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