1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
7 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
8 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
9 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
10 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
12 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
13 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
14 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
15 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
16 for tracepoint actions.
18 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
19 in hex as well as in symbolic form."
21 * Process record and replay
23 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
24 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
25 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
28 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
29 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
30 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
33 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
34 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
37 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
38 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
39 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
40 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
41 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
42 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
43 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
44 the installation instructions for more information.
46 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
47 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
48 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
49 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
51 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
52 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
54 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
55 now complete on file names.
57 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
58 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
59 For instance, consider:
61 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
62 # struct example variable;
65 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
66 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
68 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
69 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
71 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
72 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
75 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
76 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
77 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
79 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
80 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
81 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
82 and simulator targets may also provide them.
87 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
90 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
91 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
92 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
95 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
96 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
99 Obtains additional operating system information
103 Read or write additional signal information.
105 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
107 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
108 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
109 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
111 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
114 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
115 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
117 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
118 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
119 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
121 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
122 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
124 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
126 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
128 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
129 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
131 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
132 list of section offsets.
134 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
135 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
136 have also been fixed.
138 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
139 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
140 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
142 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
145 template<typename T> class C { };
148 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
150 ptype C<char const *>
152 ptype C<const char *>
155 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
157 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
158 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
160 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
161 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
162 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
164 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
165 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
167 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
170 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
171 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
173 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
174 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
179 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
180 available is determined at configure time.
182 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
184 * Ada tasking support
186 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
190 Print the list of Ada tasks.
192 Print detailed information about task number N.
194 Print the task number of the current task.
196 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
198 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
199 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
201 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
203 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
204 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
205 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
206 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
207 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
208 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
211 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
212 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
215 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
216 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
217 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
218 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
221 * Multi-architecture debugging.
223 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
224 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
225 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
226 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
227 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
229 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
230 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
231 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
232 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
233 --enable-targets configure option.
235 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
237 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
239 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
241 maint set python print-stack
242 maint show python print-stack
243 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
246 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
251 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
255 Show operating system information about processes.
258 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
261 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
264 Detach from inferior number NUM.
267 Kill inferior number NUM.
272 show spu stop-on-load
273 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
275 set spu auto-flush-cache
276 show spu auto-flush-cache
277 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
278 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
280 set sh calling-convention
281 show sh calling-convention
282 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
286 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
288 set disassemble-next-line
289 show disassemble-next-line
290 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
293 set remote noack-packet
294 show remote noack-packet
295 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
296 under "New remote packets."
298 set remote query-attached-packet
299 show remote query-attached-packet
300 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
302 set remote read-siginfo-object
303 show remote read-siginfo-object
304 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
307 set remote write-siginfo-object
308 show remote write-siginfo-object
309 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
312 set displaced-stepping
313 show displaced-stepping
314 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
315 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
316 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
320 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
322 maint set internal-error
323 maint show internal-error
324 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
326 maint set internal-warning
327 maint show internal-warning
328 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
333 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
335 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
336 show multiple-symbols
337 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
338 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
339 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
341 set breakpoint always-inserted
342 show breakpoint always-inserted
343 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
344 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
345 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
347 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
348 show arm fallback-mode
349 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
351 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
352 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
353 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
354 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
356 set disable-randomization
357 show disable-randomization
358 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
359 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
360 multiple debugging sessions.
364 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
369 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
370 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
371 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
372 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
374 set target-wide-charset
375 show target-wide-charset
376 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
377 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
379 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
381 set tcp connect-timeout
382 show tcp connect-timeout
383 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
384 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
385 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
387 set libthread-db-search-path
388 show libthread-db-search-path
389 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
392 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
393 show schedule-multiple
394 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
399 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
400 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
401 affecting correctness.
406 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
407 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
408 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
412 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
413 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
414 alias for the `fork' command.
417 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
418 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
419 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
422 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
423 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
424 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
428 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
429 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
430 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
433 * New native configurations
435 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
437 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
441 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
442 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
443 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
446 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
447 (mingw32ce) debugging.
453 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
455 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
457 * New native configurations
459 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
460 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
464 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
465 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
467 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
469 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
470 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
471 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
472 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
474 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
475 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
477 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
480 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
481 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
482 and in inlined functions.
484 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
485 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
486 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
488 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
490 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
491 registers on PowerPC targets.
