Update NEWS and documentation for help and apropos changes.
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 9
5
6 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
7 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
8 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
9 and finally the description of the command.
10
11 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
12 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
13
14 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
15 debugging information as well as source code.
16
17 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
18 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
19 being debugged.
20
21 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
22 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
23
24 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
25
26 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
27
28 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
29
30 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
31
32 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
33 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
34
35 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
36 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
37 performance for programs with many symbols.
38
39 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
40 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
41
42 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
43
44 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
45 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
46 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
47 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
48 history.
49
50 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
51 64-bit GDB.
52
53 * New commands
54
55 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
56 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
57 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to
58 a running process and can determine the name of the executable file
59 the process runs, this new option indicates whether to detect mismatch
60 between the name of the current executable file loaded by GDB
61 and the name of the executable file used to start the process.
62 If 'ask', the default, display a warning and ask the user
63 whether to load the process executable file; if 'warn', just display
64 a warning; if 'off', don't attempt to detect a mismatch.
65
66 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
67 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
68 will be displayed.
69
70 * New targets
71
72 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
73
74 * Python API
75
76 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
77 in Python.
78
79 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
80 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
81 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
82 as well.
83
84 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
85 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
86
87 *** Changes in GDB 9
88
89 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
90
91 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
92 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
93 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
94 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
95 such as in system-wide init files.
96
97 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
98 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
99 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
100 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
101 current GDB settings.
102
103 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
104 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
105 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
106 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
107
108 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
109 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
110 postfix [PAC].
111
112 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
113 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
114
115 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
116 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
117 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
118
119 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
120 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
121 commands.
122
123 * Command names can now use the . character.
124
125 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
126
127 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
128 messages.
129
130 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
131
132 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
133 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
134
135 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
136 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
137 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
138
139 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
140
141 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
142 not visible in the current scope.
143
144 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
145 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
146 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
147 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
148 compiled with support for that language.
149
150 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
151 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
152 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
153
154 * Multi-target debugging support
155
156 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
157 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
158 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
159 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
160 debugging a core dump, etc.
161
162 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
163 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
164 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
165 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
166 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
167 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
168
169 * Python API
170
171 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
172 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
173 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
174 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
175 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
176
177 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
178 type was defined in.
179
180 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
181 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
182 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
183 is given.
184
185 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
186 symbols with static linkage.
187
188 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
189 all static symbols with static linkage.
190
191 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
192 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
193
194 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
195 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
196
197 * New commands
198
199 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
200 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
201 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
202 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
203 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
204 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
205 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
206
207 define-prefix COMMAND
208 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
209
210 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
211 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
212 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
213 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
214 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
215 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
216 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
217 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
218 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
219 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
220 of array elements to print.
221
222 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
223 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
224
225 set may-call-functions [on|off]
226 show may-call-functions
227 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
228 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
229 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
230 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
231 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
232 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
233 in the program.
234
235 set print finish [on|off]
236 show print finish
237 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
238 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
239 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
240 default is `on'.
241
242 set print max-depth
243 show print max-depth
244 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
245 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
246 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
247 the old behavior back.
248
249 set print raw-values [on|off]
250 show print raw-values
251 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
252 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
253 of commands. The default is 'off'.
254
255 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
256 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
257 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
258
259 set style title foreground COLOR
260 set style title background COLOR
261 set style title intensity VALUE
262 Control the styling of titles.
263
264 set style highlight foreground COLOR
265 set style highlight background COLOR
266 set style highlight intensity VALUE
267 Control the styling of highlightings.
268
269 maint set worker-threads
270 maint show worker-threads
271 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
272 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
273 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
274 the names of linker symbols.
275
276 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
277 set style tui-border background COLOR
278 Control the styling of TUI borders.
279
280 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
281 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
282 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
283
284 maint set test-settings KIND
285 maint show test-settings KIND
286 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
287 infrastructure.
288
289 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
290 maint show tui-resize-message
291 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
292 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
293 TUI.
294
295 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
296 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
297 show print frame-info
298 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
299 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
300 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
301 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
302
303 set tui compact-source
304 show tui compact-source
305
306 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
307 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
308 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
309 line numbers from the source.
310
311 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
312 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
313 no REGEXP is given.
314
315 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
316 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
317 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
318 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
319 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
320 matches against the function name.
321
322 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
323 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
324 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
325 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
326 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
327 against the variable name.
328
329 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
330 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
331 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
332 "set debug remote".
333 The default is 512 bytes.
334
335 info connections
336 Lists the target connections currently in use.
337
338 * Changed commands
339
340 help
341 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
342 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
343 command names.
344
345 apropos [-v] REGEXP
346 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
347 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
348 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
349 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
350 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
351
352 printf
353 eval
354 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
355 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
356 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
357 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
358
359 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
360 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
361 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
362 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
363 parts of the files.
364
365 show style
366 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
367 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
368 the user visualize the different styles.
369
370 set print frame-arguments
371 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
372 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
373
374 set print raw-frame-arguments
375 show print raw-frame-arguments
376
377 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
378 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
379 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
380 release.
381
382 add-inferior [-no-connection]
383 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
384 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
385 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
386 current inferior. See also "info connections".
387
388 info inferior
389 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
390 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
391 "info connections" above.
392
393 maint test-options require-delimiter
394 maint test-options unknown-is-error
395 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
396 maint show test-options-completion-result
397 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
398 framework.
399
400 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
401 These commands are now case-sensitive.
402
403 * New command options, command completion
404
405 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
406 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
407 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
408 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
409 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
410 number of commands got support for new command options in this
411 release:
412
413 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
414 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
415 set by "set print" subcommands:
416
417 -address [on|off]
418 -array [on|off]
419 -array-indexes [on|off]
420 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
421 -null-stop [on|off]
422 -object [on|off]
423 -pretty [on|off]
424 -raw-values [on|off]
425 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
426 -static-members [on|off]
427 -symbol [on|off]
428 -union [on|off]
429 -vtbl [on|off]
430
431 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
432 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
433 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
434 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
435
436 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
437 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
438 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
439
440 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
441 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
442 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
443 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
444 |location-and-address|short-location
445 -past-main [on|off]
446 -past-entry [on|off]
447
448 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
449 exposed as command options too:
450
451 -full
452 -no-filters
453 -hide
454
455 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
456 support the following options:
457
458 -past-main [on|off]
459 -past-entry [on|off]
460
461 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
462 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
463
464 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
465 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
466 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
467 like for example:
468
469 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
470
471 The above is equivalent to:
472
473 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
474
475 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
476 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
477 variables" and "info functions".
478
479 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
480 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
481 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
482 from the results.
483
484 * Completion improvements
485
486 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
487 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
488 abbreviated.
489
490 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
491 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
492 commands.
493
494 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
495 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
496 completes on filenames.
