1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.0
10 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
11 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
12 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
13 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
14 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
18 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
19 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
24 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
25 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
29 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
37 * Multi-program debugging.
39 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
40 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
41 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
42 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
43 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
44 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
45 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
46 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
48 * New tracing features
50 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
52 ** Trace state variables
54 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
55 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
56 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
57 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
58 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
59 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
60 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
61 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
62 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
63 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
67 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
68 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
69 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
70 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
71 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
72 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
73 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
74 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
75 the regular trace command.
77 ** Disconnected tracing
79 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
80 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
81 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
82 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
83 connection is lost unexpectedly.
87 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
88 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
89 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
90 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
91 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
92 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
98 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
99 the arguments to be comma-separated.
102 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
103 which only declare a variable are not shown.
106 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
107 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
110 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
111 "set script-extension" (see below).
113 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
115 record save [<FILENAME>]
116 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
117 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
119 record restore <FILENAME>
120 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
121 earlier time, for replay debugging.
123 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
126 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
127 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
133 maint info program-spaces
134 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
136 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
137 show remote interrupt-sequence
138 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
139 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
140 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
141 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
142 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
144 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
145 show remote interrupt-on-connect
146 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
147 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
150 set remotebreak [on | off]
152 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
154 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
155 Create or modify a trace state variable.
158 List trace state variables and their values.
160 delete tvariable $NAME ...
161 Delete one or more trace state variables.
164 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
165 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
167 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
168 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
170 * New expression syntax
172 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
173 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
177 set follow-exec-mode new|same
178 show follow-exec-mode
179 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
180 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
181 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
183 set default-collect EXPR, ...
185 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
186 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
187 such as registers or a critical global variable.
189 set disconnected-tracing
190 show disconnected-tracing
191 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
192 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
195 set script-extension off|soft|strict
196 show script-extension
197 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
198 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
199 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
200 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
202 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
204 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
205 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
206 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
207 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
208 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
209 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
210 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
216 Define a trace state variable.
219 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
222 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
225 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
229 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
231 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
232 much more reliable. In particular:
233 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
234 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
235 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
236 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
237 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
238 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
239 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
240 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
241 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
242 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
243 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
244 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
245 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
246 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
247 non-threaded programs.
249 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
250 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
251 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
254 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
256 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
257 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
258 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
259 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
260 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
262 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
263 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
264 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
265 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
266 for tracepoint actions.
268 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
269 in hex as well as in symbolic form."
271 * Process record and replay
273 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
274 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
275 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
278 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
279 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
280 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
283 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
284 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
287 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
288 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
289 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
290 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
291 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
292 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
293 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
294 the installation instructions for more information.
296 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
297 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
298 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
299 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
301 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
302 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
304 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
305 now complete on file names.
307 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
308 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
309 For instance, consider:
311 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
312 # struct example variable;
315 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
316 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
318 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
319 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
321 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
322 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
325 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
326 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
327 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
329 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
330 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
331 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
332 and simulator targets may also provide them.
337 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
340 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
341 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
342 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
345 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
346 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
349 Obtains additional operating system information
353 Read or write additional signal information.
355 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
357 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
358 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
359 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
361 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
364 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
365 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
367 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
368 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
369 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
371 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
372 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
374 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
376 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
378 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
379 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
381 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
382 list of section offsets.
384 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
385 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
386 have also been fixed.
388 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
389 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
390 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
392 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
395 template<typename T> class C { };
398 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
400 ptype C<char const *>
402 ptype C<const char *>
405 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
407 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
408 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
410 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
411 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
412 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
414 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
415 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
417 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
420 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
421 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
423 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
424 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
429 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
430 available is determined at configure time.
432 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
434 * Ada tasking support
436 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
440 Print the list of Ada tasks.
442 Print detailed information about task number N.
444 Print the task number of the current task.
446 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
448 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
449 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
451 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
453 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
454 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
455 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
456 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
457 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
458 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
461 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
462 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
465 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
466 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
467 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
468 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
471 * Multi-architecture debugging.