493 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
494 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
496 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
497 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
499 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
500 extended-remote mode.
502 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
503 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
504 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
505 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
507 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
508 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
509 target architectures.
511 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
512 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
513 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
514 stored in two consecutive float registers.
516 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
519 * Improved support for debugging Ada
520 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
522 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
523 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
524 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
525 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
527 - Improved command completion in Ada
530 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
535 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
536 show print frame-arguments
537 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
538 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
543 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
550 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
559 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
562 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
566 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
568 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
570 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
571 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
572 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
574 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
575 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
576 -Bsymbolic linker option.
578 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
579 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
582 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
583 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
585 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
586 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
588 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
590 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
591 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
592 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
594 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
595 automatically displayed as character or string data.
597 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
598 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
601 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
602 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
603 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
605 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
608 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
609 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
610 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
612 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
614 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
616 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
617 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
618 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
620 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
621 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
623 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
624 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
625 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
626 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
627 Windows and SymbianOS).
629 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
630 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
632 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
633 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
639 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
640 when debugging using remote targets.
642 set mem inaccessible-by-default
643 show mem inaccessible-by-default
644 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
645 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
646 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
647 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
648 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
650 set breakpoint auto-hw
651 show breakpoint auto-hw
652 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
653 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
654 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
655 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
656 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
657 including "next" and "finish".
660 catch exception unhandled
661 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
664 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
668 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
669 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
670 an alias to "set sysroot".
673 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
674 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
677 * New native configurations
679 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
684 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
685 not query the target for its built-in description.
689 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
690 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
691 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
696 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
697 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
700 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
705 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
706 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
708 qXfer:libraries:read:
709 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
710 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
711 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
712 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
716 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
725 i[34567]86-*-netware*
726 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
727 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
729 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
732 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
733 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
742 * Other removed features
749 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
756 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
761 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
762 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
767 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
768 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
770 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
772 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
773 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
774 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
775 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
779 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
780 in debugging information.
784 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
785 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
787 set mips stack-arg-size
788 set mips saved-gpreg-size
790 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
792 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
797 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
799 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
800 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
801 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
803 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
804 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
807 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
808 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
810 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
811 stub provides the required support.
813 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
814 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
819 unset substitute-path
821 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
822 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
823 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
824 between compilation and debugging.
828 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
829 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
830 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
834 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
836 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
837 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
839 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
844 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
845 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
846 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
847 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
851 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
852 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
854 qXfer:memory-map:read:
855 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
856 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
861 Erase and program a flash memory device.
863 * Removed remote packets
866 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
867 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
869 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
873 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
875 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
879 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
880 only if it doesn't already have a value.
882 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
884 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
886 restart <n> Return the program state to a
887 previously saved state.
889 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
891 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
893 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
894 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
896 info forks List forks of the user program that
897 are available to be debugged.
899 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
900 forks of the user program that are
901 available to be debugged.
903 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
904 that are available to be debugged (and
905 kill the forked process).
907 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
908 that are available to be debugged (and
909 allow the process to continue).
913 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
915 * Improved Windows host support
917 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
918 native console support, and remote communications using either
919 network sockets or serial ports.
921 * Improved Modula-2 language support
923 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
924 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
925 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
926 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
927 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
928 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
932 The ARM rdi-share module.
934 The Netware NLM debug server.
936 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
938 * New native configurations
940 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
941 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
945 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
947 * New command line options
949 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
950 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
951 the child (debugged) program exited with.
952 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
953 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
954 specified multiple times and in conjunction
955 with the --command (-x) option.
957 * Deprecated commands removed
959 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
963 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
964 othernames set arm disassembler
965 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
966 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
967 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
970 * New BSD user-level threads support
972 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
973 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
976 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
977 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
978 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
980 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
981 are not yet supported.
983 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
984 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
986 * REMOVED configurations and files
988 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
989 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
990 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
992 * New "set print array-indexes" command
994 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
995 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
998 * VAX floating point support
1000 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1002 * User-defined command support
1004 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1005 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1006 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1008 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1010 * New command line option
1012 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1015 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1017 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1018 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1019 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1020 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1021 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1023 * Internationalization
1025 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1026 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1027 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1031 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1032 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1033 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1035 * New native configurations
1037 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1041 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1042 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1044 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1046 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1047 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1048 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1051 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1052 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1053 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1063 powerpc bdm protocol
1065 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1066 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1068 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1070 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1071 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1072 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1073 permanently REMOVED.
