
5656 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
5657 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
5658
5659 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
5660 stub provides the required support.
5661
5662 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
5663 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
5664
5665 * New commands
5666
5667 set substitute-path
5668 unset substitute-path
5669 show substitute-path
5670 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
5671 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
5672 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
5673 between compilation and debugging.
5674
5675 set trace-commands
5676 show trace-commands
5677 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
5678 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
5679 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
5680
5681 * REMOVED features
5682
5683 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
5684
5685 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
5686 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
5687
5688 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
5689
5690 * New remote packets
5691
5692 qSupported:
5693 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
5694 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
5695 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
5696 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
5697 target.
5698
5699 qXfer:auxv:read:
5700 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
5701 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
5702
5703 qXfer:memory-map:read:
5704 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
5705 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
5706
5707 vFlashErase:
5708 vFlashWrite:
5709 vFlashDone:
5710 Erase and program a flash memory device.
5711
5712 * Removed remote packets
5713
5714 qPart:auxv:read:
5715 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
5716 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
5717
5718 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
5719
5720 * New targets
5721
5722 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
5723
5724 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5725
5726 * New commands
5727
5728 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
5729 only if it doesn't already have a value.
5730
5731 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
5732
5733 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
5734
5735 restart <n> Return the program state to a
5736 previously saved state.
5737
5738 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5739
5740 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5741
5742 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5743 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5744
5745 info forks List forks of the user program that
5746 are available to be debugged.
5747
5748 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5749 forks of the user program that are
5750 available to be debugged.
5751
5752 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5753 that are available to be debugged (and
5754 kill the forked process).
5755
5756 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5757 that are available to be debugged (and
5758 allow the process to continue).
5759
5760 * New architecture
5761
5762 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5763
5764 * Improved Windows host support
5765
5766 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5767 native console support, and remote communications using either
5768 network sockets or serial ports.
5769
5770 * Improved Modula-2 language support
5771
5772 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5773 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5774 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5775 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5776 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5777 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5778
5779 * REMOVED features
5780
5781 The ARM rdi-share module.
5782
5783 The Netware NLM debug server.
5784
5785 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5786
5787 * New native configurations
5788
5789 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5790 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5791
5792 * New targets
5793
5794 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5795
5796 * New command line options
5797
5798 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5799 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5800 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5801 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5802 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5803 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5804 with the --command (-x) option.
5805
5806 * Deprecated commands removed
5807
5808 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5809 removed:
5810
5811 Command Replacement
5812 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5813 othernames set arm disassembler
5814 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5815 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5816 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5817 regs info registers
5818
5819 * New BSD user-level threads support
5820
5821 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5822 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5823 configurations are:
5824
5825 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5826 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5827 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5828
5829 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5830 are not yet supported.
5831
5832 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5833 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5834
5835 * REMOVED configurations and files
5836
5837 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5838 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5839 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5840
5841 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5842
5843 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5844 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5845 behavior.
5846
5847 * VAX floating point support
5848
5849 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5850
5851 * User-defined command support
5852
5853 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5854 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5855 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5856
5857 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5858
5859 * New command line option
5860
5861 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5862 debugging.
5863
5864 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5865
5866 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5867 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5868 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5869 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5870 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5871
5872 * Internationalization
5873
5874 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5875 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5876 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5877
5878 * Ada
5879
5880 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5881 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5882 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5883
5884 * New native configurations
5885
5886 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5887
5888 * Remote 'p' packet
5889
5890 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5891 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5892
5893 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5894
5895 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5896 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5897 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5898 i386 application).
5899
5900 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
5901 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5902 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5903 configurations:
5904
5905 hppa-*-hpux
5906 ia64-*-aix
5907 mips-*-irix*
5908 *-*-lynx
5909 mips-*-linux-gnu
5910 sds protocol
5911 xdr protocol
5912 powerpc bdm protocol
5913
5914 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5915 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5916
5917 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5918
5919 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5920 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5921 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5922 permanently REMOVED.
5923
5924 h8300-*-*
5925 mcore-*-*
5926 mn10300-*-*
5927 ns32k-*-*
5928 sh64-*-*
5929 v850-*-*
5930
5931 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5932
5933 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5934
5935 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5936 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5937 been fixed.
5938
5939 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5940
5941 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5942 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5943 IRIX long double values).
5944
5945 * VAX and "next"
5946
5947 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5948 command. This problem has been fixed.
5949
5950 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5951
5952 * Fix for ``many threads''
5953
5954 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5955 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5956 error message:
5957
5958 ptrace: No such process.
5959 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5960
5961 This problem has been fixed.
5962
5963 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5964
5965 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5966 GDB to dump core).
5967
5968 * New ``start'' command.