473 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
474 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
475 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
476 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
477 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
479 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
480 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
481 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
482 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
483 --enable-targets configure option.
485 * Non-stop mode debugging.
487 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
488 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
489 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
490 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
491 section in the user manual for more information.
493 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
494 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
495 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
496 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
497 extensions on linux targets.
499 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
501 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
502 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
503 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
504 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
505 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
506 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
507 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
508 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
509 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
511 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
513 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
515 maint set python print-stack
516 maint show python print-stack
517 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
520 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
525 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
529 Show operating system information about processes.
532 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
535 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
538 Detach from inferior number NUM.
541 Kill inferior number NUM.
546 show spu stop-on-load
547 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
549 set spu auto-flush-cache
550 show spu auto-flush-cache
551 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
552 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
554 set sh calling-convention
555 show sh calling-convention
556 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
560 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
562 set disassemble-next-line
563 show disassemble-next-line
564 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
567 set remote noack-packet
568 show remote noack-packet
569 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
570 under "New remote packets."
572 set remote query-attached-packet
573 show remote query-attached-packet
574 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
576 set remote read-siginfo-object
577 show remote read-siginfo-object
578 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
581 set remote write-siginfo-object
582 show remote write-siginfo-object
583 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
586 set remote reverse-continue
587 show remote reverse-continue
588 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
590 set remote reverse-step
591 show remote reverse-step
592 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
594 set displaced-stepping
595 show displaced-stepping
596 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
597 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
598 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
602 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
604 maint set internal-error
605 maint show internal-error
606 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
608 maint set internal-warning
609 maint show internal-warning
610 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
615 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
617 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
618 show multiple-symbols
619 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
620 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
621 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
623 set breakpoint always-inserted
624 show breakpoint always-inserted
625 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
626 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
627 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
629 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
630 show arm fallback-mode
631 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
633 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
634 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
635 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
636 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
638 set disable-randomization
639 show disable-randomization
640 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
641 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
642 multiple debugging sessions.
646 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
651 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
652 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
653 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
654 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
656 set target-wide-charset
657 show target-wide-charset
658 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
659 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
661 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
663 set tcp connect-timeout
664 show tcp connect-timeout
665 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
666 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
667 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
669 set libthread-db-search-path
670 show libthread-db-search-path
671 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
674 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
675 show schedule-multiple
676 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
681 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
682 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
683 affecting correctness.
685 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
686 show interactive-mode
687 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
688 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
689 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
690 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
691 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
696 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
697 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
698 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
702 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
703 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
704 alias for the `fork' command.
707 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
708 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
709 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
712 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
713 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
714 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
718 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
719 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
720 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
723 * New native configurations
725 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
727 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
731 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
732 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
733 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
736 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
737 (mingw32ce) debugging.
743 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
745 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
747 * New native configurations
749 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
750 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
754 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
755 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
757 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
759 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
760 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
761 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
762 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
764 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
765 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
767 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
770 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
771 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
772 and in inlined functions.
774 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
775 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
776 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
778 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
780 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
781 registers on PowerPC targets.
783 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
784 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
786 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
787 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
789 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
790 extended-remote mode.
792 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
793 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
794 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
795 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
797 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
798 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
799 target architectures.
801 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
802 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
803 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
804 stored in two consecutive float registers.
806 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
809 * Improved support for debugging Ada
810 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
812 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
813 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
814 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
815 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
817 - Improved command completion in Ada
820 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
825 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
826 show print frame-arguments
827 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
828 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
833 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
840 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
849 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
852 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
856 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
858 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
860 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
861 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
862 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
864 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
865 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
866 -Bsymbolic linker option.
868 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
869 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
872 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
873 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
875 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
876 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
878 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
880 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
881 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
882 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
884 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
885 automatically displayed as character or string data.
887 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
888 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
891 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
892 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
893 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
895 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
898 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
899 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
900 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
902 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
904 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
906 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
907 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
908 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
910 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
911 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
913 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
914 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
915 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
916 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
917 Windows and SymbianOS).
919 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
920 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
922 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
923 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
929 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
930 when debugging using remote targets.