1082 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1084 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1086 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1087 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1090 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1092 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1093 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1094 IRIX long double values).
1098 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1099 command. This problem has been fixed.
1101 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1103 * Fix for ``many threads''
1105 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1106 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1109 ptrace: No such process.
1110 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1112 This problem has been fixed.
1114 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1116 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1119 * New ``start'' command.
1121 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1123 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1125 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1126 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1127 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1129 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1130 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1131 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1132 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1133 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1134 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1135 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1136 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1137 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1139 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1141 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1142 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1143 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1144 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1145 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1147 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1148 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1149 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1151 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1153 * New native configurations
1155 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1156 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1157 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1158 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1159 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1160 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1161 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1163 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1165 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1166 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1167 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1168 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1169 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1170 work, was also included.
1172 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1173 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1183 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1184 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1186 * REMOVED configurations and files
1188 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1189 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1190 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1191 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1192 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1193 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1194 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1195 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1196 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1197 sonymips mips-sony-*
1198 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1200 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1202 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1204 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1205 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1206 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1207 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1210 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1212 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1213 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1214 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1215 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1216 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1217 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1220 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1222 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1224 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1225 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1226 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1228 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1230 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1231 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1233 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1235 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1236 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1237 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1239 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1241 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1242 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1244 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1246 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1247 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1248 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1250 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1252 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1253 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1254 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1256 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1258 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1260 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1261 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1263 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1265 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1266 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1267 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1268 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1270 * Revised SPARC target
1272 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1273 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1274 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1275 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1276 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1280 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1281 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1282 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1285 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1287 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1288 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1291 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1293 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1294 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1295 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1296 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1297 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1298 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1299 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1300 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1301 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1303 * New native configurations
1305 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1306 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1307 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1308 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1309 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1311 * New debugging protocols
1313 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1315 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1317 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1318 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1319 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1321 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1323 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1324 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1325 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1326 permanently REMOVED.
1328 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1329 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1330 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1331 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1332 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1333 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1334 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1335 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1336 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1337 sonymips mips-sony-*
1338 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1340 * REMOVED configurations and files
1342 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1343 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1344 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1345 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1346 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1347 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1348 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1349 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1350 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1351 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1352 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1353 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1354 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1355 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1356 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1357 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1358 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1360 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1364 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1365 integrated into GDB.
1367 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1369 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1370 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1371 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1374 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1375 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1376 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1380 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1381 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1382 remote protocol documentation for details.
1384 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1386 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1387 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1388 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1391 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1393 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1394 per-thread variables.
1396 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1398 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1399 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1401 * Separate debug info.
1403 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1404 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1405 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1406 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1407 and optional debug files.
1409 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1411 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1412 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1415 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1416 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1420 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1421 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1422 considered "useable".
1424 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1426 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1427 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1430 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1432 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1433 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1435 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1437 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1438 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1441 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1443 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1444 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1448 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1449 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1450 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1451 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1452 data, for more informative profiling results.
1454 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1456 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1457 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1458 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1460 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1463 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1464 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1465 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1466 in a subsequent -var-update.
1468 * New native configurations.
1470 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1472 * Multi-arched targets.
1474 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1475 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1477 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1479 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1480 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1481 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1482 permanently REMOVED.
1484 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1485 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1486 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1487 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1488 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1489 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1490 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1491 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1492 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1493 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1494 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1495 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1497 * REMOVED configurations and files
1500 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1501 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1502 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1503 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1504 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1505 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1507 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1508 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1509 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1510 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1511 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1512 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1514 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1516 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1517 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1518 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1519 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1520 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1522 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1524 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1526 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1527 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1528 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1529 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1530 shared libs like mad''.
1532 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1534 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1535 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1536 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1537 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1539 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1541 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1542 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1545 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1546 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1548 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1549 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1551 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1552 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1553 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1554 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1556 * Multi-arched targets.
1558 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1559 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1561 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1562 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1563 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1567 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1570 * New native configurations
1572 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1573 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1574 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1575 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1577 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1579 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1580 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1581 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1582 permanently REMOVED.
