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