497
498 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
499 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
500
501 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
502
503 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
504 elements unlimited".
505
506 * New MI commands
507
508 -complete
509 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
510 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
511 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
512
513 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
514 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
515 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
516
517 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
518 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
519 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
520
521 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
522 modules' command.
523
524 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
525 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
526 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
527
528 * Other MI changes
529
530 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
531
532 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
533 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
534 the following commands and events:
535
536 - -break-insert
537 - -break-info
538 - =breakpoint-created
539 - =breakpoint-modified
540
541 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
542 this behavior with previous MI versions.
543
544 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
545 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
546 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
547 present.
548
549 * Testsuite
550
551 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
552 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
553 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
554 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
555
556 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
557
558 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
559 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
560
561 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
562
563 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
564 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
565
566 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
567 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
568 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
569
570 * Removed targets and native configurations
571
572 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
573 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
574 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
575
576 * New Simulators
577
578 TI PRU pru-*-elf
579
580 * Removed targets and native configurations
581
582 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
583 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
584
585 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
586
587 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
588 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
589 HTM registers.
590
591 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
592 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
593 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
594 and operators.
595
596 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
597 (the C++ plug-in).
598
599 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
600 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
601 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
602
603 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
604 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
605
606 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
607 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
608 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
609 in the GDB user manual.
610
611 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
612 executed failed.
613
614 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
615
616 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
617 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
618 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
619 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
620 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
621 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
622 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
623 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
624 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
625 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
626 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
627 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
628
629 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
630 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
631 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
632 information.
633
634 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
635 lucid.
636
637 * New commands
638
639 set debug compile-cplus-types
640 show debug compile-cplus-types
641 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
642 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
643 for other languages.
644
645 set debug skip
646 show debug skip
647 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
648 displayed.
649
650 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
651 Apply a command to some frames.
652 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
653 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
654
655 taas COMMAND
656 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
657 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
658
659 faas COMMAND
660 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
661 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
662
663 tfaas COMMAND
664 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
665 output).
666 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
667
668 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
669 maint show dwarf unwinders
670 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
671
672 info proc files
673 Display a list of open files for a process.
674
675 * Changed commands
676
677 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
678 These commands all now take a frame specification which
679 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
680 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
681 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
682 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
683 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
684
685 target remote FILENAME
686 target extended-remote FILENAME
687 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
688 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
689
690 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
691 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
692 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
693 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
694 These commands can now print only the searched entities
695 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
696 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
697 printing headers or informations messages.
698
699 info functions
700 info types
701 info variables
702 rbreak
703 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
704 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
705 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
706 the shown entities.
707
708 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
709 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
710 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
711 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
712
713 set tui tab-width NCHARS
714 show tui tab-width NCHARS
715 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
716
717 set style enabled [on|off]
718 show style enabled
719 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
720 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
721
722 set style sources [on|off]
723 show style sources
724 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
725 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
726 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
727
728 set style filename foreground COLOR
729 set style filename background COLOR
730 set style filename intensity VALUE
731 Control the styling of file names.
732
733 set style function foreground COLOR
734 set style function background COLOR
735 set style function intensity VALUE
736 Control the styling of function names.
737
738 set style variable foreground COLOR
739 set style variable background COLOR
740 set style variable intensity VALUE
741 Control the styling of variable names.
742
743 set style address foreground COLOR
744 set style address background COLOR
745 set style address intensity VALUE
746 Control the styling of addresses.
747
748 * MI changes
749
750 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
751 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
752 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
753 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
754 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
755
756 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
757 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
758
759 * New native configurations
760
761 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
762 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
763
764 * New targets
765
766 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
767 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
768 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
769 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
770 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
771 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
772
773 * Removed targets
774
775 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
776 before Windows XP.
777
778 * Python API
779
780 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
781
782 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
783 space associated to that inferior.
784
785 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
786 of objfiles associated to that program space.
787
788 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
789 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
790 the gdb core.
791
792 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
793 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
794 correct and did not work properly.
795
796 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
797 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
798
799 * Configure changes
800
801 --enable-ubsan
802
803 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
804 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
805 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
806 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
807 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
808
809 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
810
811 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
812 for the MIPS target.
813
814 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
815 offset to all sections.
816
817 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
818 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
819 address of individual sections using '-s'.
820
821 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
822 (address of the text section).
823
824 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
825 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
826 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
827 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
828 default.
829
830 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
831 for the rest of the current command.
832
833 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
834 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
835
836 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
837 files created on FreeBSD systems.
838
839 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
840 alignof.
841
842 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
843 the vector length while the process is running.
844
845 * New commands
846
847 set debug fbsd-nat
848 show debug fbsd-nat
849 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
850
851 set|show varsize-limit
852 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
853 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
854 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
855
856 set|show record btrace cpu
857 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
858 branch trace decode.
859
860 maint check libthread-db
861 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
862 library
863
864 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
865 maint show check-libthread-db
866 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
867 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
868 perform such checks.
869
870 * Python API
871
872 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
873
874 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
875 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
876
877 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
878
879 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
880 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
881 of convenience variables.
882
883 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
884 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
885 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
886
887 * New targets
888
889 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
890
891 * Removed targets and native configurations
892
893 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
894 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
895 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
896 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
897
898 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
899
900 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
901 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
902 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
903 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
904 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
905 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
906 reported.
907
908 * Configure changes
909
910 --enable-codesign=CERT
911 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
912 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
913 gdb to work properly.
914
915 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
916 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
917
918 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
919
920 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
921 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
922 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
923
924 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
925 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
926
927 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
928 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
929 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
930 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
931 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
932
933 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
934 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
935 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
936 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
937
938 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
939 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
940
941 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
942 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
943 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
944
945 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
946 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
947 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
948
949 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
950 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
951 environment" command.
952
953 * Completion improvements
954
955 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
956 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
957 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
958 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
959 correctly:
960
961 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
962 (gdb) b function(int)
963
964 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
965 C++ anonymous namespaces:
966
967 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
968 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
969 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
970 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
971
972 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
973 completion support, that better understands what you're
974 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
975 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
976 setting a breakpoint.
977
978 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
979
980 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
981
982 * New command line options (gcore)
983
984 -a
985 Dump all memory mappings.
986
987 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
988
989 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
990 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
991 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
992
993 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
994
995 A::B::func()
996 B::func()
997
998 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
999 on both symbols.
1000
1001 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
1002 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
1003 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
1004 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
1005 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
1006 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
1007 a breakpoint from Python.
1008
1009 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1010
1011 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1012 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
1013 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
1014
1015 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
1016
1017 function[abi:cxx11](int)
1018 ^^^^^^^^^^^
1019
1020 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
1021 no tag, like:
1022
1023 (gdb) b function(int)
1024
1025 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
1026
1027 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
1028
1029 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
1030
1031 * Python Scripting
1032
1033 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
1034 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
1035 description of these.