5969
5970 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
5971
5972 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5973
5974 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5975 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5976 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5977
5978 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5979 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5980 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5981 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5982 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5983 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5984 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5985 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5986 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5987
5988 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5989
5990 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5991 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5992 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5993 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5994 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5995
5996 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5997 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5998 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5999
6000 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
6001
6002 * New native configurations
6003
6004 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
6005 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
6006 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
6007 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
6008 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6009 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
6010 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6011
6012 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
6013
6014 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
6015 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
6016 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
6017 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
6018 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
6019 work, was also included.
6020
6021 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
6022 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
6023
6024 h8300-*-*
6025 mcore-*-*
6026 mn10300-*-*
6027 ns32k-*-*
6028 sh64-*-*
6029 v850-*-*
6030 xstormy16-*-*
6031
6032 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
6033 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
6034
6035 * REMOVED configurations and files
6036
6037 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6038 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6039 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6040 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6041 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6042 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6043 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6044 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6045 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6046 sonymips mips-sony-*
6047 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6048
6049 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
6050
6051 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
6052
6053 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
6054 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
6055 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
6056 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
6057 with GDB".
6058
6059 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
6060
6061 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
6062 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
6063 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
6064 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
6065 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
6066 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
6067 are created.
6068
6069 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
6070
6071 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
6072
6073 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
6074 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
6075 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
6076
6077 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
6078
6079 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
6080 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
6081
6082 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
6083
6084 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
6085 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
6086 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
6087
6088 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
6089
6090 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
6091 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
6092
6093 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
6094
6095 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
6096 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
6097 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
6098
6099 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
6100
6101 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
6102 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
6103 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
6104
6105 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
6106
6107 * Removed --with-mmalloc
6108
6109 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
6110 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
6111
6112 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
6113
6114 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
6115 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
6116 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
6117 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
6118
6119 * Revised SPARC target
6120
6121 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
6122 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
6123 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
6124 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
6125 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
6126
6127 * New C++ demangler
6128
6129 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
6130 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
6131 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
6132 programs.
6133
6134 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
6135
6136 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
6137 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
6138 encountered these.
6139
6140 * C++ nested types and namespaces
6141
6142 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
6143 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
6144 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
6145 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
6146 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
6147 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
6148 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
6149 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
6150 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
6151
6152 * New native configurations
6153
6154 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
6155 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
6156 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
6157 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
6158 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
6159
6160 * New debugging protocols
6161
6162 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
6163
6164 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
6165
6166 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
6167 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
6168 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
6169
6170 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6171
6172 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6173 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6174 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6175 permanently REMOVED.
6176
6177 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6178 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6179 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6180 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6181 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6182 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6183 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6184 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6185 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6186 sonymips mips-sony-*
6187 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6188
6189 * REMOVED configurations and files
6190
6191 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6192 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6193 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6194 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6195 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6196 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
6197 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6198 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
6199 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
6200 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
6201 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
6202 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
6203 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
6204 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
6205 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
6206 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6207 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6208
6209 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
6210
6211 * Objective-C
6212
6213 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
6214 integrated into GDB.
6215
6216 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
6217
6218 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
6219 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
6220 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
6221 backtraces.
6222
6223 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
6224 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
6225 DWARF 2 CFI support.
6226
6227 * Hosted file I/O.
6228
6229 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
6230 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
6231 remote protocol documentation for details.
6232
6233 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
6234
6235 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
6236 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
6237 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
6238 ppc32 on ppc64).
6239
6240 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
6241
6242 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
6243 per-thread variables.
6244
6245 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
6246
6247 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
6248 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
6249
6250 * Separate debug info.
6251
6252 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
6253 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
6254 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
6255 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
6256 and optional debug files.
6257
6258 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
6259
6260 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
6261 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
6262 debugger.
6263
6264 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
6265 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
6266
6267 * Java
6268
6269 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
6270 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
6271 considered "useable".
6272
6273 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
6274
6275 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
6276 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
6277 kernel.
6278
6279 * GDB supports logging output to a file
6280
6281 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
6282 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
6283
6284 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
6285
6286 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
6287 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
6288 command.
6289
6290 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
6291
6292 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
6293 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
6294
6295 * Profiling support
6296
6297 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
6298 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
6299 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
6300 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
6301 data, for more informative profiling results.
6302
6303 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
6304
6305 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
6306 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
6307 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
6308
6309 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
6310 removed.
6311
6312 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
6313 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
6314 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
6315 in a subsequent -var-update.
6316
6317 * New native configurations.
6318
6319 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6320
6321 * Multi-arched targets.
6322
6323 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
6324 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6325
6326 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6327
6328 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6329 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6330 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6331 permanently REMOVED.
