1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.2:
6 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
8 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
9 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
10 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
11 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
13 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
15 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
16 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
19 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
20 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
22 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
23 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
25 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
26 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
27 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
28 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
30 * Multi-arched targets.
32 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
33 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
35 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
36 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
37 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
41 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
44 * New native configurations
46 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
47 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
48 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
49 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
51 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
53 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
54 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
55 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
58 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
59 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
60 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
61 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
62 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
66 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
68 * REMOVED configurations and files
70 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
71 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
72 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
73 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
74 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
76 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
78 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
80 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
81 commands. The default is 1024.
83 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
85 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
87 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
89 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
90 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
91 from a file into memory (restore).
93 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
101 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
102 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
103 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
105 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
106 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
107 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
109 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
110 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
111 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
113 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
114 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
115 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
117 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
119 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
121 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
122 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
123 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
124 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
125 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
126 (notably embedded) targets.
128 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
130 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
131 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
132 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
133 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
135 * New command line option
137 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
139 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
141 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
142 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
143 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
144 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
145 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
146 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
147 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
148 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
149 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
150 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
152 * Changes in ARM configurations.
154 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
155 configuration is fully multi-arch.
157 * New native configurations
159 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
160 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
161 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
162 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
166 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
168 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
170 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
171 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
172 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
175 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
176 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
177 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
178 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
179 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
181 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
183 * REMOVED configurations and files
185 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
187 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
188 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
189 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
190 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
191 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
192 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
193 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
194 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
195 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
196 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
197 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
199 * Changes to command line processing
201 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
202 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
204 * Changes to key bindings
206 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
208 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
210 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
212 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
215 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
217 Numerous documentation fixes.
219 Numerous testsuite fixes.
221 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
223 * New native configurations
225 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
226 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
227 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
228 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
230 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
234 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
236 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
238 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
240 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
241 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
242 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
243 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
244 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
246 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
247 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
248 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
249 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
250 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
251 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
252 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
253 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
255 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
256 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
258 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
259 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
260 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
263 * REMOVED configurations and files
265 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
266 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
268 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
272 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
274 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
275 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
280 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
282 * The MI enabled by default.
284 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
285 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
286 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
287 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
288 which is now deprecated.
290 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
292 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
293 main features are supported:
295 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
297 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
300 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
302 - a Pascal expression parser.
304 However, some important features are not yet supported.
306 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
308 - there are some problems with boolean types;
310 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
311 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
313 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
315 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
317 * Changes in completion.
319 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
320 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
321 users expect at the shell prompt.
323 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
324 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
325 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
326 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
327 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
328 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
329 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
331 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
333 * New platform-independent commands:
335 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
336 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
337 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
339 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
341 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
342 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
343 many threads as your system allows you to have.
345 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
347 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
348 multi-threaded programs though.
350 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
352 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
354 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
355 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
358 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
360 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
361 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
362 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
363 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
364 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
367 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
368 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
369 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
371 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
373 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
374 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
376 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
377 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
380 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
381 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
382 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
383 a given linear address.
385 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
386 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
387 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
389 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
391 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
393 * Changes in documentation.
395 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
396 Documentation License.
398 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
401 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
403 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
406 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
407 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
408 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
410 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
412 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
413 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
414 contents of this file.
418 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
420 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
422 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
424 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
425 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
426 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
427 greater level of detail.
429 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
431 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
432 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
433 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
436 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
438 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
439 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
440 machines ``out of the box''.
442 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
443 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
444 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
445 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
446 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
448 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
449 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
450 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
451 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
452 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
454 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
455 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
458 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
461 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
462 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
463 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
464 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
466 * New native configurations
468 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
469 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
473 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
474 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
475 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
476 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
478 * OBSOLETE configurations
480 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
481 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
483 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
486 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
487 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
488 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
489 be permanently REMOVED.
491 * Gould support removed
493 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
495 * New features for SVR4
497 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
498 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
499 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
501 * Many C++ enhancements
503 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
504 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
506 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
508 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
509 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
510 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
511 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
513 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
514 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
516 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
518 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
519 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
520 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
522 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
523 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
525 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
527 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
528 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
529 include ``set remote P-packet''.
531 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
533 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
534 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
535 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
537 * ``apropos'' command added.