1036
1037 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
1038 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
1039 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
1040
1041 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
1042 manual for a further description of this feature.
1043
1044
1045 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1046
1047 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
1048 specified initial working directory.
1049
1050 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
1051 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
1052
1053 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
1054 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
1055
1056 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
1057 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
1058
1059 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
1060 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1061 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1062 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1063 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1064
1065 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1066 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1067 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1068
1069 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1070 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1071 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1072 in the *stopped notification.
1073
1074 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1075 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1076
1077 * New remote packets
1078
1079 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1080 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1081 the inferior when starting it.
1082
1083 QEnvironmentUnset
1084 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1085 before starting the remote inferior.
1086
1087 QEnvironmentReset
1088 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1089 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1090
1091 QStartupWithShell
1092 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1093
1094 QSetWorkingDir
1095 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1096 working directory.
1097
1098 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1099 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1100
1101 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1102 filter the tests to be run.
1103
1104 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1105 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1106
1107 * New commands
1108
1109 set|show cwd
1110 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1111
1112 set|show compile-gcc
1113 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1114 with the 'compile' commands.
1115
1116 set debug separate-debug-file
1117 show debug separate-debug-file
1118 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1119
1120 set dump-excluded-mappings
1121 show dump-excluded-mappings
1122 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1123 dumped when generating a core file.
1124
1125 maint info selftests
1126 List the registered selftests.
1127
1128 starti
1129 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1130
1131 set|show debug or1k
1132 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1133
1134 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1135 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1136 type printer will show.
1137
1138 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1139 `o' for nexti.
1140
1141 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1142
1143 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1144 'int'.
1145
1146 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1147 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1148 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1149 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1150
1151 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1152 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1153 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1154 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1155 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1156 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1157
1158 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1159 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1160 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1161
1162 (gdb) p var
1163 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1164 (gdb) p (float) var
1165 $3 = 3.14
1166
1167 * New native configurations
1168
1169 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1170 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1171
1172 * New targets
1173
1174 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1175 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1176 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1177
1178 * Removed targets and native configurations
1179
1180 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1181
1182 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1183
1184 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1185 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1186 available in future Intel CPUs.
1187
1188 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1189
1190 * Python Scripting
1191
1192 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1193 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1194
1195 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1196 instructions.
1197
1198 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1199
1200 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1201
1202 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1203 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1204 removed.
1205
1206 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1207
1208 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1209 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1210
1211 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1212
1213 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1214 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1215 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1216 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1217 features.
1218
1219 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1220
1221 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1222 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1223 debugger.
1224
1225 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1226
1227 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1228 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1229
1230 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1231
1232 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1233
1234 define mycommand
1235 set $i = 0
1236 while $i < $argc
1237 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1238 set $i = $i + 1
1239 end
1240 end
1241
1242 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1243
1244 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1245 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1246
1247 * New native configurations
1248
1249 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1250
1251 * New targets
1252
1253 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1254 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1255
1256 * Removed targets and native configurations
1257
1258 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1259 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1260
1261 * New commands
1262
1263 flash-erase
1264 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1265
1266 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1267 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1268
1269 * New options
1270
1271 set disassembler-options
1272 show disassembler-options
1273 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1274 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1275 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1276 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1277 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1278
1279 * New MI commands
1280
1281 -target-flash-erase
1282 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1283 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1284
1285 -file-list-shared-libraries
1286 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1287 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1288
1289 -catch-handlers
1290 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1291 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1292
1293 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1294
1295 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1296
1297 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1298 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1299 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1300 option will be removed in a future release.
1301
1302 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1303 GDB connection.
1304
1305 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1306 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1307
1308 (gdb) bt
1309 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1310 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1311 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1312 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1313 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1314 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1315 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1316 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1317 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1318
1319 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1320 arrays of dynamic types.
1321
1322 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1323 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1324 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1325 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1326 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1327 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1328
1329 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1330 descriptions.
1331
1332 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1333 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1334 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1335
1336 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1337
1338 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1339 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1340 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1341 signal received and code location.
1342
1343 For example:
1344
1345 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1346 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1347 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1348 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1349
1350 * Rust language support.
1351 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1352 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1353 Rust.
1354
1355 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1356
1357 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1358 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1359 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1360 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1361 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1362 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1363 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1364 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1365 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1366 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1367 line.
1368
1369 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1370
1371 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1372 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1373
1374 * New commands
1375
1376 skip -file file
1377 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1378 skip -function function
1379 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1380 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1381 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1382 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1383
1384 maint info line-table REGEXP
1385 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
1386
1387 maint selftest
1388 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1389
1390 new-ui INTERP TTY
1391 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1392 using the TTY file for input/output.
1393
1394 * Python Scripting
1395
1396 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1397 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1398 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1399 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1400 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1401
1402 signal-event EVENTID
1403 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1404 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1405 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1406 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1407 signalling an event.
1408
1409 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1410 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1411 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1412
1413 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1414 been removed:
1415
1416 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1417 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1418 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1419 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1420 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1421 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1422
1423 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1424 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1425 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1426 bytecode into native code.
1427
1428 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1429 recording. For example:
1430
1431 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1432
1433 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1434
1435 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1436
1437 * New targets
1438
1439 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1440
1441 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1442
1443 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1444
1445 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1446
1447 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1448 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1449 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1450
1451 (gdb) info threads
1452 Id Target Id Frame
1453 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1454 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1455 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1456 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1457
1458 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1459 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1460 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1461
1462 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1463 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1464 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1465
1466 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1467 IDs.
1468
1469 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1470 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1471
1472 (gdb) thread 2.1
1473 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1474 (gdb)
1475
1476 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1477 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1478 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1479 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1480 threads 2.*".
1481
1482 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1483 all threads.
1484
1485 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1486 the current thread.
1487
1488 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1489 current inferior.
1490
1491 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1492 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1493 example:
1494
1495 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1496 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1497
1498 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1499
1500 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1501
1502 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1503 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1504
1505 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1506 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1507 clients.
1508
1509 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1510 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1511 at the same time.
1512
1513 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1514 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1515 into native code.
1516
1517 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1518
1519 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1520 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1521 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1522
1523 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1524 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1525
1526 * New commands
1527
1528 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1529 maint show target-non-stop
1530 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1531 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1532 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1533
1534 maint set bfd-sharing
1535 maint show bfd-sharing
1536 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1537
1538 set debug bfd-cache
1539 show debug bfd-cache
1540 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1541
1542 set debug fbsd-lwp
1543 show debug fbsd-lwp
1544 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1545
1546 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1547 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1548 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1549
1550 set remote thread-events
1551 show remote thread-events
1552 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1553
1554 set ada print-signatures on|off
1555 show ada print-signatures"
1556 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1557 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
1558
1559 set max-value-size
1560 show max-value-size
1561 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1562 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1563 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1564
1565 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1566 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1567 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1568 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1569 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1570 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1571
1572 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1573 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1574
1575 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1576 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1577
1578 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1579
1580 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1581 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1582 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1583 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1584 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1585 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1586
1587 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1588 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1589
1590 catch handlers
1591 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1592
1593 * New remote packets
1594
1595 exec stop reason
1596 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1597
1598 exec-events feature in qSupported
1599 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1600 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1601 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1602 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1603
1604 vCtrlC
1605 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1606 non-stop mode.
