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