539 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
540 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
541 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
545 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
546 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
547 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
548 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
549 enabled by configuring with:
551 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
553 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
555 * New native configurations
557 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
558 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
559 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
563 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
564 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
565 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
567 * OBSOLETE configurations
569 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
571 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
572 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
573 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
574 be permanently REMOVED.
578 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
579 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
580 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
581 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
582 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
583 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
584 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
589 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
591 * set extension-language
593 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
594 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
595 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
596 set extension-language .c c++
597 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
598 and their associated languages.
600 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
602 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
603 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
604 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
608 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
609 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
611 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
612 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
614 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
615 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
616 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
617 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
618 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
619 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
620 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
621 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
623 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
624 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
625 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
626 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
630 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
631 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
632 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
633 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
634 for xdb and dbx commands.
638 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
639 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
640 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
642 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
643 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
644 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
646 * Debugging across forks
648 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
653 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
654 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
655 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
657 * GDB remote protocol additions
659 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
660 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
661 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
662 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
664 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
665 full 64-bit address. The command
667 set remoteaddresssize 32
669 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
670 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
673 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
674 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
676 maint packet heythere
678 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
679 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
682 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
683 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
684 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
686 * Tracing can collect general expressions
688 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
689 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
690 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
692 * mask-address variable for Mips
694 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
695 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
696 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
698 * Higher serial baud rates
700 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
701 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
702 to achieve all of these rates.)
706 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
707 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
710 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
712 * New native configurations
714 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
715 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
716 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
717 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
718 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
719 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
720 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
724 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
725 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
726 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
727 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
728 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
729 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
730 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
731 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
732 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
733 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
734 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
736 * New debugging protocols
738 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
739 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
740 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
741 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
742 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
743 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
747 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
748 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
753 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
754 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
756 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
758 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
759 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
760 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
762 * Live range splitting
764 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
765 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
766 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
770 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
771 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
775 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
776 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
777 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
782 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
787 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
788 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
789 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
790 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
791 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
792 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
796 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
797 the symbol at the specified address.
801 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
802 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
803 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
804 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
805 file tracepoint.c for more details.
809 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
810 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
811 of most MIPS variants.
815 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
816 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
817 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
821 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
822 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
823 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
824 the possible architectures.
826 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
828 * New native configurations
830 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
831 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
832 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
833 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
834 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
835 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
839 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
840 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
841 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
842 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
843 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
845 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
849 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
850 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
851 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
852 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
853 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
857 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
859 * Windows 95/NT native
861 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
862 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
863 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
864 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
865 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
867 * dont-repeat command
869 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
870 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
871 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
872 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
874 * Send break instead of ^C
876 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
877 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
878 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
880 * Remote protocol timeout
882 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
883 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
884 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
886 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
888 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
889 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
890 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
891 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
892 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
894 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
895 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
896 automatically on hpux10.
898 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
900 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
902 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
904 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
905 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
906 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
907 every character. The default value is 1050.
909 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
911 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
912 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
913 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
914 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
915 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
916 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
918 * Speedups for remote debugging
920 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
921 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
922 and more efficient S-record downloading.
924 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
926 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
927 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
929 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
933 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
934 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
936 * Remote targets use caching
938 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
939 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
940 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
941 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
942 off' turns the the data cache off.
944 * Remote targets may have threads
946 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
947 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
948 gdb/remote.c for details.
952 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
953 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
954 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
955 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
956 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
957 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
958 sequence is something like
960 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
962 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
966 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
967 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
968 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
969 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
970 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
971 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
972 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
973 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
977 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
978 but does simplify configuration and building.
982 GDB now supports hpux10.
984 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
986 * New native configurations
988 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
989 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
990 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
991 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
995 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
996 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
997 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
998 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1001 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1003 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1004 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1005 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1006 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1007 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1009 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1011 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1012 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1015 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1017 To execute the command use:
1020 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1021 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1022 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1024 * New `if' and `while' commands
1026 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1027 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1028 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1029 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1030 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1031 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1032 if the expression is zero.