1607
1608 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1609 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1610
1611 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1612 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1613
1614 QThreadEvents
1615 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1616 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1617 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1618 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1619 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1620 stop for that same thread.
1621
1622 N stop reply
1623 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1624 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1625 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1626
1627 QCatchSyscalls
1628 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1629 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1630
1631 syscall_entry stop reason
1632 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1633
1634 syscall_return stop reason
1635 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1636
1637 * Extended-remote exec events
1638
1639 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1640 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1641 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1642
1643 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1644 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1645 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1646
1647 * Thread names in remote protocol
1648
1649 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1650 thread.
1651
1652 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1653
1654 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1655 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1656 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1657 fork and exec catchpoints.
1658
1659 * Remote syscall events
1660
1661 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1662 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1663
1664 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1665 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1666 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1667
1668 * MI changes
1669
1670 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1671 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1672 left.
1673
1674 * Python Scripting
1675
1676 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1677 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1678 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1679 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1680 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1681 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1682
1683 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1684
1685 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1686 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1687 including advance SIMD instructions.
1688
1689 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1690
1691 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1692 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1693 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1694 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1695 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1696 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1697 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1698
1699 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1700 cpu information :
1701 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1702
1703 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1704 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1705 remote serial I/O.
1706
1707 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1708 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1709 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1710
1711 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1712 is now available on all platforms.
1713
1714 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1715 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1716 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1717 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1718 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1719 backward compatibility.
1720
1721 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1722 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1723 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1724 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1725
1726 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1727 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1728 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1729 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1730 packets" below.
1731
1732 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1733
1734 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1735
1736 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1737 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1738 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1739 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1740 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1741 See "New remote packets" below.
1742
1743 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1744 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1745
1746 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1747 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1748 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1749 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1750 are ignored.
1751
1752 * Guile Scripting
1753
1754 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1755
1756 * Python Scripting
1757
1758 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1759 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1760 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1761 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1762 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1763 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1764 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1765 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1766 "const" version of the value respectively.
1767
1768 * New commands
1769
1770 maint print symbol-cache
1771 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1772
1773 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1774 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1775
1776 maint flush-symbol-cache
1777 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1778
1779 record btrace bts
1780 record bts
1781 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1782
1783 compile print
1784 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1785
1786 tui enable
1787 tui disable
1788 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1789
1790 show mpx bound
1791 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1792 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1793
1794 record btrace pt
1795 record pt
1796 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1797
1798 maint info btrace
1799 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1800
1801 maint btrace packet-history
1802 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1803
1804 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1805 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1806
1807 maint btrace clear
1808 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1809 anew by the next "record" command.
1810
1811 * New options
1812
1813 set debug dwarf-die
1814 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1815 show debug dwarf-die
1816 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1817
1818 set debug dwarf-read
1819 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1820 show debug dwarf-read
1821 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1822
1823 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1824 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1825 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1826 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1827
1828 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1829 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1830 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1831 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1832
1833 set debug dwarf-line
1834 show debug dwarf-line
1835 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1836
1837 set max-completions
1838 show max-completions
1839 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1840 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1841 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1842 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1843
1844 set history remove-duplicates
1845 show history remove-duplicates
1846 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1847
1848 maint set symbol-cache-size
1849 maint show symbol-cache-size
1850 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1851
1852 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1853 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1854 BTS format.
1855 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1856 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1857
1858 set debug linux-namespaces
1859 show debug linux-namespaces
1860 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1861
1862 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1863 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1864 Intel Processor Trace format.
1865 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1866 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1867
1868 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1869 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1870 packet history.
1871
1872 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1873 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1874
1875 * Python/Guile scripting
1876
1877 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1878 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1879
1880 * New remote packets
1881
1882 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1883 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1884
1885 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1886 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1887
1888 Qbtrace:pt
1889 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1890 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1891 qSupported query.
1892
1893 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1894 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1895 Trace format.
1896
1897 swbreak stop reason
1898 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1899 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1900 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1901 mode operation.
1902
1903 hwbreak stop reason
1904 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1905 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1906
1907 vFile:fstat:
1908 Return information about files on the remote system.
1909
1910 qXfer:exec-file:read
1911 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1912 create a process running on the remote system.
1913
1914 vFile:setfs:
1915 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1916 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1917 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1918 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1919
1920 fork stop reason
1921 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1922
1923 vfork stop reason
1924 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1925
1926 vforkdone stop reason
1927 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1928 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1929
1930 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1931 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1932 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1933 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1934 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1935 whether these features are enabled.
1936
1937 * Extended-remote fork events
1938
1939 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1940 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1941 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1942 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1943
1944 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1945 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1946 the btrace record target.
1947 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1948
1949 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1950 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1951
1952 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1953 targets.
1954
1955 * Removed command line options
1956
1957 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1958
1959 * Removed targets and native configurations
1960
1961 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1962 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1963
1964 * New configure options
1965
1966 --with-intel-pt
1967 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1968 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1969
1970 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1971 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1972 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1973 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1974
1975 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1976
1977 * Python Scripting
1978
1979 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1980
1981 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1982
1983 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1984
1985 * Python Scripting
1986
1987 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1988 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1989 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1990 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1991 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1992 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1993 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1994 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1995 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1996 selecting a new file to debug.
1997 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1998 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1999
2000 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
2001 inferior.
2002
2003 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
2004 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
2005 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
2006 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
2007
2008 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2009
2010 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2011 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2012 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2013 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2014
2015 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
2016 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
2017 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
2018 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
2019 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
2020 interface with this new feature are:
2021
2022 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
2023 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
2024
2025 * New commands
2026
2027 demangle [-l language] [--] name
2028 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
2029 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
2030 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
2031 as "maint demangler-warning".
2032
2033 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
2034 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
2035
2036 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
2037 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
2038 scripts.
2039
2040 maint print user-registers
2041 List all currently available "user" registers.
2042
2043 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
2044 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
2045 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
2046
2047 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
2048 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
2049 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
2050 provided.
2051
2052 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
2053 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
2054 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
2055 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
2056 at resume time.
2057
2058 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
2059 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
2060 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2061 switched threads meanwhile.
2062
2063 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2064
2065 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2066 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2067 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2068 is now the default mode.
