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