1034 * Fortran source language mode
1036 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1037 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1038 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1039 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1042 * Better HPUX support
1044 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1045 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1046 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1047 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1048 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1054 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1055 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1061 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1062 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1065 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1066 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1068 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1070 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1071 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1072 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1073 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1074 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1075 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1077 * New DOS host serial code
1079 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1080 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1083 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1085 * New "complete" command
1087 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1088 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1090 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1092 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1093 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1095 * Breakpoint hit counts
1097 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1098 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1099 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1100 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1101 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1104 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1106 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1107 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1108 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1110 * Shared library breakpoints
1112 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1113 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1115 * Hardware watchpoints
1117 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1118 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1120 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1124 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1125 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1127 * Improved Irix 5 support
1129 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1131 * Improved HPPA support
1133 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1135 * New native configurations
1137 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1138 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1139 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1140 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1144 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1145 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1148 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1150 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1151 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1155 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1156 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1158 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1160 * Irix 5 is now supported
1164 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1165 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1166 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1167 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1168 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1171 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1173 * User visible changes:
1177 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1178 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1179 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1180 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1181 debugging info for the mips target).
1183 * DEC Alpha native support
1185 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1186 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1187 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1188 Alpha-specific notes.
1190 * Preliminary thread implementation
1192 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1194 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1196 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1197 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1200 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1202 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1203 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1204 call methods, ...etc.
1206 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1208 * User visible changes:
1210 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1211 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1212 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1213 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1215 Filename completion now works.
1217 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1218 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1219 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1221 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1222 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1223 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1224 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1225 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1229 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1230 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1233 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1237 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1238 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1239 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1243 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1244 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1245 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1246 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1247 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1251 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1252 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1253 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1255 * New targets supported
1257 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1258 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1259 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1260 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1261 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1263 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1264 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1265 GO32 memory extender.
1267 * New remote protocols
1269 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1271 * New source languages supported
1273 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1274 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1275 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1278 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1280 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1282 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1283 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1284 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1285 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1286 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1287 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1289 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1291 * Faster and better demangling
1293 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1294 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1295 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1296 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1297 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1298 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1301 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1302 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1303 compiler does not actually implement.
1305 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1307 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1308 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1309 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1310 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1311 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1312 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1315 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1316 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1318 * Improved configure script
1320 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1321 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1322 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1323 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1325 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1326 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1327 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1328 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1329 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1330 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1332 * Documentation improvements
1334 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1335 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1336 before submitting changes.
1338 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1339 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1340 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1341 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1342 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1344 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1345 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1346 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1347 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1348 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1349 around this problem.
1353 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1354 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1355 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1358 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1359 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1361 * New native hosts supported
1363 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1364 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1366 * New targets supported
1368 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1370 * New file formats supported
1372 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1373 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1377 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1379 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1380 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1382 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1383 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1384 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1386 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1387 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1389 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1390 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1391 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1394 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1395 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1396 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1397 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1398 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1400 * Internal improvements
1402 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1403 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1405 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1406 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1407 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1408 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1409 shared code that handles any of them.
1411 * New command line options
1413 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1417 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1418 General Public License.
1420 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1422 * Host/native/target split
1424 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1425 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1426 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1427 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1428 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1430 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1431 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1432 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1433 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1434 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1435 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1436 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1438 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1439 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1440 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1442 * New hosts supported
1444 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1445 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1446 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1448 * New targets supported
1450 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1451 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1453 * New native hosts supported
1455 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1456 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1457 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1459 * New file formats supported
1461 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1462 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1463 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1467 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1468 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1469 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1471 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1473 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1474 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1475 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1476 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1480 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1481 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1482 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1484 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1488 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1489 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1492 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1493 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1495 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1496 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1497 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1498 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1499 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1500 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1502 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1503 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1504 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1505 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1509 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1510 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1511 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1512 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1513 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1515 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1516 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1517 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1518 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1522 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1523 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1524 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1525 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1526 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1527 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1528 each instruction being stepped through.
1530 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1531 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1533 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1534 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1535 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1536 processor with a serial port.
1540 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1541 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1542 supported, and what files each one uses.
1546 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1547 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1548 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1549 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1551 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1552 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1553 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1554 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1558 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1559 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1560 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1561 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1562 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1563 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1565 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1568 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1570 * Better support for C++ function names
1572 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1573 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1574 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1575 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1576 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1578 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1579 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1580 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1581 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1582 for the list of formats.
1584 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1586 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1587 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1588 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1589 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1590 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1591 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1594 * New 'maintenance' command
1596 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1597 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1598 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1600 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1601 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1602 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1603 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1604 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1605 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1607 The following commands are new:
1609 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1610 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1611 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1613 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1615 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1616 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1617 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1618 read after argv processing.