2069
2070 * New options
2071
2072 set debug symbol-lookup
2073 show debug symbol-lookup
2074 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2075
2076 * MI changes
2077
2078 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2079 inferiors that have exited.
2080
2081 * New targets
2082
2083 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2084
2085 * Removed targets
2086
2087 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2088
2089 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2090 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2091 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2092 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2093 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2094
2095 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2096 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2097 its alias "share", instead.
2098
2099 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
2100
2101 * New command line options
2102
2103 -D data-directory
2104 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2105
2106 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2107 as specified in ISO C99.
2108
2109 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2110 with or without disassembly.
2111
2112 * Guile scripting
2113
2114 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2115 available is determined at configure time.
2116 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2117 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2118
2119 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2120
2121 guile [code]
2122 gu [code]
2123 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2124
2125 guile-repl
2126 gr
2127 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2128
2129 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2130 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2131
2132 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2133 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2134
2135 * New options
2136
2137 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2138 show print symbol-loading
2139 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2140 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2141 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2142 becomes less useful.
2143
2144 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2145 show guile print-stack
2146 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2147
2148 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2149 show auto-load guile-scripts
2150 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2151
2152 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2153 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2154 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2155 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2156 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2157 usage of this option.
2158
2159 set auto-connect-native-target
2160
2161 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2162 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2163 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2164
2165 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2166 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2167 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2168
2169 maint set target-async (on|off)
2170 maint show target-async
2171 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2172 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2173 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2174 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2175
2176 set mi-async (on|off)
2177 show mi-async
2178 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2179 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2180
2181 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2182 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2183
2184 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2185 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2186 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2187 "set target-async on" command.
2188
2189 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2190
2191 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2192 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2193 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2194 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2195 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2196
2197 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2198 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2199 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2200
2201 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2202 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2203 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2204 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2205 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2206 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2207 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2208
2209 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2210 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2211
2212 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2213 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2214 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2215
2216 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2217 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2218 memory or registers.
2219
2220 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2221
2222 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2223 remote. It now works with all targets.
2224
2225 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2226 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2227 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2228 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2229 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2230 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2231 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2232 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2233 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2234 target-stack".
2235
2236 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2237 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2238 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2239
2240 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2241
2242 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2243 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2244 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2245
2246 * New remote packets
2247
2248 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2249 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2250 branch trace incrementally.
2251
2252 * Python Scripting
2253
2254 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2255 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2256 available.
2257 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2258 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2259 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2260 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2261 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2262
2263 * New targets
2264 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2265
2266 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2267 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2268 its alias "share", instead.
2269
2270 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2271 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2272 instead.
2273
2274 * MI changes
2275
2276 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2277 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2278 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2279 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2280 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2281 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2282 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2283 commands and CLI execution commands.
2284
2285 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2286
2287 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2288 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2289 recording has been added.
2290
2291 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2292
2293 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2294 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2295
2296 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2297 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2298 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2299 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2300 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2301 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2302 "void".
2303
2304 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2305
2306 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2307
2308 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2309 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2310 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2311 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2312
2313 (gdb) p $rax
2314 $1 = <not saved>
2315
2316 (gdb) info registers rax
2317 rax <not saved>
2318
2319 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2320 "*value not available*".
2321
2322 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2323 to binaries.
2324
2325 * Python scripting
2326
2327 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2328 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2329 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2330 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2331 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2332 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2333
2334 * New targets
2335
2336 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2337 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2338 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2339
2340 * Removed native configurations
2341
2342 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2343 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2344
2345 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2346 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2347 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2348 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2349 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2350 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2351 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2352
2353 * New commands:
2354 catch rethrow
2355 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2356 maint check-psymtabs
2357 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2358 maint check-symtabs
2359 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2360 maint expand-symtabs
2361 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2362
2363 show configuration
2364 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2365
2366 maint set|show per-command
2367 maint set|show per-command space
2368 maint set|show per-command time
2369 maint set|show per-command symtab
2370 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2371
2372 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2373 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2374 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2375 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2376 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2377
2378 info exceptions
2379 info exceptions REGEXP
2380 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2381 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2382 are listed.
2383
2384 * New options
2385
2386 set debug symfile off|on
2387 show debug symfile
2388 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2389 symbol tables within those files
2390
2391 set print raw frame-arguments
2392 show print raw frame-arguments
2393 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2394 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2395
2396 set remote trace-status-packet
2397 show remote trace-status-packet
2398 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2399
2400 set debug nios2
2401 show debug nios2
2402 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2403
2404 set range-stepping
2405 show range-stepping
2406 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2407
2408 set startup-with-shell
2409 show startup-with-shell
2410 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2411 directly.
2412
2413 set code-cache
2414 show code-cache
2415 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2416 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2417
2418 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2419 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2420 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2421 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2422 "set height 0".
2423
2424 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2425 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2426 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2427
2428 * New command-line options
2429 --configuration
2430 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2431
2432 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2433 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2434
2435 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2436 GDB command gcore.
2437
2438 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2439
2440 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2441 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2442
2443 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2444 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2445
2446 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2447 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2448 due to an uncaught signal.
2449
2450 * MI changes
2451
2452 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2453 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2454 command, which should contain "language-option".
2455
2456 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2457 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2458
2459 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2460 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2461 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2462 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2463 "undefined-command-error-code".
2464
2465 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2466 Trace Format now.
2467
2468 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2469
2470 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2471 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2472 are displayed.
2473
2474 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2475 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2476
2477 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2478 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2479 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2480
2481 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2482 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2483 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2484 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2485 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2486 "exec-run-start-option".
2487
2488 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2489 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2490
2491 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2492 the new "info exceptions" command.
2493
2494 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2495 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2496 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2497 ** ElinOS
2498 ** Wind River Linux
2499
2500 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2501 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2502 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2503 below.
2504
2505 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2506 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2507
2508 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2509 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2510 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2511
2512 * New remote packets
2513
2514 vCont;r
2515
2516 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2517 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2518 involvemement at each single-step.
2519
2520 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2521 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2522 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2523 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2524 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2525 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2526 speedup.
2527
2528 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2529
2530 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2531 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2532
2533 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2534 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2535 trace state variables.
2536
2537 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2538 target.
2539
2540 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2541 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2542
2543 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2544
2545 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2546 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2547 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2548 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2549
2550 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2551
2552 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2553 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2554 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2555 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2556
2557 set|show record full insn-number-max
2558 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2559 set|show record full memory-query
2560
2561 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2562 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2563 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2564 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2565 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2566
2567 record btrace
2568
2569 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2570 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2571
2572 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2573 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2574 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2575
2576 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2577 instruction granularity
2578
2579 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2580 function granularity
2581
2582 * New native configurations
2583
2584 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2585 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2586 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2587 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2588
2589 * New targets
2590
2591 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2592 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2593 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2594 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2595 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2596
2597 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2598 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2599 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2600 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2601 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2602 --data-directory command-line option.