1584 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1585 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1586 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1587 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1588 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1589 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1590 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1591 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1592 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1593 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1595 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1596 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1598 * OBSOLETE languages
1600 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1602 * REMOVED configurations and files
1604 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1605 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1606 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1607 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1608 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1610 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1612 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1614 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1615 commands. The default is 1024.
1617 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1619 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1621 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1623 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1624 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1625 from a file into memory (restore).
1627 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1629 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1630 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1631 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1633 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1641 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1642 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1643 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1645 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1646 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1647 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1649 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1650 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1651 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1653 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1654 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1655 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1657 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1659 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1661 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1662 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1663 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1664 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1665 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1666 (notably embedded) targets.
1668 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1670 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1671 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1672 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1673 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1675 * New command line option
1677 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1679 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1681 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1682 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1683 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1684 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1685 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1686 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1687 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1688 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1689 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1690 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1692 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1694 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1695 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1697 * New native configurations
1699 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1700 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1701 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1702 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1706 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1708 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1710 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1711 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1712 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1713 permanently REMOVED.
1715 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1716 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1717 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1718 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1719 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1721 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1723 * REMOVED configurations and files
1725 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1727 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1728 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1729 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1730 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1731 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1732 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1733 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1734 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1735 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1736 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1737 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1739 * Changes to command line processing
1741 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1742 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1744 * Changes to key bindings
1746 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1748 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1750 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1752 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1755 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1757 Numerous documentation fixes.
1759 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1761 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1763 * New native configurations
1765 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1766 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1767 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1768 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1769 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1770 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1774 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1776 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1778 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1780 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1781 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1782 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1783 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1784 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1786 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1787 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1788 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1789 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1790 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1791 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1792 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1793 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1795 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1796 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1798 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1799 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1800 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1801 permanently REMOVED.
1803 * REMOVED configurations and files
1805 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1806 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1808 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1812 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1814 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1815 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1820 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1822 * The MI enabled by default.
1824 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1825 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1826 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1827 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1828 which is now deprecated.
1830 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1832 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1833 main features are supported:
1835 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1837 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1840 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1842 - a Pascal expression parser.
1844 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1846 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1848 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1850 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1851 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1853 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1855 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1857 * Changes in completion.
1859 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1860 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1861 users expect at the shell prompt.
1863 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1864 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1865 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1866 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1867 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1868 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1869 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1871 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1873 * New platform-independent commands:
1875 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1876 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1877 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1879 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1881 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1882 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1883 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1885 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1887 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1888 multi-threaded programs though.
1890 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1892 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1894 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1895 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1898 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1900 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1901 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1902 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1903 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1904 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1907 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1908 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1909 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1911 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1913 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1914 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1916 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1917 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1920 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1921 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1922 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1923 a given linear address.
1925 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1926 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1927 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1929 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1931 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1933 * Changes in documentation.
1935 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1936 Documentation License.
1938 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1941 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1943 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1946 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1947 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1948 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1950 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1952 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1953 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1954 contents of this file.
1958 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1960 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1962 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1964 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1965 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1966 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1967 greater level of detail.
1969 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1971 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1972 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1973 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1976 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1978 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1979 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1980 machines ``out of the box''.
1982 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1983 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1984 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1985 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1986 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1988 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1989 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1990 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1991 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1992 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1994 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1995 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1998 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2001 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2002 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2003 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2004 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2006 * New native configurations
2008 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2009 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2013 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2014 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2015 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2016 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2018 * OBSOLETE configurations
2020 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2021 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2023 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2026 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2027 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2028 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2029 be permanently REMOVED.
2031 * Gould support removed
2033 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2035 * New features for SVR4
2037 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2038 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2039 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2041 * Many C++ enhancements
2043 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2044 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2046 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2048 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2049 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2050 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2051 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2053 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2054 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2056 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2058 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2059 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2060 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2062 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2063 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2065 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2067 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2068 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2069 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2071 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2073 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2074 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2075 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2077 * ``apropos'' command added.
2079 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2080 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2081 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2085 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2086 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2087 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2088 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2089 enabled by configuring with:
2091 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2093 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2095 * New native configurations
2097 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2098 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2099 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2103 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2104 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2105 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2107 * OBSOLETE configurations
2109 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2111 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2112 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2113 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2114 be permanently REMOVED.