932 set mem inaccessible-by-default
933 show mem inaccessible-by-default
934 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
935 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
936 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
937 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
938 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
940 set breakpoint auto-hw
941 show breakpoint auto-hw
942 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
943 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
944 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
945 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
946 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
947 including "next" and "finish".
950 catch exception unhandled
951 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
954 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
958 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
959 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
960 an alias to "set sysroot".
963 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
964 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
967 * New native configurations
969 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
974 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
975 not query the target for its built-in description.
979 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
980 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
981 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
986 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
987 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
990 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
995 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
996 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
998 qXfer:libraries:read:
999 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1000 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1001 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1002 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1006 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1014 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1015 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1016 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1017 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1019 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1022 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1023 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1032 * Other removed features
1039 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1046 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1051 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1052 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1057 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1058 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1060 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1062 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1063 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1064 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1065 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1067 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1069 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1070 in debugging information.
1074 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1075 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1077 set mips stack-arg-size
1078 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1080 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1082 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1087 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1089 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1090 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1091 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1093 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1094 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1097 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1098 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1100 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1101 stub provides the required support.
1103 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1104 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1109 unset substitute-path
1110 show substitute-path
1111 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1112 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1113 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1114 between compilation and debugging.
1118 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1119 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1120 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1124 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1126 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1127 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1129 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1131 * New remote packets
1134 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1135 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1136 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1137 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1141 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1142 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1144 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1145 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1146 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1151 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1153 * Removed remote packets
1156 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1157 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1159 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1163 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1165 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1169 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1170 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1172 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1174 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1176 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1177 previously saved state.
1179 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1181 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1183 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1184 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1186 info forks List forks of the user program that
1187 are available to be debugged.
1189 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1190 forks of the user program that are
1191 available to be debugged.
1193 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1194 that are available to be debugged (and
1195 kill the forked process).
1197 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1198 that are available to be debugged (and
1199 allow the process to continue).
1203 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1205 * Improved Windows host support
1207 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1208 native console support, and remote communications using either
1209 network sockets or serial ports.
1211 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1213 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1214 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1215 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1216 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1217 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1218 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1222 The ARM rdi-share module.
1224 The Netware NLM debug server.
1226 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1228 * New native configurations
1230 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1231 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1235 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1237 * New command line options
1239 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1240 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1241 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1242 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1243 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1244 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1245 with the --command (-x) option.
1247 * Deprecated commands removed
1249 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1253 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1254 othernames set arm disassembler
1255 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1256 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1257 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1260 * New BSD user-level threads support
1262 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1263 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1266 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1267 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1268 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1270 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1271 are not yet supported.
1273 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1274 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1276 * REMOVED configurations and files
1278 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1279 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1280 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1282 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1284 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1285 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1288 * VAX floating point support
1290 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1292 * User-defined command support
1294 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1295 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1296 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1298 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1300 * New command line option
1302 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1305 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1307 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1308 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1309 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1310 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1311 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1313 * Internationalization
1315 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1316 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1317 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1321 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1322 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1323 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1325 * New native configurations
1327 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1331 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1332 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1334 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1336 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1337 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1338 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1341 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1342 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1343 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1353 powerpc bdm protocol
1355 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1356 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1358 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1360 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1361 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1362 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1363 permanently REMOVED.
1372 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1374 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1376 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1377 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1380 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1382 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1383 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1384 IRIX long double values).
1388 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1389 command. This problem has been fixed.
1391 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1393 * Fix for ``many threads''
1395 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1396 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1399 ptrace: No such process.
1400 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1402 This problem has been fixed.
1404 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1406 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1409 * New ``start'' command.
1411 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1413 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1415 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1416 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1417 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1419 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1420 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1421 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1422 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1423 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1424 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1425 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1426 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1427 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1429 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1431 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1432 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1433 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1434 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1435 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1437 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1438 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1439 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1441 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1443 * New native configurations
1445 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1446 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1447 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1448 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1449 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1450 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1451 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1453 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1455 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1456 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1457 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1458 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1459 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1460 work, was also included.