2603
2604 * New command line options:
2605
2606 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2607 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2608
2609 * Removed command line options
2610
2611 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2612 Emacs.
2613
2614 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2615 type formatting.
2616
2617 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2618
2619 * Python scripting
2620
2621 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2622
2623 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2624
2625 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2626
2627 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2628
2629 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2630 of architecture in the Python API.
2631
2632 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2633 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2634
2635 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2636
2637 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2638 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2639 ** $_strlen(str)
2640 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2641
2642 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2643 given an argument.
2644
2645 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2646 default for GCC since November 2000.
2647
2648 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2649
2650 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2651 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2652
2653 * New configure options
2654
2655 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2656 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2657 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2658 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2659 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2660 options allow the user to override that default.
2661 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2662 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2663 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2664
2665 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2666
2667 catch signal
2668 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2669 conditions to be attached.
2670
2671 maint info bfds
2672 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2673
2674 python-interactive [command]
2675 pi [command]
2676 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2677 and print the result of expressions.
2678
2679 py [command]
2680 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2681
2682 enable type-printer [name]...
2683 disable type-printer [name]...
2684 Enable or disable type printers.
2685
2686 * Removed commands
2687
2688 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2689 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2690 instead.
2691
2692 * New options
2693
2694 set print type methods (on|off)
2695 show print type methods
2696 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2697 The default is to show them.
2698
2699 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2700 show print type typedefs
2701 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2702 The default is to show them.
2703
2704 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2705 show filename-display
2706 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2707 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2708
2709 set trace-buffer-size
2710 show trace-buffer-size
2711 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2712
2713 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2714 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2715 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2716
2717 set debug aarch64
2718 show debug aarch64
2719 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2720 The default is off.
2721
2722 set debug coff-pe-read
2723 show debug coff-pe-read
2724 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2725 exported symbols.
2726
2727 set debug mach-o
2728 show debug mach-o
2729 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2730 processing.
2731
2732 set debug notification
2733 show debug notification
2734 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2735
2736 * MI changes
2737
2738 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2739 "=cmd-param-changed".
2740 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2741 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2742 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2743 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2744 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2745 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2746 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2747 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2748 "=memory-changed".
2749 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2750 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2751 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2752 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2753 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2754 library load/unload events.
2755 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2756 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2757 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2758 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2759 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2760 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2761 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2762 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2763
2764 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2765 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2766 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2767 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2768
2769 * New remote packets
2770
2771 QTBuffer:size
2772 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2773 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2774
2775 Qbtrace:bts
2776 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2777 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2778 qSupported query.
2779
2780 Qbtrace:off
2781 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2782 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2783
2784 qXfer:btrace:read
2785 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2786 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2787
2788 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2789
2790 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2791 for more x32 ABI info.
2792
2793 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2794
2795 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2796
2797 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2798 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2799 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2800 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2801 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2802 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2803 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2804 "info os msg" lists message queues
2805 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2806
2807 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2808 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2809 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2810 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2811 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2812 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2813
2814 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2815 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2816 record/replay support.
2817
2818 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2819
2820 * Python scripting
2821
2822 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2823 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2824
2825 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2826
2827 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2828 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2829
2830 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2831
2832 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2833 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2834
2835 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2836 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2837 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2838 symbol's value.
2839
2840 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2841 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2842
2843 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2844 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2845 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2846
2847 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2848 object associated with a PC value.
2849
2850 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2851 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2852
2853 * Go language support.
2854 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2855 language.
2856
2857 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2858 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2859
2860 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2861 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2862
2863 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2864 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2865 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2866 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2867 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2868 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2869
2870 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2871 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2872 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2873 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2874
2875 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2876 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2877
2878 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2879 since December 2007.
2880
2881 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2882 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2883 command does. For instance:
2884
2885 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2886
2887 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2888 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2889 created, using the "condition" command.
2890
2891 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2892 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2893
2894 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2895
2896 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2897 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2898 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2899 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2900 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2901 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2902 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2903 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2904
2905 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2906 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2907 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2908 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2909 the .gdb_index section.
2910
2911 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2912
2913 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2914 target.
2915
2916 * MI changes
2917
2918 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2919
2920 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2921
2922 * New commands
2923
2924 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2925 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2926 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2927
2928 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2929 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2930
2931 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2932 several hits.
2933
2934 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2935 C++ and Java objects.
2936
2937 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2938 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2939 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2940 configured with '--with-python'.
2941
2942 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2943 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2944 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2945 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2946 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2947 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2948 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2949
2950 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2951 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2952 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2953 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2954
2955 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2956 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2957 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2958 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2959
2960 ** "set print symbol"
2961 "show print symbol"
2962 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2963 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2964 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2965
2966 * Deprecated commands
2967
2968 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2969 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2970
2971 * New targets
2972
2973 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2974 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2975
2976 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2977 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2978 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2979 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2980 evaluates to true.
2981
2982 * New options
2983
2984 set mips compression
2985 show mips compression
2986 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2987 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2988 mips16
2989 micromips
2990 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2991
2992 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2993 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2994 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2995 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2996 available mode.
2997 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2998 target.
2999
3000 set auto-load off
3001 Disable auto-loading globally.
3002
3003 show auto-load
3004 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
3005
3006 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
3007 show auto-load gdb-scripts
3008 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
3009
3010 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
3011 show auto-load python-scripts
3012 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
3013
3014 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
3015 show auto-load local-gdbinit
3016 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
3017
3018 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
3019 show auto-load libthread-db
3020 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
3021
3022 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3023 show auto-load scripts-directory
3024 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
3025 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
3026 of the directories listed by this option.
3027 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3028
3029 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3030 show auto-load safe-path
3031 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
3032 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3033
3034 set debug auto-load on|off
3035 show debug auto-load
3036 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
3037
3038 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
3039 show dprintf-style
3040 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
3041 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
3042 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
3043 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
3044
3045 set dprintf-function <expr>
3046 show dprintf-function
3047 set dprintf-channel <expr>
3048 show dprintf-channel
3049 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
3050 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
3051
3052 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
3053 show disconnected-dprintf
3054 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
3055 after GDB disconnects.
3056
3057 * New configure options
3058
3059 --with-auto-load-dir
3060 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3061 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3062 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3063 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3064 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3065
3066 --with-auto-load-safe-path
3067 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3068 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3069
3070 --without-auto-load-safe-path
3071 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3072 security feature.
3073
3074 * New remote packets
3075
3076 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3077
3078 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3079 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3080 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3081 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3082
3083 QProgramSignals:
3084
3085 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3086 program without GDB involvement.
3087
3088 * New command line options
3089
3090 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3091 before loading inferior.