6332
6333 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6334 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6335 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6336 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
6337 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6338 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
6339 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
6340 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
6341 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
6342 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
6343 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6344 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6345
6346 * REMOVED configurations and files
6347
6348 V850EA ISA
6349 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6350 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6351 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6352 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6353 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6354 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6355 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
6356 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6357 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6358 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6359 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6360 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6361 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6362
6363 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
6364
6365 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
6366 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
6367 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
6368 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
6369 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
6370
6371 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
6372
6373 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
6374
6375 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
6376 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
6377 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
6378 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
6379 shared libs like mad''.
6380
6381 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6382
6383 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
6384 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
6385 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
6386 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6387
6388 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
6389
6390 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
6391 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
6392 they expand.
6393
6394 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
6395 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
6396
6397 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
6398 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
6399
6400 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
6401 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
6402 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
6403 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
6404
6405 * Multi-arched targets.
6406
6407 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
6408 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
6409 NEC V850 v850-*-*
6410 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
6411 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
6412 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
6413
6414 * New targets.
6415
6416 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
6417
6418
6419 * New native configurations
6420
6421 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
6422 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
6423 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
6424 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
6425
6426 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6427
6428 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6429 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6430 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6431 permanently REMOVED.
6432
6433 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6434 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6435 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6436 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6437 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6438 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6439 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6440 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6441 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6442 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6443 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
6444 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6445 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6446
6447 * OBSOLETE languages
6448
6449 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
6450
6451 * REMOVED configurations and files
6452
6453 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6454 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6455 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6456 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6457 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6458
6459 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6460
6461 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
6462
6463 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
6464 commands. The default is 1024.
6465
6466 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
6467
6468 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
6469
6470 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
6471
6472 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
6473 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
6474 from a file into memory (restore).
6475
6476 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
6477
6478 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
6479 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
6480 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
6481
6482 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
6483
6484 * New targets.
6485
6486 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
6487
6488 * Bug fixes
6489
6490 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
6491 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
6492 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
6493
6494 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
6495 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
6496 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
6497
6498 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
6499 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
6500 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
6501
6502 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
6503 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
6504 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
6505
6506 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
6507
6508 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
6509
6510 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
6511 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
6512 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
6513 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
6514 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
6515 (notably embedded) targets.
6516
6517 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
6518
6519 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
6520 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
6521 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
6522 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
6523
6524 * New command line option
6525
6526 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
6527
6528 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6529
6530 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
6531 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
6532 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
6533 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
6534 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
6535 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
6536 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
6537 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
6538 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
6539 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
6540
6541 * Changes in ARM configurations.
6542
6543 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
6544 configuration is fully multi-arch.
6545
6546 * New native configurations
6547
6548 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
6549 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
6550 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
6551 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
6552
6553 * New targets
6554
6555 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
6556
6557 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6558
6559 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6560 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6561 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6562 permanently REMOVED.
6563
6564 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6565 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6566 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6567 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6568 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6569
6570 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6571
6572 * REMOVED configurations and files
6573
6574 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6575 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6576 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6577 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6578 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6579 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6580 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6581 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6582 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6583 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6584 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6585 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6586 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
6587
6588 * Changes to command line processing
6589
6590 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
6591 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
6592
6593 * Changes to key bindings
6594
6595 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
6596
6597 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
6598
6599 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
6600
6601 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
6602 corrupted.
6603
6604 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
6605
6606 Numerous documentation fixes.
6607
6608 Numerous testsuite fixes.
6609
6610 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
6611
6612 * New native configurations
6613
6614 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
6615 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
6616 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
6617 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6618 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
6619 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
6620
6621 * New targets
6622
6623 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
6624 CRIS cris-axis
6625 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
6626
6627 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6628
6629 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
6630 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6631 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6632 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6633 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6634 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6635 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6636 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6637 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6638 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6639 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6640 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6641 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6642 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
6643
6644 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
6645 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
6646
6647 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6648 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6649 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6650 permanently REMOVED.
6651
6652 * REMOVED configurations and files
6653
6654 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6655 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6656 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6657 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6658 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6659 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
6660
6661 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
6662
6663 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
6664 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
6665 present.
6666
6667 * Other news:
6668
6669 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
6670
6671 * The MI enabled by default.
6672
6673 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
6674 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
6675 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
6676 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
6677 which is now deprecated.
6678
6679 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
6680
6681 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
6682 main features are supported:
6683
6684 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
6685
6686 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
6687 extension;
6688
6689 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
6690
6691 - a Pascal expression parser.
6692
6693 However, some important features are not yet supported.
6694
6695 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
6696
6697 - there are some problems with boolean types;
6698
6699 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
6700 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
6701
6702 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
6703
6704 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
6705
6706 * Changes in completion.
6707
6708 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
6709 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
6710 users expect at the shell prompt.
6711
6712 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
6713 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
6714 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
6715 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
6716 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
6717 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
6718 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
6719
6720 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
6721
6722 * New platform-independent commands:
6723
6724 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
6725 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
6726 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
6727
6728 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
6729
6730 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
6731 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
6732 many threads as your system allows you to have.
