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