3092 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3093 execute it before loading inferior.
3094
3095 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
3096
3097 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3098 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3099 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3100 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3101 inferior changes.
3102
3103 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3104 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3105
3106 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3107 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3108 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3109 target hardware watchpoint.
3110
3111 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3112 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3113 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3114 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3115
3116 * Python scripting
3117
3118 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3119 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3120 existing one.
3121
3122 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3123 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3124 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3125 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3126 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3127 the stack trace.
3128
3129 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3130 Python API.
3131
3132 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3133 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3134 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3135 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3136 corresponding value.
3137
3138 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3139 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3140 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3141 on GDB start-up.
3142
3143 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3144 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3145 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3146 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3147
3148 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3149
3150 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3151 "gdb.breakpoints".
3152
3153 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3154 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3155 available in the CLI.
3156
3157 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3158 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3159 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3160 "some_type.items()".
3161
3162 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3163 new object file.
3164
3165 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3166 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3167 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3168 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3169 any anonymous fields.
3170
3171 * MI changes
3172
3173 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3174 "solib-event".
3175
3176 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3177 "=breakpoint-modified".
3178
3179 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3180
3181 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3182 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3183 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3184 lives.
3185
3186 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3187 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3188 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3189 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3190 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3191
3192 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3193 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3194
3195 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3196 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3197 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3198 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3199 use this option to specify where to find it.
3200
3201 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3202 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3203 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3204 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3205 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3206 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3207 section in the user manual for more details.
3208
3209 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3210 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3211 become available after that.
3212
3213 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3214
3215 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3216 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3217 gcc version 4.7.
3218
3219 * New commands
3220
3221 !SHELL COMMAND
3222 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3223 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3224
3225 * Changed commands
3226
3227 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3228 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3229 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3230
3231 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3232 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3233 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3234
3235 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3236 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3237 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3238 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3239 name starts with a hyphen.
3240
3241 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3242 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3243 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3244 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3245 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3246 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3247 number of bytes that will be collected.
3248
3249 tstart [NOTES]
3250 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3251 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3252 setting the variable trace-notes.
3253
3254 tstop [NOTES]
3255 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3256 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3257 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3258 trace-stop-notes.
3259
3260 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3261 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3262 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3263 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3264 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3265 is running.
3266
3267 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3268 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3269 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3270
3271 * New options
3272
3273 set debug dwarf2-read
3274 show debug dwarf2-read
3275 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3276 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3277
3278 set debug symtab-create
3279 show debug symtab-create
3280 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3281 creation. The default is off.
3282
3283 set extended-prompt
3284 show extended-prompt
3285 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3286 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3287 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3288 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3289 prompt is displayed.
3290
3291 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3292 show print entry-values
3293 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3294 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3295 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3296
3297 set debug entry-values
3298 show debug entry-values
3299 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3300 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3301
3302 set basenames-may-differ
3303 show basenames-may-differ
3304 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3305 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3306 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3307 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3308 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3309 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3310 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3311 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3312
3313 set trace-user
3314 show trace-user
3315 set trace-notes
3316 show trace-notes
3317 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3318 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3319 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3320 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3321
3322 set trace-stop-notes
3323 show trace-stop-notes
3324 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3325 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3326 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3327 started by someone else.
3328
3329 * New remote packets
3330
3331 QTEnable
3332
3333 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3334
3335 QTDisable
3336
3337 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3338
3339 QTNotes
3340
3341 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3342
3343 qTP
3344
3345 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3346
3347 qTMinFTPILen
3348
3349 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3350 be placed.
3351
3352 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3353 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3354
3355 * New targets
3356
3357 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3358
3359 * New Simulators
3360
3361 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3362
3363 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3364
3365 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3366
3367 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3368
3369 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3370 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3371 matches the given regular expression.
3372
3373 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3374
3375 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3376 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3377
3378 * New command line options
3379
3380 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3381 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3382
3383 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3384 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3385
3386 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3387 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3388 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3389
3390 * GDB now understands thread names.
3391
3392 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3393 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3394
3395 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3396 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3397
3398 * OpenCL C
3399 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3400 has been integrated into GDB.
3401
3402 * Python scripting
3403
3404 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3405 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3406 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3407
3408 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3409 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3410 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3411 and allows for more dynamic content.
3412
3413 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3414 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3415 have an is_valid method.
3416
3417 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3418 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3419 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3420
3421 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3422
3423 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3424 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3425 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3426 that function like so:
3427
3428 result = some_value (10,20)
3429
3430 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3431 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3432 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3433
3434 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3435 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3436 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3437 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3438 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3439
3440 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3441 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3442
3443 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3444
3445 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3446 selected thread.
3447
3448 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3449 holds the thread's name.
3450
3451 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3452 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3453 occurring in the process being debugged.
3454 The following events are currently supported:
3455 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3456 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3457 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3458
3459 * C++ Improvements:
3460
3461 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3462 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3463
3464 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3465
3466 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3467 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3468 was added to GCC 4.5.
3469
3470 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3471 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3472 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3473 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3474 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3475 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3476
3477 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3478 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3479 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3480 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3481 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3482
3483 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3484 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3485 execution to a label.
3486
3487 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3488 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3489 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3490 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3491
3492 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3493 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3494 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3495 of scope.
3496
3497 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3498
3499 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3500 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3501 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3502 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3503 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3504 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3505
3506 (gdb) info threads
3507 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3508
3509 While now you see this:
3510
3511 (gdb) info threads
3512 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3513
3514 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3515 dumps.
3516
3517 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3518 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3519 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3520 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3521
3522 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3523 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3524 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3525 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3526 section in the user manual for more details.
3527
3528 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3529
3530 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3531 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3532
3533 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3534
3535 * New native configurations
3536
3537 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3538
3539 * New targets:
3540
3541 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3542
3543 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3544 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3545 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3546 in the GDB user manual.
3547
3548 * Guile support was removed.
3549
3550 * New features in the GNU simulator
3551
3552 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3553
3554 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3555
3556 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3557
3558 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3559
3560 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3561 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3562 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3563 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3564 was always disabled for such configurations.
3565
3566 * C++ Improvements:
3567
3568 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3569
3570 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3571 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3572 For example:
3573 namespace A
3574 {
3575 class B { };
3576 void foo (B) { }
3577 }
3578 ...
3579 A::B b
3580 foo(b)
3581 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3582 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3583 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3584
3585 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3586
3587 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3588 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3589 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3590 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3591 entry.
3592 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3593 mentioned flavors of operators.
3594
3595 ** static const class members
3596
3597 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3598 class definition has been fixed.
3599
3600 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3601
3602 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3603 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3604 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3605 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3606 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3607 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3608
3609 * Static tracepoints
3610
3611 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3612 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3613 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3614 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3615 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3616 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3617 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3618 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3619 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3620 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3621 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3622 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3623 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3624 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3625 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3626 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3627 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3628 the "New remote packets" section below.