6733
6734 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
6735
6736 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
6737 multi-threaded programs though.
6738
6739 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
6740
6741 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6742
6743 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6744 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6745 supported.)
6746
6747 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6748
6749 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6750 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6751 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6752 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6753 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6754 registers.
6755
6756 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6757 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6758 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6759
6760 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6761
6762 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6763 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6764
6765 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6766 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6767 IDT.
6768
6769 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6770 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6771 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6772 a given linear address.
6773
6774 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6775 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6776 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6777
6778 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6779
6780 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6781
6782 * Changes in documentation.
6783
6784 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6785 Documentation License.
6786
6787 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6788 manual.
6789
6790 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6791
6792 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6793 manual.
6794
6795 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6796 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6797 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6798
6799 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6800
6801 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6802 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6803 contents of this file.
6804
6805 * gdba.el deleted
6806
6807 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6808
6809 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6810
6811 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6812
6813 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6814 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6815 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6816 greater level of detail.
6817
6818 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6819
6820 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6821 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6822 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6823 written.
6824
6825 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6826
6827 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6828 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6829 machines ``out of the box''.
6830
6831 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6832 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6833 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6834 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6835 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6836
6837 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6838 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6839 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6840 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6841 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6842
6843 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6844 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6845 also works.
6846
6847 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6848 GDB.
6849
6850 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6851 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6852 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6853 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6854
6855 * New native configurations
6856
6857 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6858 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6859
6860 * New targets
6861
6862 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6863 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6864 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6865 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6866
6867 * OBSOLETE configurations
6868
6869 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6870 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6871 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6872 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6873 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6874
6875 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6876 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6877 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6878 be permanently REMOVED.
6879
6880 * Gould support removed
6881
6882 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6883
6884 * New features for SVR4
6885
6886 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6887 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6888 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6889
6890 * Many C++ enhancements
6891
6892 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6893 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6894
6895 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6896
6897 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6898 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6899 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6900 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6901
6902 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6903 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6904
6905 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6906
6907 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6908 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6909 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6910
6911 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6912 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6913
6914 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6915
6916 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6917 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6918 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6919
6920 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6921
6922 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6923 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6924 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6925
6926 * ``apropos'' command added.
6927
6928 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6929 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6930 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6931
6932 * New MI interface
6933
6934 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6935 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6936 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6937 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6938 enabled by configuring with:
6939
6940 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6941
6942 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6943
6944 * New native configurations
6945
6946 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6947 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6948 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6949
6950 * New targets
6951
6952 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6953 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6954 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6955
6956 * OBSOLETE configurations
6957
6958 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6959
6960 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6961 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6962 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6963 be permanently REMOVED.
6964
6965 * ANSI/ISO C
6966
6967 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6968 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6969 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6970 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6971 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6972 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6973 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6974 already.
6975
6976 * Readline 2.2
6977
6978 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6979
6980 * set extension-language
6981
6982 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6983 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6984 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6985 set extension-language .c c++
6986 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6987 and their associated languages.
6988
6989 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6990
6991 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6992 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6993 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6994
6995 set processor NAME
6996
6997 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6998 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6999
7000 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
7001 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
7002 403 IBM PowerPC 403
7003 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
7004 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
7005 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
7006 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
7007 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
7008 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
7009 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
7010 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
7011
7012 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
7013 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
7014 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
7015 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
7016
7017 * HP-UX support
7018
7019 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
7020 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
7021 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
7022 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
7023 for xdb and dbx commands.
7024
7025 * Catchpoints
7026
7027 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
7028 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
7029 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
7030
7031 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
7032 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
7033 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
7034
7035 * Debugging across forks
7036
7037 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
7038 in the inferior.
7039
7040 * TUI
7041
7042 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
7043 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
7044 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
7045
7046 * GDB remote protocol additions
7047
7048 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
7049 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
7050 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
7051 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
7052
7053 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
7054 full 64-bit address. The command
7055
7056 set remoteaddresssize 32
7057
7058 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
7059 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
7060 will be discarded.
7061
7062 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
7063 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
7064
7065 maint packet heythere
7066
7067 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
7068 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
7069 time.
7070
7071 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
7072 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
7073 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
7074
7075 * Tracing can collect general expressions
7076
7077 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
7078 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
7079 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
7080
7081 * mask-address variable for Mips
7082
7083 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
7084 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
7085 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
7086
7087 * Higher serial baud rates
7088
7089 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
7090 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
7091 to achieve all of these rates.)
7092
7093 * i960 simulator
7094
7095 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
7096 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
7097
7098
7099 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
7100
7101 * New native configurations
7102
7103 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
7104 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
7105 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
7106 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
7107 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
7108 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
7109 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
7110
7111 * New targets
7112
7113 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7114 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
7115 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7116 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
7117 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
7118 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
7119 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
7120 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
7121 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
7122 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7123 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
7124
7125 * New debugging protocols
7126
7127 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
7128 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
7129 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
7130 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7131 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7132 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7133
7134 * DWARF 2
7135
7136 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
7137 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
7138 information.