1620 * New hosts supported
1622 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1624 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1626 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1627 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1628 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1629 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1630 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1633 * New targets supported
1635 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1637 * More smarts about finding #include files
1639 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1640 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1641 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1642 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1643 the one that contains your sources.
1645 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1646 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1647 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1649 * Interesting infernals change
1651 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1652 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1653 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1654 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1656 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1658 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1659 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1660 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1662 See the ChangeLog for details.
1664 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1666 * New machines supported (host and target)
1668 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1670 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1672 * New malloc package
1674 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1675 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1676 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1677 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1678 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1679 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1683 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1684 'help info proc' for details.
1686 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1688 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1689 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1692 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1694 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1695 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1696 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1697 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1698 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1699 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1701 * Cross byte order fixes
1703 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1704 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1706 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1708 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1709 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1710 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1711 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1712 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1713 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1714 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1715 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1716 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1717 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1719 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1720 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1721 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1722 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1724 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1725 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1726 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1729 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1731 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1732 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1733 shared across multiple host platforms.
1735 * longjmp() handling
1737 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1738 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1739 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1740 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1744 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1745 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1750 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1751 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1752 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1754 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1756 * New machines supported (host and target)
1758 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1760 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1761 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1763 * New machines supported (target)
1765 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1769 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1770 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1771 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1773 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1774 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1775 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1776 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1777 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1780 * New features for SVR4
1782 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1783 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1784 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1786 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1787 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1788 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1790 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1791 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1793 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1795 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1796 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1797 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1798 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1799 same code linked statically.
1803 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1804 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1805 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1806 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1807 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1808 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1812 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1813 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1814 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1817 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1819 * New machines supported (host and target)
1821 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1822 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1823 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1825 * Almost SCO Unix support
1827 We had hoped to support:
1828 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1829 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1830 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1831 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1833 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1835 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1836 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1837 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1838 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1843 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1844 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1845 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1849 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1850 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1851 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1853 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1855 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1856 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1857 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1859 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1860 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1861 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1862 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1865 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1866 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1867 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1868 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1871 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1872 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1875 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1876 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1877 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1880 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1882 * Improved configuration
1884 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1885 Porting BFD is simpler.
1889 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1890 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1891 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1892 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1896 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1898 * New host supported (not target)
1900 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1903 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1905 * Multiple source language support
1907 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1908 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1909 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1910 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1911 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1912 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1916 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1917 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1918 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1919 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1921 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1922 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1923 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1925 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1926 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1930 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1931 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1932 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1933 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1936 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1938 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1939 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1940 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1941 examining core files.
1945 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1948 * New machines supported (host and target)
1950 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1951 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1952 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1954 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1956 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1958 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1960 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1961 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1962 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1964 * New remote interfaces
1970 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1974 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1976 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1977 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1978 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1979 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1980 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1981 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1982 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1983 stub on the target system.
1985 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1987 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1988 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1989 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1991 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1992 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1995 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1997 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1998 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2000 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2001 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2002 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2004 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2005 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2006 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2007 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2009 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2010 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2011 it is already running. Default is ON.
2013 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2014 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2015 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2016 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2019 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2020 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2021 or the value of the environment variable
2024 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2025 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2028 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2029 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2030 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2032 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2033 history expansion will be performed on
2034 command line input. The default is OFF.
2036 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2037 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2038 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2040 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2041 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2042 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2045 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2046 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2047 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2050 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2051 ``set width'' instead.
2053 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2054 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2055 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2056 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2058 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2061 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2064 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2067 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2070 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2072 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2073 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2074 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2078 * Support for Shared Libraries
2080 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2081 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2082 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2083 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2084 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2085 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2086 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2087 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2089 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2090 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2091 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2093 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2098 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2099 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2100 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2101 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2102 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2103 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2105 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2107 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2109 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2110 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2111 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2114 * C++ multiple inheritance
2116 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2119 * C++ exception handling
2121 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2122 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2123 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2126 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2127 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2128 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2130 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2131 current stack frame.
2134 * Minor command changes
2136 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2137 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2138 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2140 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2141 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2142 frames without printing.
2144 * New directory command
2146 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2147 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2148 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2149 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2150 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2152 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2154 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2157 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2158 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2159 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2160 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob