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