7139
7140 * Java frontend
7141
7142 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
7143 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
7144
7145 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
7146
7147 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
7148 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
7149 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
7150
7151 * Live range splitting
7152
7153 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
7154 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
7155 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
7156
7157 * Hurd support
7158
7159 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
7160 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
7161
7162 * ARM Thumb support
7163
7164 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
7165 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
7166 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
7167 accordingly.
7168
7169 * MIPS16 support
7170
7171 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
7172 instruction set.
7173
7174 * Overlay support
7175
7176 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
7177 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
7178 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
7179 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
7180 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
7181 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
7182
7183 * info symbol
7184
7185 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
7186 the symbol at the specified address.
7187
7188 * Trace support
7189
7190 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
7191 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
7192 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
7193 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
7194 file tracepoint.c for more details.
7195
7196 * MIPS simulator
7197
7198 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
7199 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
7200 of most MIPS variants.
7201
7202 * Sparc simulator
7203
7204 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
7205 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
7206 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
7207
7208 * set architecture
7209
7210 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
7211 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
7212 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
7213 the possible architectures.
7214
7215 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
7216
7217 * New native configurations
7218
7219 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
7220 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
7221 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
7222 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
7223 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
7224 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
7225
7226 * New targets
7227
7228 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
7229 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7230 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
7231 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
7232 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
7233 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
7234 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7235
7236 * PowerPC simulator
7237
7238 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
7239 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
7240 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
7241 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
7242 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
7243
7244 * Solaris 2.5
7245
7246 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
7247
7248 * Windows 95/NT native
7249
7250 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
7251 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
7252 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
7253 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
7254 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
7255
7256 * dont-repeat command
7257
7258 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
7259 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
7260 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
7261 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
7262
7263 * Send break instead of ^C
7264
7265 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
7266 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
7267 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
7268
7269 * Remote protocol timeout
7270
7271 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
7272 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
7273 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
7274
7275 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
7276
7277 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
7278 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
7279 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
7280 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
7281 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
7282
7283 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
7284 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
7285 automatically on hpux10.
7286
7287 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
7288
7289 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
7290
7291 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
7292
7293 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
7294 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
7295 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
7296 every character. The default value is 1050.
7297
7298 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
7299
7300 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
7301 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
7302 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
7303 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
7304 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
7305 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
7306
7307 * Speedups for remote debugging
7308
7309 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
7310 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
7311 and more efficient S-record downloading.
7312
7313 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
7314
7315 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
7316 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
7317
7318 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
7319
7320 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
7321
7322 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
7323 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
7324
7325 * Remote targets use caching
7326
7327 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
7328 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
7329 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
7330 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
7331 off' turns the data cache off.
7332
7333 * Remote targets may have threads
7334
7335 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
7336 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
7337 gdb/remote.c for details.
7338
7339 * NetROM support
7340
7341 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
7342 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
7343 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
7344 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
7345 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
7346 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
7347 sequence is something like
7348
7349 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
7350 load <prog>
7351 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
7352
7353 * Macintosh host
7354
7355 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
7356 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
7357 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
7358 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
7359 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
7360 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
7361 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
7362 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
7363
7364 * Autoconf
7365
7366 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
7367 but does simplify configuration and building.
7368
7369 * hpux10
7370
7371 GDB now supports hpux10.
7372
7373 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
7374
7375 * New native configurations
7376
7377 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
7378 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
7379 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
7380 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
7381
7382 * New targets
7383
7384 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7385 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
7386 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
7387 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
7388 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7389
7390 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
7391
7392 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
7393 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
7394 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
7395 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
7396 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
7397
7398 * Arguments to user-defined commands
7399
7400 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
7401 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
7402 trivial example:
7403 define adder
7404 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
7405
7406 To execute the command use:
7407 adder 1 2 3
7408
7409 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
7410 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
7411 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
7412
7413 * New `if' and `while' commands
7414
7415 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
7416 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
7417 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
7418 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
7419 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
7420 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
7421 if the expression is zero.
7422
7423 * Fortran source language mode
7424
7425 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
7426 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
7427 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
7428 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
7429 Fortran compilers.
7430
7431 * Better HPUX support
7432
7433 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
7434 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
7435 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
7436 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
7437 that behavior do the following before running the program:
7438
7439 adb -w a.out
7440 __dld_flags?W 0x5
7441 control-d
7442
7443 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
7444 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
7445
7446 adb -w a.out
7447 __dld_flags?W 0x4
7448 control-d
7449
7450 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
7451 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
7452 external linkage.