1462 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1463 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1473 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1474 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1476 * REMOVED configurations and files
1478 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1479 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1480 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1481 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1482 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1483 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1484 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1485 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1486 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1487 sonymips mips-sony-*
1488 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1490 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1492 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1494 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1495 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1496 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1497 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1500 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1502 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1503 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1504 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1505 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1506 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1507 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1510 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1512 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1514 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1515 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1516 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1518 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1520 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1521 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1523 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1525 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1526 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1527 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1529 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1531 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1532 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1534 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1536 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1537 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1538 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1540 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1542 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1543 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1544 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1546 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1548 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1550 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1551 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1553 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1555 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1556 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1557 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1558 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1560 * Revised SPARC target
1562 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1563 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1564 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1565 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1566 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1570 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1571 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1572 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1575 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1577 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1578 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1581 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1583 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1584 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1585 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1586 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1587 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1588 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1589 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1590 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1591 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1593 * New native configurations
1595 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1596 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1597 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1598 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1599 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1601 * New debugging protocols
1603 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1605 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1607 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1608 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1609 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1611 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1613 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1614 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1615 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1616 permanently REMOVED.
1618 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1619 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1620 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1621 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1622 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1623 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1624 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1625 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1626 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1627 sonymips mips-sony-*
1628 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1630 * REMOVED configurations and files
1632 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1633 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1634 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1635 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1636 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1637 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1638 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1639 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1640 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1641 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1642 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1643 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1644 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1645 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1646 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1647 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1648 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1650 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1654 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1655 integrated into GDB.
1657 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1659 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1660 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1661 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1664 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1665 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1666 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1670 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1671 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1672 remote protocol documentation for details.
1674 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1676 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1677 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1678 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1681 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1683 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1684 per-thread variables.
1686 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1688 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1689 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1691 * Separate debug info.
1693 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1694 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1695 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1696 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1697 and optional debug files.
1699 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1701 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1702 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1705 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1706 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1710 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1711 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1712 considered "useable".
1714 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1716 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1717 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1720 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1722 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1723 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1725 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1727 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1728 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1731 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1733 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1734 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1738 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1739 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1740 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1741 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1742 data, for more informative profiling results.
1744 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1746 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1747 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1748 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1750 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1753 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1754 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1755 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1756 in a subsequent -var-update.
1758 * New native configurations.
1760 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1762 * Multi-arched targets.
1764 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1765 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1767 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1769 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1770 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1771 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1772 permanently REMOVED.
1774 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1775 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1776 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1777 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1778 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1779 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1780 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1781 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1782 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1783 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1784 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1785 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1787 * REMOVED configurations and files
1790 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1791 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1792 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1793 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1794 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1795 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1797 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1798 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1799 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1800 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1801 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1802 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1804 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1806 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1807 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1808 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1809 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1810 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1812 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1814 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1816 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1817 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1818 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1819 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1820 shared libs like mad''.
1822 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1824 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1825 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1826 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1827 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1829 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1831 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1832 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1835 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1836 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1838 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1839 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1841 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1842 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1843 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1844 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1846 * Multi-arched targets.
1848 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1849 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1851 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1852 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1853 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1857 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1860 * New native configurations
1862 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1863 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1864 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1865 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1867 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1869 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1870 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1871 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1872 permanently REMOVED.
1874 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1875 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1876 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1877 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1878 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1879 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1880 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1881 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1882 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1883 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1885 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1886 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1888 * OBSOLETE languages
1890 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1892 * REMOVED configurations and files
1894 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1895 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1896 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1897 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1898 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1900 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1902 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1904 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1905 commands. The default is 1024.
1907 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1909 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1911 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1913 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1914 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1915 from a file into memory (restore).
1917 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1919 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1920 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1921 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1923 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1931 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1932 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1933 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1935 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1936 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1937 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1939 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1940 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1941 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1943 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1944 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1945 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1947 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1949 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1951 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1952 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1953 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1954 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1955 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1956 (notably embedded) targets.
1958 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1960 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1961 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1962 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1963 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1965 * New command line option
1967 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1969 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1971 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1972 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1973 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1974 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1975 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1976 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1977 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1978 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1979 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1980 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1982 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1984 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1985 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1987 * New native configurations
1989 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1990 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1991 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1992 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1996 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1998 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2000 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2001 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2002 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2003 permanently REMOVED.
2005 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2006 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2007 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2008 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2009 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2011 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2013 * REMOVED configurations and files
2015 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2017 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2018 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2019 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2020 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2021 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2022 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2023 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2024 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2025 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2026 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2027 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2029 * Changes to command line processing
2031 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2032 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2034 * Changes to key bindings
2036 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2038 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2040 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2042 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2045 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2047 Numerous documentation fixes.
2049 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2051 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2053 * New native configurations
2055 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2056 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2057 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2058 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2059 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2060 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2064 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2066 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2068 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2070 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2071 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2072 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2073 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2074 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2076 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2077 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2078 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2079 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2080 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2081 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2082 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2083 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2085 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2086 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2088 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2089 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2090 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2091 permanently REMOVED.
2093 * REMOVED configurations and files
2095 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2096 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2098 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2102 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2104 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2105 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2110 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2112 * The MI enabled by default.
2114 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2115 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2116 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2117 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2118 which is now deprecated.
2120 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2122 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2123 main features are supported:
2125 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2127 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2130 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2132 - a Pascal expression parser.
2134 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2136 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2138 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2140 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2141 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2143 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2145 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2147 * Changes in completion.
2149 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2150 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2151 users expect at the shell prompt.
2153 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2154 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2155 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2156 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2157 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2158 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2159 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2161 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2163 * New platform-independent commands:
2165 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2166 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2167 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2169 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2171 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2172 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2173 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2175 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2177 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2178 multi-threaded programs though.
2180 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2182 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2184 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2185 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2188 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2190 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2191 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2192 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2193 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2194 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2197 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2198 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2199 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2201 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2203 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2204 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2206 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2207 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2210 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2211 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2212 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2213 a given linear address.
2215 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2216 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2217 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2219 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2221 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2223 * Changes in documentation.
2225 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2226 Documentation License.
2228 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2231 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2233 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2236 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2237 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2238 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2240 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2242 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2243 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2244 contents of this file.
2248 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2250 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2252 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2254 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2255 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2256 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2257 greater level of detail.
2259 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2261 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2262 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2263 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2266 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2268 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2269 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2270 machines ``out of the box''.
2272 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2273 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2274 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2275 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2276 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2278 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2279 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2280 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2281 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2282 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2284 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2285 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2288 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2291 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2292 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2293 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2294 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2296 * New native configurations
2298 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2299 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2303 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2304 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2305 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2306 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2308 * OBSOLETE configurations
2310 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2311 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2313 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2316 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2317 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2318 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2319 be permanently REMOVED.
2321 * Gould support removed
2323 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2325 * New features for SVR4
2327 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2328 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2329 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2331 * Many C++ enhancements
2333 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2334 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2336 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2338 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2339 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2340 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2341 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2343 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2344 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2346 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2348 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2349 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2350 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2352 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2353 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2355 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2357 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2358 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2359 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2361 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2363 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2364 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2365 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2367 * ``apropos'' command added.
2369 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2370 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2371 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2375 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2376 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2377 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2378 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2379 enabled by configuring with:
2381 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2383 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2385 * New native configurations
2387 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2388 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2389 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2393 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2394 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2395 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2397 * OBSOLETE configurations
2399 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2401 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2402 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2403 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2404 be permanently REMOVED.
2408 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2409 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2410 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2411 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2412 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2413 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2414 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2419 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2421 * set extension-language
2423 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2424 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2425 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2426 set extension-language .c c++
2427 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2428 and their associated languages.
2430 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2432 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2433 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2434 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2438 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2439 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2441 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2442 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2444 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2445 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2446 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2447 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2448 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2449 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2450 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2451 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2453 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2454 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2455 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2456 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2460 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2461 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2462 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2463 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2464 for xdb and dbx commands.
2468 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2469 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2470 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2472 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2473 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2474 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2476 * Debugging across forks
2478 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2483 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2484 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2485 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2487 * GDB remote protocol additions
2489 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2490 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2491 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2492 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2494 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2495 full 64-bit address. The command
2497 set remoteaddresssize 32
2499 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2500 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2503 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2504 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2506 maint packet heythere
2508 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2509 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2512 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2513 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2514 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2516 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2518 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2519 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2520 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2522 * mask-address variable for Mips
2524 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2525 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2526 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2528 * Higher serial baud rates
2530 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2531 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2532 to achieve all of these rates.)
2536 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2537 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2540 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2542 * New native configurations
2544 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2545 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2546 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2547 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2548 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2549 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2550 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2554 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2555 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2556 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2557 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2558 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2559 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2560 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2561 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2562 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2563 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2564 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2566 * New debugging protocols
2568 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2569 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2570 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2571 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2572 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2573 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2577 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2578 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2583 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2584 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2586 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2588 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2589 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2590 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2592 * Live range splitting
2594 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2595 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2596 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2600 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2601 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2605 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2606 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2607 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2612 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2617 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2618 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2619 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2620 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2621 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2622 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2626 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2627 the symbol at the specified address.
2631 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2632 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2633 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2634 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2635 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2639 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2640 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2641 of most MIPS variants.
2645 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2646 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2647 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2651 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2652 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2653 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2654 the possible architectures.
2656 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2658 * New native configurations
2660 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2661 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2662 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2663 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2664 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2665 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2669 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2670 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2671 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2672 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2673 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2675 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2679 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2680 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2681 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2682 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2683 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2687 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2689 * Windows 95/NT native
2691 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2692 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2693 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2694 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2695 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2697 * dont-repeat command
2699 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2700 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2701 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2702 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2704 * Send break instead of ^C
2706 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2707 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2708 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2710 * Remote protocol timeout
2712 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2713 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2714 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2716 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2718 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2719 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2720 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2721 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2722 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2724 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2725 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2726 automatically on hpux10.
2728 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2730 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2732 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2734 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2735 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2736 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2737 every character. The default value is 1050.
2739 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2741 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2742 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2743 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2744 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2745 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2746 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2748 * Speedups for remote debugging
2750 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2751 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2752 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2754 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2756 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2757 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2759 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2761 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2763 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2764 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2766 * Remote targets use caching
2768 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2769 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2770 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2771 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2772 off' turns the the data cache off.
2774 * Remote targets may have threads
2776 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2777 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2778 gdb/remote.c for details.
2782 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2783 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2784 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2785 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2786 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2787 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2788 sequence is something like
2790 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2792 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2796 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2797 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2798 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2799 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2800 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2801 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2802 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2803 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2807 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2808 but does simplify configuration and building.
2812 GDB now supports hpux10.
2814 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2816 * New native configurations
2818 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2819 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2820 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2821 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2825 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2826 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2827 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2828 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2831 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2833 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2834 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2835 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2836 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2837 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2839 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2841 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2842 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2845 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2847 To execute the command use:
2850 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2851 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2852 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2854 * New `if' and `while' commands
2856 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2857 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2858 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2859 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2860 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2861 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2862 if the expression is zero.
2864 * Fortran source language mode
2866 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2867 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2868 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2869 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2872 * Better HPUX support
2874 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2875 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2876 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2877 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2878 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2884 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2885 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2891 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2892 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2895 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2896 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2898 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2900 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2901 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2902 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2903 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2904 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2905 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2907 * New DOS host serial code
2909 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2910 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2913 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2915 * New "complete" command
2917 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2918 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2920 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2922 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2923 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2925 * Breakpoint hit counts
2927 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2928 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2929 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2930 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2931 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2934 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2936 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2937 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2938 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2940 * Shared library breakpoints
2942 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2943 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2945 * Hardware watchpoints
2947 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2948 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2950 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2954 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2955 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2957 * Improved Irix 5 support
2959 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2961 * Improved HPPA support
2963 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2965 * New native configurations
2967 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2968 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2969 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2970 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2974 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2975 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2978 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2980 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2981 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2985 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2986 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2988 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2990 * Irix 5 is now supported
2994 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2995 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2996 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2997 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2998 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3001 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3003 * User visible changes:
3007 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3008 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3009 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3010 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3011 debugging info for the mips target).
3013 * DEC Alpha native support
3015 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3016 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3017 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3018 Alpha-specific notes.
3020 * Preliminary thread implementation
3022 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3024 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3026 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3027 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3030 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3032 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3033 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3034 call methods, ...etc.
3036 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3038 * User visible changes:
3040 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3041 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3042 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3043 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3045 Filename completion now works.
3047 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3048 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3049 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3051 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3052 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3053 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3054 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3055 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3059 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3060 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3063 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3067 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3068 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3069 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3073 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3074 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3075 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3076 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3077 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3081 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3082 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3083 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3085 * New targets supported
3087 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3088 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3089 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3090 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3091 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3093 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3094 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3095 GO32 memory extender.
3097 * New remote protocols
3099 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3101 * New source languages supported
3103 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3104 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3105 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3108 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3110 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3112 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3113 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3114 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3115 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3116 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3117 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3119 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3121 * Faster and better demangling
3123 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3124 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3125 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3126 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3127 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3128 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3131 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3132 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3133 compiler does not actually implement.
3135 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3137 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3138 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3139 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3140 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3141 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3142 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3145 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3146 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3148 * Improved configure script
3150 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3151 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3152 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3153 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3155 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3156 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3157 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3158 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3159 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3160 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3162 * Documentation improvements
3164 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3165 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3166 before submitting changes.
3168 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3169 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3170 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3171 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3172 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3174 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3175 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3176 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3177 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3178 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3179 around this problem.
3183 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3184 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3185 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3188 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3189 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3191 * New native hosts supported
3193 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3194 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3196 * New targets supported
3198 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3200 * New file formats supported
3202 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3203 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3207 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3209 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3210 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3212 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3213 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3214 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3216 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3217 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3219 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3220 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3221 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3224 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3225 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3226 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3227 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3228 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3230 * Internal improvements
3232 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3233 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3235 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3236 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3237 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3238 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3239 shared code that handles any of them.
3241 * New command line options
3243 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3247 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3248 General Public License.
3250 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3252 * Host/native/target split
3254 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3255 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3256 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3257 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3258 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3260 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3261 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3262 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3263 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3264 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3265 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3266 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3268 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3269 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3270 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3272 * New hosts supported
3274 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3275 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3276 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3278 * New targets supported
3280 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3281 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3283 * New native hosts supported
3285 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3286 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3287 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3289 * New file formats supported
3291 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3292 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3293 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3297 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3298 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3299 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3301 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3303 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3304 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3305 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3306 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3310 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3311 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3312 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3314 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3318 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3319 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3322 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3323 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3325 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3326 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3327 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3328 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3329 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3330 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3332 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3333 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3334 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3335 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3339 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3340 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3341 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3342 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3343 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3345 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3346 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3347 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3348 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3352 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3353 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3354 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3355 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3356 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3357 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3358 each instruction being stepped through.
3360 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3361 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3363 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3364 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3365 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3366 processor with a serial port.
3370 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3371 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3372 supported, and what files each one uses.
3376 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3377 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3378 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3379 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3381 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3382 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3383 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3384 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3388 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3389 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3390 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3391 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3392 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3393 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3395 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3398 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3400 * Better support for C++ function names
3402 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3403 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3404 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3405 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3406 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3408 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3409 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3410 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3411 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3412 for the list of formats.
3414 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3416 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3417 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3418 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3419 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3420 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3421 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3424 * New 'maintenance' command
3426 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3427 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3428 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3430 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3431 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3432 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3433 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3434 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3435 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3437 The following commands are new:
3439 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3440 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3441 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3443 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3445 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3446 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3447 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3448 read after argv processing.
3450 * New hosts supported
3452 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3454 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3456 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3457 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3458 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3459 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3460 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3463 * New targets supported
3465 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3467 * More smarts about finding #include files
3469 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3470 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3471 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3472 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3473 the one that contains your sources.
3475 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3476 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3477 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3479 * Interesting infernals change
3481 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3482 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3483 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3484 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3486 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3488 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3489 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3490 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3492 See the ChangeLog for details.
3494 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3496 * New machines supported (host and target)
3498 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3500 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3502 * New malloc package
3504 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3505 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3506 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3507 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3508 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3509 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3513 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3514 'help info proc' for details.
3516 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3518 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3519 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3522 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3524 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3525 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3526 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3527 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3528 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3529 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3531 * Cross byte order fixes
3533 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3534 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3536 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3538 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3539 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3540 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3541 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3542 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3543 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3544 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3545 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3546 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3547 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3549 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3550 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3551 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3552 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3554 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3555 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3556 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3559 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3561 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3562 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3563 shared across multiple host platforms.
3565 * longjmp() handling
3567 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3568 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3569 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3570 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3574 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3575 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3580 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3581 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3582 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3584 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3586 * New machines supported (host and target)
3588 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3590 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3591 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3593 * New machines supported (target)
3595 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3599 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3600 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3601 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3603 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3604 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3605 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3606 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3607 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3610 * New features for SVR4
3612 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3613 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3614 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3616 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3617 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3618 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3620 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3621 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3623 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3625 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3626 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3627 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3628 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3629 same code linked statically.
3633 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3634 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3635 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3636 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3637 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3638 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3642 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3643 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3644 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3647 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3649 * New machines supported (host and target)
3651 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3652 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3653 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3655 * Almost SCO Unix support
3657 We had hoped to support:
3658 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3659 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3660 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3661 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3663 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3665 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3666 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3667 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3668 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3673 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3674 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3675 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3679 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3680 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3681 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3683 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3685 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3686 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3687 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3689 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3690 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3691 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3692 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3695 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3696 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3697 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3698 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3701 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3702 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3705 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3706 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3707 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3710 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3712 * Improved configuration
3714 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3715 Porting BFD is simpler.
3719 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3720 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3721 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3722 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3726 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3728 * New host supported (not target)
3730 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3733 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3735 * Multiple source language support
3737 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3738 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3739 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3740 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3741 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3742 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3746 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3747 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3748 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3749 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3751 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3752 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3753 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3755 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3756 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3760 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3761 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3762 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3763 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3766 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3768 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3769 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3770 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3771 examining core files.
3775 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3778 * New machines supported (host and target)
3780 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3781 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3782 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3784 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3786 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3788 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3790 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3791 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3792 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3794 * New remote interfaces
3800 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3804 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3806 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3807 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3808 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3809 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3810 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3811 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3812 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3813 stub on the target system.
3815 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3817 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3818 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3819 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3821 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3822 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3825 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3827 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3828 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3830 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3831 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3832 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3834 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3835 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3836 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3837 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3839 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3840 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3841 it is already running. Default is ON.
3843 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3844 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3845 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3846 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3849 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3850 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3851 or the value of the environment variable
3854 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3855 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3858 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3859 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3860 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3862 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3863 history expansion will be performed on
3864 command line input. The default is OFF.
3866 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3867 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3868 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3870 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3871 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3872 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3875 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3876 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3877 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3880 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3881 ``set width'' instead.
3883 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3884 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3885 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3886 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3888 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3891 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3894 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3897 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3900 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3902 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3903 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3904 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3908 * Support for Shared Libraries
3910 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3911 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3912 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3913 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3914 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3915 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3916 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3917 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3919 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3920 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3921 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3923 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3928 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3929 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3930 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3931 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3932 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3933 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3935 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3937 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3939 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3940 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3941 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3944 * C++ multiple inheritance
3946 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3949 * C++ exception handling
3951 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3952 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3953 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3956 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3957 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3958 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3960 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3961 current stack frame.
3964 * Minor command changes
3966 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3967 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3968 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3970 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3971 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3972 frames without printing.
3974 * New directory command
3976 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3977 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3978 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3979 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3980 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3982 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3984 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3987 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3988 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3989 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3990 where the program that you are debugging will run.