2118 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2119 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2120 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2121 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2122 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2123 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2124 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2129 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2131 * set extension-language
2133 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2134 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2135 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2136 set extension-language .c c++
2137 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2138 and their associated languages.
2140 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2142 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2143 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2144 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2148 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2149 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2151 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2152 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2154 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2155 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2156 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2157 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2158 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2159 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2160 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2161 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2163 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2164 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2165 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2166 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2170 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2171 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2172 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2173 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2174 for xdb and dbx commands.
2178 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2179 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2180 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2182 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2183 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2184 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2186 * Debugging across forks
2188 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2193 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2194 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2195 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2197 * GDB remote protocol additions
2199 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2200 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2201 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2202 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2204 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2205 full 64-bit address. The command
2207 set remoteaddresssize 32
2209 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2210 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2213 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2214 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2216 maint packet heythere
2218 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2219 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2222 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2223 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2224 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2226 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2228 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2229 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2230 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2232 * mask-address variable for Mips
2234 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2235 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2236 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2238 * Higher serial baud rates
2240 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2241 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2242 to achieve all of these rates.)
2246 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2247 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2250 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2252 * New native configurations
2254 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2255 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2256 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2257 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2258 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2259 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2260 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2264 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2265 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2266 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2267 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2268 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2269 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2270 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2271 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2272 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2273 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2274 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2276 * New debugging protocols
2278 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2279 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2280 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2281 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2282 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2283 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2287 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2288 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2293 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2294 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2296 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2298 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2299 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2300 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2302 * Live range splitting
2304 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2305 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2306 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2310 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2311 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2315 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2316 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2317 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2322 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2327 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2328 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2329 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2330 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2331 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2332 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2336 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2337 the symbol at the specified address.
2341 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2342 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2343 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2344 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2345 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2349 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2350 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2351 of most MIPS variants.
2355 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2356 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2357 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2361 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2362 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2363 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2364 the possible architectures.
2366 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2368 * New native configurations
2370 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2371 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2372 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2373 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2374 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2375 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2379 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2380 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2381 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2382 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2383 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2385 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2389 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2390 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2391 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2392 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2393 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2397 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2399 * Windows 95/NT native
2401 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2402 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2403 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2404 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2405 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2407 * dont-repeat command
2409 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2410 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2411 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2412 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2414 * Send break instead of ^C
2416 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2417 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2418 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2420 * Remote protocol timeout
2422 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2423 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2424 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2426 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2428 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2429 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2430 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2431 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2432 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2434 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2435 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2436 automatically on hpux10.
2438 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2440 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2442 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2444 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2445 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2446 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2447 every character. The default value is 1050.
2449 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2451 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2452 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2453 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2454 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2455 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2456 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2458 * Speedups for remote debugging
2460 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2461 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2462 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2464 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2466 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2467 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2469 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2471 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2473 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2474 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2476 * Remote targets use caching
2478 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2479 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2480 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2481 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2482 off' turns the the data cache off.
2484 * Remote targets may have threads
2486 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2487 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2488 gdb/remote.c for details.
2492 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2493 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2494 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2495 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2496 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2497 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2498 sequence is something like
2500 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2502 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2506 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2507 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2508 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2509 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2510 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2511 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2512 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2513 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2517 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2518 but does simplify configuration and building.
2522 GDB now supports hpux10.
2524 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2526 * New native configurations
2528 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2529 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2530 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2531 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2535 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2536 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2537 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2538 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2541 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2543 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2544 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2545 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2546 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2547 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2549 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2551 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2552 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2555 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2557 To execute the command use:
2560 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2561 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2562 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2564 * New `if' and `while' commands
2566 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2567 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2568 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2569 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2570 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2571 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2572 if the expression is zero.
2574 * Fortran source language mode
2576 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2577 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2578 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2579 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2582 * Better HPUX support
2584 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2585 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2586 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2587 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2588 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2594 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2595 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2601 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2602 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2605 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2606 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2608 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2610 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2611 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2612 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2613 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2614 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2615 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2617 * New DOS host serial code
2619 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2620 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2623 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2625 * New "complete" command
2627 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2628 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2630 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2632 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2633 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2635 * Breakpoint hit counts
2637 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2638 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2639 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2640 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2641 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2644 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2646 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2647 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2648 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2650 * Shared library breakpoints
2652 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2653 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2655 * Hardware watchpoints
2657 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2658 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2660 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2664 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2665 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2667 * Improved Irix 5 support
2669 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2671 * Improved HPPA support
2673 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2675 * New native configurations
2677 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2678 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2679 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2680 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2684 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2685 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2688 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2690 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2691 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2695 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2696 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2698 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2700 * Irix 5 is now supported
2704 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2705 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2706 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2707 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2708 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2711 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2713 * User visible changes:
2717 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2718 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2719 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2720 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2721 debugging info for the mips target).
2723 * DEC Alpha native support
2725 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2726 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2727 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2728 Alpha-specific notes.
2730 * Preliminary thread implementation
2732 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2734 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2736 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2737 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2740 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2742 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2743 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2744 call methods, ...etc.
2746 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2748 * User visible changes:
2750 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2751 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2752 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2753 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2755 Filename completion now works.
2757 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2758 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2759 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2761 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2762 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2763 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2764 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2765 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2769 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2770 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2773 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2777 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2778 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2779 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2783 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2784 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2785 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2786 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2787 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2791 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2792 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2793 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2795 * New targets supported
2797 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2798 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2799 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2800 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2801 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2803 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2804 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2805 GO32 memory extender.
2807 * New remote protocols
2809 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2811 * New source languages supported
2813 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2814 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2815 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2818 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2820 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2822 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2823 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2824 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2825 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2826 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2827 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2829 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2831 * Faster and better demangling
2833 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2834 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2835 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2836 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2837 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2838 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2841 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2842 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2843 compiler does not actually implement.
2845 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2847 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2848 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2849 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2850 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2851 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2852 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2855 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2856 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2858 * Improved configure script
2860 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2861 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2862 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2863 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2865 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2866 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2867 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2868 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2869 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2870 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2872 * Documentation improvements
2874 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2875 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2876 before submitting changes.
2878 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2879 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2880 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2881 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2882 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2884 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2885 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2886 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2887 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2888 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2889 around this problem.
2893 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2894 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2895 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2898 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2899 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2901 * New native hosts supported
2903 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2904 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2906 * New targets supported
2908 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2910 * New file formats supported
2912 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2913 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2917 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2919 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2920 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2922 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2923 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2924 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2926 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2927 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2929 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2930 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2931 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2934 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2935 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2936 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2937 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2938 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2940 * Internal improvements
2942 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2943 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2945 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2946 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2947 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2948 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2949 shared code that handles any of them.
2951 * New command line options
2953 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2957 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2958 General Public License.
2960 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2962 * Host/native/target split
2964 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2965 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2966 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2967 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2968 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2970 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2971 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2972 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2973 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2974 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2975 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2976 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2978 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2979 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2980 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2982 * New hosts supported
2984 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2985 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2986 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2988 * New targets supported
2990 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2991 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2993 * New native hosts supported
2995 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2996 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2997 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2999 * New file formats supported
3001 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3002 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3003 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3007 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3008 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3009 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3011 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3013 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3014 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3015 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3016 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3020 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3021 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3022 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3024 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3028 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3029 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3032 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3033 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3035 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3036 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3037 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3038 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3039 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3040 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3042 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3043 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3044 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3045 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3049 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3050 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3051 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3052 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3053 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3055 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3056 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3057 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3058 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3062 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3063 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3064 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3065 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3066 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3067 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3068 each instruction being stepped through.
3070 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3071 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3073 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3074 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3075 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3076 processor with a serial port.
3080 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3081 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3082 supported, and what files each one uses.
3086 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3087 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3088 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3089 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3091 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3092 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3093 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3094 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3098 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3099 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3100 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3101 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3102 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3103 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3105 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3108 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3110 * Better support for C++ function names
3112 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3113 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3114 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3115 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3116 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3118 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3119 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3120 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3121 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3122 for the list of formats.
3124 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3126 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3127 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3128 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3129 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3130 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3131 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3134 * New 'maintenance' command
3136 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3137 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3138 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3140 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3141 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3142 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3143 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3144 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3145 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3147 The following commands are new:
3149 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3150 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3151 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3153 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3155 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3156 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3157 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3158 read after argv processing.
3160 * New hosts supported
3162 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3164 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3166 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3167 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3168 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3169 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3170 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3173 * New targets supported
3175 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3177 * More smarts about finding #include files
3179 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3180 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3181 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3182 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3183 the one that contains your sources.
3185 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3186 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3187 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3189 * Interesting infernals change
3191 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3192 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3193 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3194 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3196 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3198 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3199 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3200 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3202 See the ChangeLog for details.
3204 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3206 * New machines supported (host and target)
3208 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3210 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3212 * New malloc package
3214 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3215 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3216 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3217 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3218 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3219 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3223 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3224 'help info proc' for details.
3226 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3228 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3229 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3232 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3234 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3235 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3236 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3237 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3238 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3239 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3241 * Cross byte order fixes
3243 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3244 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3246 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3248 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3249 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3250 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3251 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3252 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3253 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3254 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3255 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3256 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3257 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3259 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3260 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3261 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3262 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3264 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3265 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3266 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3269 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3271 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3272 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3273 shared across multiple host platforms.
3275 * longjmp() handling
3277 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3278 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3279 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3280 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3284 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3285 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3290 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3291 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3292 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3294 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3296 * New machines supported (host and target)
3298 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3300 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3301 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3303 * New machines supported (target)
3305 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3309 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3310 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3311 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3313 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3314 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3315 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3316 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3317 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3320 * New features for SVR4
3322 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3323 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3324 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3326 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3327 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3328 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3330 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3331 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3333 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3335 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3336 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3337 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3338 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3339 same code linked statically.
3343 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3344 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3345 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3346 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3347 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3348 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3352 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3353 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3354 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3357 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3359 * New machines supported (host and target)
3361 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3362 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3363 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3365 * Almost SCO Unix support
3367 We had hoped to support:
3368 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3369 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3370 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3371 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3373 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3375 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3376 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3377 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3378 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3383 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3384 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3385 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3389 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3390 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3391 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3393 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3395 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3396 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3397 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3399 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3400 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3401 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3402 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3405 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3406 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3407 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3408 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3411 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3412 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3415 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3416 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3417 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3420 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3422 * Improved configuration
3424 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3425 Porting BFD is simpler.
3429 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3430 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3431 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3432 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3436 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3438 * New host supported (not target)
3440 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3443 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3445 * Multiple source language support
3447 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3448 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3449 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3450 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3451 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3452 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3456 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3457 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3458 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3459 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3461 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3462 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3463 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3465 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3466 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3470 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3471 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3472 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3473 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3476 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3478 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3479 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3480 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3481 examining core files.
3485 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3488 * New machines supported (host and target)
3490 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3491 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3492 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3494 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3496 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3498 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3500 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3501 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3502 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3504 * New remote interfaces
3510 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3514 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3516 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3517 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3518 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3519 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3520 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3521 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3522 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3523 stub on the target system.
3525 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3527 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3528 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3529 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3531 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3532 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3535 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3537 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3538 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3540 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3541 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3542 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3544 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3545 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3546 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3547 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3549 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3550 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3551 it is already running. Default is ON.
3553 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3554 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3555 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3556 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3559 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3560 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3561 or the value of the environment variable
3564 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3565 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3568 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3569 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3570 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3572 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3573 history expansion will be performed on
3574 command line input. The default is OFF.
3576 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3577 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3578 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3580 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3581 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3582 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3585 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3586 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3587 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3590 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3591 ``set width'' instead.
3593 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3594 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3595 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3596 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3598 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3601 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3604 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3607 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3610 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3612 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3613 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3614 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3618 * Support for Shared Libraries
3620 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3621 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3622 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3623 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3624 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3625 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3626 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3627 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3629 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3630 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3631 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3633 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3638 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3639 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3640 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3641 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3642 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3643 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3645 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3647 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3649 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3650 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3651 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3654 * C++ multiple inheritance
3656 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3659 * C++ exception handling
3661 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3662 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3663 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3666 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3667 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3668 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3670 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3671 current stack frame.
3674 * Minor command changes
3676 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3677 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3678 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3680 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3681 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3682 frames without printing.
3684 * New directory command
3686 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3687 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3688 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3689 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3690 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3692 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3694 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3697 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3698 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3699 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3700 where the program that you are debugging will run.