7453
7454 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
7455 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
7456
7457 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
7458
7459 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
7460 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
7461 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
7462 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
7463 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
7464 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
7465
7466 * New DOS host serial code
7467
7468 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
7469 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
7470 a PC's serial port.
7471
7472 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
7473
7474 * New "complete" command
7475
7476 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
7477 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
7478
7479 * Trailing space optional in prompt
7480
7481 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
7482 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
7483
7484 * Breakpoint hit counts
7485
7486 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
7487 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
7488 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
7489 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
7490 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
7491 that breakpoint.
7492
7493 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
7494
7495 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
7496 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
7497 arrays actually contain only short strings.
7498
7499 * Shared library breakpoints
7500
7501 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
7502 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
7503
7504 * Hardware watchpoints
7505
7506 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
7507 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
7508
7509 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
7510
7511 * Annotations
7512
7513 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
7514 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
7515
7516 * Improved Irix 5 support
7517
7518 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
7519
7520 * Improved HPPA support
7521
7522 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
7523
7524 * New native configurations
7525
7526 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
7527 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7528 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
7529 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
7530
7531 * New targets
7532
7533 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7534 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
7535 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
7536
7537 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
7538
7539 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
7540 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
7541
7542 * Fixes
7543
7544 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
7545 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
7546
7547 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
7548
7549 * Irix 5 is now supported
7550
7551 * HPPA support
7552
7553 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
7554 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
7555 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
7556 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
7557 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
7558
7559
7560 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
7561
7562 * User visible changes:
7563
7564 * Remote Debugging
7565
7566 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
7567 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
7568 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
7569 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
7570 debugging info for the mips target).
7571
7572 * DEC Alpha native support
7573
7574 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
7575 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
7576 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
7577 Alpha-specific notes.
7578
7579 * Preliminary thread implementation
7580
7581 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
7582
7583 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
7584
7585 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
7586 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
7587 for details).
7588
7589 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
7590
7591 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
7592 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
7593 call methods, ...etc.
7594
7595 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
7596
7597 * User visible changes:
7598
7599 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
7600 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
7601 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
7602 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
7603
7604 Filename completion now works.
7605
7606 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
7607 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
7608 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
7609
7610 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
7611 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
7612 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
7613 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
7614 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
7615
7616 * DEC alpha support
7617
7618 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
7619 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
7620
7621
7622 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
7623
7624 * Testsuite
7625
7626 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
7627 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
7628 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
7629
7630 * C++ demangling
7631
7632 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
7633 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
7634 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
7635 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
7636 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
7637
7638 * Simulators
7639
7640 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
7641 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
7642 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
7643
7644 * New targets supported
7645
7646 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7647 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7648 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
7649 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7650 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
7651
7652 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
7653 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
7654 GO32 memory extender.
7655
7656 * New remote protocols
7657
7658 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
7659
7660 * New source languages supported
7661
7662 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
7663 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
7664 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
7665
7666
7667 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
7668
7669 * HP Precision Architecture supported
7670
7671 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
7672 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
7673 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
7674 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
7675 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
7676 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
7677
7678 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
7679
7680 * Faster and better demangling
7681
7682 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
7683 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
7684 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
7685 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
7686 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
7687 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
7688 symbol lookups.
7689
7690 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
7691 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
7692 compiler does not actually implement.
7693
7694 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
7695
7696 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
7697 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
7698 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
7699 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
7700 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
7701 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
7702 fix.
7703
7704 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
7705 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
7706
7707 * Improved configure script
7708
7709 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
7710 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
7711 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
7712 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
7713
7714 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
7715 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
7716 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
7717 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
7718 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
7719 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
7720
7721 * Documentation improvements
7722
7723 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
7724 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
7725 before submitting changes.
7726
7727 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
7728 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
7729 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
7730 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
7731 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
7732
7733 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
7734 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
7735 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
7736 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
7737 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
7738 around this problem.
7739
7740 * New features
7741
7742 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7743 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7744 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7745 the target program.
7746
7747 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7748 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7749
7750 * New native hosts supported
7751
7752 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7753 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7754
7755 * New targets supported
7756
7757 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7758
7759 * New file formats supported
7760
7761 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7762 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7763
7764 * Major bug fixes
7765
7766 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7767
7768 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7769 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7770
7771 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7772 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7773 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7774
7775 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7776 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7777
7778 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7779 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7780 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7781 libraries.
7782
7783 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7784 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7785 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7786 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7787 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7788
7789 * Internal improvements
7790
7791 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7792 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7793
7794 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7795 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7796 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7797 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7798 shared code that handles any of them.
7799
7800 * New command line options
7801
7802 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7803
7804 * Mmalloc licensing
7805
7806 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7807 General Public License.
7808
7809 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7810
7811 * Host/native/target split
7812
7813 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7814 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7815 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7816 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7817 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7818
7819 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7820 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7821 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7822 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7823 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7824 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7825 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7826
7827 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7828 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7829 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7830
7831 * New hosts supported
7832
7833 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7834 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7835 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7836
7837 * New targets supported
7838
7839 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7840 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7841
7842 * New native hosts supported
7843
7844 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7845 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7846 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7847
7848 * New file formats supported
7849
7850 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7851 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7852 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7853
7854 * New commands
7855
7856 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7857 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7858 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7859
7860 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7861
7862 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7863 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7864 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7865 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7866
7867 * C++ improvements
7868
7869 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7870 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7871 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7872
7873 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7874
7875 * Major bug fixes
7876
7877 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7878 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7879 by the compiler.
7880
7881 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7882 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7883
7884 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7885 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7886 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7887 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7888 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7889 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7890
7891 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7892 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7893 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7894 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7895
7896 * AMD 29k support
7897
7898 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7899 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7900 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7901 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7902 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7903
7904 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7905 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7906 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7907 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7908
7909 * Remote interfaces
7910
7911 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7912 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7913 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7914 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7915 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7916 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7917 each instruction being stepped through.
7918
7919 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7920 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7921
7922 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7923 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7924 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7925 processor with a serial port.
7926
7927 * Configuration
7928
7929 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7930 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7931 supported, and what files each one uses.
7932
7933 * Library changes
7934
7935 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7936 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7937 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7938 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7939
7940 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7941 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7942 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7943 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7944
7945 * Documentation
7946
7947 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7948 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7949 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7950 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7951 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7952 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7953
7954 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7955
7956
7957 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7958
7959 * Better support for C++ function names
7960
7961 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7962 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7963 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7964 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7965 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7966
7967 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7968 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7969 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7970 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7971 for the list of formats.
7972
7973 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7974
7975 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7976 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7977 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7978 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
7979 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7980 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7981 this problem.)
7982
7983 * New 'maintenance' command
7984
7985 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7986 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7987 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7988
7989 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7990 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7991 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7992 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7993 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7994 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7995
7996 The following commands are new:
7997
7998 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7999 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
8000 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
8001
8002 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
8003
8004 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
8005 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
8006 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
8007 read after argv processing.
8008
8009 * New hosts supported
8010
8011 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
8012
8013 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
8014
8015 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
8016 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
8017 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
8018 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
8019 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
8020 It costs extra.
8021
8022 * New targets supported
8023
8024 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
8025
8026 * More smarts about finding #include files
8027
8028 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
8029 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
8030 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
8031 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
8032 the one that contains your sources.
8033
8034 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
8035 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
8036 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
8037
8038 * Interesting infernals change
8039
8040 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
8041 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
8042 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
8043 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
8044
8045 * Bug fixes (of course!)
8046
8047 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
8048 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
8049 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
8050
8051 See the ChangeLog for details.
8052
8053 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
8054
8055 * New machines supported (host and target)
8056
8057 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
8058
8059 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
8060
8061 * New malloc package
8062
8063 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
8064 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
8065 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
8066 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
8067 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
8068 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
8069
8070 * info proc
8071
8072 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
8073 'help info proc' for details.
8074
8075 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
8076
8077 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
8078 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
8079 possible.
8080
8081 * File name changes for MS-DOS
8082
8083 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
8084 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
8085 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
8086 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
8087 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
8088 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
8089
8090 * Cross byte order fixes
8091
8092 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
8093 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
8094
8095 * New -mapped and -readnow options
8096
8097 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
8098 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
8099 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
8100 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
8101 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
8102 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
8103 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
8104 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
8105 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
8106 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
8107
8108 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
8109 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
8110 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
8111 slower, but makes future operations faster.
8112
8113 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
8114 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
8115 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
8116 use is:
8117
8118 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
8119
8120 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
8121 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
8122 shared across multiple host platforms.
8123
8124 * longjmp() handling
8125
8126 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
8127 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
8128 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
8129 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
8130
8131 * Solaris 2.0
8132
8133 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
8134 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
8135 reading symbols.
8136
8137 * Bug fixes
8138
8139 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
8140 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
8141 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
8142
8143 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
8144
8145 * New machines supported (host and target)
8146
8147 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
8148 (except core files)
8149 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
8150 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
8151
8152 * New machines supported (target)
8153
8154 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
8155
8156 * C++ support
8157
8158 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
8159 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
8160 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
8161
8162 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
8163 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
8164 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
8165 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
8166 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
8167 released.
8168
8169 * New features for SVR4
8170
8171 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
8172 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
8173 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
8174
8175 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
8176 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
8177 it prints the address mappings of the process.
8178
8179 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
8180 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
8181
8182 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
8183
8184 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
8185 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
8186 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
8187 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
8188 same code linked statically.
8189
8190 * New Getopt
8191
8192 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
8193 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
8194 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
8195 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
8196 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
8197 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
8198
8199 * Bugs fixed
8200
8201 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
8202 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
8203 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
8204
8205
8206 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
8207
8208 * New machines supported (host and target)
8209
8210 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
8211 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
8212 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
8213
8214 * Almost SCO Unix support
8215
8216 We had hoped to support:
8217 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
8218 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
8219 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
8220 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
8221
8222 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
8223
8224 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
8225 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
8226 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
8227 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
8228 reqired (if any).
8229
8230 * New Readline
8231
8232 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
8233 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
8234 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
8235
8236 * Bugs fixed
8237
8238 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
8239 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
8240 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
8241
8242 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
8243
8244 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
8245 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
8246 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
8247
8248 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
8249 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
8250 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
8251 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
8252 version 2.
8253
8254 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
8255 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
8256 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
8257 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
8258 situation somewhat.
8259
8260 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
8261 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
8262 methods.
8263
8264 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
8265 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
8266 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
8267
8268
8269 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
8270
8271 * Improved configuration
8272
8273 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
8274 Porting BFD is simpler.
8275
8276 * Stepping improved
8277
8278 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
8279 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
8280 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
8281 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
8282
8283 * Bug fixing
8284
8285 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
8286
8287 * New host supported (not target)
8288
8289 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
8290
8291
8292 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
8293
8294 * Multiple source language support
8295
8296 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
8297 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
8298 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
8299 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
8300 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
8301 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
8302
8303 * GDB and Modula-2
8304
8305 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
8306 currently under development at the State University of New York at
8307 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
8308 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
8309
8310 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
8311 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
8312 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
8313
8314 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
8315 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
8316
8317 * set write on/off
8318
8319 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
8320 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
8321 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
8322 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
8323 effect immediately.
8324
8325 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
8326
8327 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
8328 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
8329 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
8330 examining core files.
8331
8332 * set listsize
8333
8334 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
8335 The default is 10.
8336
8337 * New machines supported (host and target)
8338
8339 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
8340 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
8341 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
8342
8343 * New hosts supported (not targets)
8344
8345 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
8346
8347 * New targets supported (not hosts)
8348
8349 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
8350 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
8351 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
8352
8353 * New remote interfaces
8354
8355 AMD 29000 Adapt
8356 AMD 29000 Minimon
8357
8358
8359 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
8360
8361 * New Facilities
8362
8363 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
8364
8365 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
8366 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
8367 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
8368 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
8369 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
8370 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
8371 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
8372 stub on the target system.
8373
8374 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
8375
8376 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
8377 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
8378 object file types such as a.out and coff.
8379
8380 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
8381 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
8382
8383
8384 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
8385
8386 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
8387 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
8388
8389 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
8390 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
8391 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
8392
8393 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
8394 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
8395 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
8396 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
8397
8398 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
8399 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
8400 it is already running. Default is ON.
8401
8402 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
8403 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
8404 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
8405 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
8406 Default is ON.
8407
8408 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
8409 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
8410 or the value of the environment variable
8411 GDBHISTFILE.
8412
8413 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
8414 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
8415 HISTSIZE.
8416
8417 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
8418 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
8419 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
8420
8421 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
8422 history expansion will be performed on
8423 command line input. The default is OFF.
8424
8425 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
8426 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
8427 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
8428
8429 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
8430 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
8431 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8432 variable TERM.
8433
8434 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
8435 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
8436 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8437 variable TERM.
8438
8439 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
8440 ``set width'' instead.
8441
8442 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
8443 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
8444 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
8445 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
8446
8447 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
8448 is OFF.
8449
8450 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
8451 "raw" form if off.
8452
8453 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
8454 like instructions.
8455
8456 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
8457
8458
8459 * Support for Epoch Environment.
8460
8461 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
8462 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
8463 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
8464 window.
8465
8466
8467 * Support for Shared Libraries
8468
8469 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
8470 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
8471 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
8472 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
8473 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
8474 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
8475 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
8476 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
8477
8478 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
8479 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
8480 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
8481
8482 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
8483
8484
8485 * Watchpoints
8486
8487 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
8488 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
8489 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
8490 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
8491 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
8492 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
8493
8494 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
8495
8496 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
8497
8498 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8499 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8500 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8501
8502
8503 * C++ multiple inheritance
8504
8505 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
8506 for C++ programs.
8507
8508 * C++ exception handling
8509
8510 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
8511 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
8512 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
8513 handler's context).
8514
8515 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
8516 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
8517 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
8518
8519 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
8520 current stack frame.
8521
8522
8523 * Minor command changes
8524
8525 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
8526 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
8527 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
8528
8529 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
8530 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
8531 frames without printing.
8532
8533 * New directory command
8534
8535 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
8536 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
8537 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
8538 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
8539 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
8540
8541 * Configuring GDB for compilation
8542
8543 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
8544 for more details.
8545
8546 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
8547 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
8548 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
8549 where the program that you are debugging will run.