3629
3630 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3631
3632 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3633 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3634 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3635 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3636
3637 * Observer mode
3638
3639 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3640 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3641 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3642 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3643 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3644 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3645 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3646
3647 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3648 current thread.
3649
3650 * New remote packets
3651
3652 qGetTIBAddr
3653
3654 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3655
3656 qRelocInsn
3657
3658 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3659 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3660 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3661 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3662 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3663 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3664
3665 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
3666
3667 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3668
3669 qTSTMat
3670
3671 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3672 program.
3673
3674 qXfer:statictrace:read
3675
3676 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3677 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3678 to gdb's qSupported query.
3679
3680 QAllow
3681
3682 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3683
3684 QTDPsrc
3685
3686 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3687 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3688
3689 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3690 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3691 a directory.
3692
3693 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3694
3695 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3696 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3697 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3698 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3699
3700 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3701 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3702 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3703 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3704 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3705 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3706 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3707
3708 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3709 for static tracepoints support.
3710
3711 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3712
3713 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3714 it understands register description.
3715
3716 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3717
3718 * X86 general purpose registers
3719
3720 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3721 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3722 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3723 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3724 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3725
3726 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3727 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3728 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3729 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3730 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3731 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3732
3733 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3734 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3735 in the specified file.
3736
3737 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3738 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3739 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3740 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3741 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3742 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3743 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3744 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3745 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3746 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3747
3748 * New commands
3749
3750 eval template, expressions...
3751 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3752 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3753
3754 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3755 show target-file-system-kind
3756 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3757 names.
3758
3759 save breakpoints <filename>
3760 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3761 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3762 definitions, use the `source' command.
3763
3764 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3765 is now deprecated.
3766
3767 info static-tracepoint-markers
3768 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3769
3770 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3771 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3772 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3773
3774 set observer on|off
3775 show observer
3776 Enable and disable observer mode.
3777
3778 set may-write-registers on|off
3779 set may-write-memory on|off
3780 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3781 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3782 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3783 set may-interrupt on|off
3784 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3785 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3786 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3787 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3788 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3789 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3790 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3791
3792 set record memory-query on|off
3793 show record memory-query
3794 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3795 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3796
3797 * Changed commands
3798
3799 disassemble
3800 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3801
3802 * Python scripting
3803
3804 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3805 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3806 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3807 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3808 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3809
3810 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3811 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3812 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3813 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3814
3815 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3816 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3817
3818 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3819
3820 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3821
3822 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3823
3824 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3825 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3826 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3827
3828 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3829 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3830 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3831 regular breakpoints.
3832
3833 * New targets
3834
3835 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3836
3837 * D language support.
3838 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3839 language.
3840
3841 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3842 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3843 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3844 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3845 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3846
3847 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3848 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3849 conditions of the form:
3850
3851 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3852
3853 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3854 interface mentioned above.
3855
3856 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3857
3858 * C++ Improvements
3859
3860 ** Namespace Support
3861
3862 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3863 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3864 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3865 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3866 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3867
3868 ** Bug Fixes
3869
3870 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3871 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3872 qualified name.
3873
3874 ** Cast Operators
3875
3876 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3877 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3878
3879 * New targets
3880
3881 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3882 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3883
3884 * New Simulators
3885
3886 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3887 Renesas RX rx
3888
3889 * Multi-program debugging.
3890
3891 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3892 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3893 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3894 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3895 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3896 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3897 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3898 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3899
3900 * New tracing features
3901
3902 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3903
3904 ** Trace state variables
3905
3906 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3907 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3908 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3909 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3910 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3911 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3912 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3913 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3914 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3915 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3916
3917 ** Fast tracepoints
3918
3919 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3920 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3921 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3922 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3923 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3924 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3925 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3926 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3927 the regular trace command.
3928
3929 ** Disconnected tracing
3930
3931 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3932 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3933 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3934 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3935 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3936
3937 ** Trace files
3938
3939 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3940 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3941 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3942 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3943 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3944 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3945 <name>".
3946
3947 ** Circular trace buffer
3948
3949 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3950 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3951 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3952 not be available for all target agents.
3953
3954 * Changed commands
3955
3956 disassemble
3957 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3958 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3959
3960 info variables
3961 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3962 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3963
3964 source
3965 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3966 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3967 support.
3968
3969 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3970 "set script-extension" (see below).
3971
3972 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3973
3974 record save [<FILENAME>]
3975 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3976 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3977
3978 record restore <FILENAME>
3979 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3980 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3981
3982 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3983 Add a new inferior.
3984
3985 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3986 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3987 inferior has loaded.
3988
3989 remove-inferior ID
3990 Remove an inferior.
3991
3992 maint info program-spaces
3993 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3994
3995 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3996 show remote interrupt-sequence
3997 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3998 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3999 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
4000 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
4001 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
4002
4003 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
4004 show remote interrupt-on-connect
4005 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
4006 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
4007 Linux kernel.
4008
4009 set remotebreak [on | off]
4010 show remotebreak
4011 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
4012
4013 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
4014 Create or modify a trace state variable.
4015
4016 info tvariables
4017 List trace state variables and their values.
4018
4019 delete tvariable $NAME ...
4020 Delete one or more trace state variables.
4021
4022 teval EXPR, ...
4023 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
4024 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
4025
4026 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
4027 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
4028
4029 * New expression syntax
4030
4031 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
4032 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
4033
4034 * New options
4035
4036 set follow-exec-mode new|same
4037 show follow-exec-mode
4038 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
4039 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
4040 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
4041
4042 set default-collect EXPR, ...
4043 show default-collect
4044 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
4045 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
4046 such as registers or a critical global variable.
4047
4048 set disconnected-tracing
4049 show disconnected-tracing
4050 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
4051 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
4052 upon disconnection.
4053
4054 set circular-trace-buffer
4055 show circular-trace-buffer
4056 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
4057 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
4058 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
4059 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
4060
4061 set script-extension off|soft|strict
4062 show script-extension
4063 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4064 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4065 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4066 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4067 evaluation failed.
4068 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4069
4070 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4071 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4072 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4073 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4074 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4075 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4076 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4077 is on.
4078
4079 * Python API Improvements
4080
4081 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4082 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4083 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4084
4085 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4086 `is_base_class' attribute.
4087
4088 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4089
4090 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4091 evaluate an expression.
4092
4093 * New remote packets
4094
4095 QTDV
4096 Define a trace state variable.
4097
4098 qTV
4099 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4100
4101 QTDisconnected
4102 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4103
4104 QTBuffer:circular
4105 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4106
4107 qTfP, qTsP
4108 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4109
4110 * Bug fixes
4111
4112 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4113
4114 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4115 much more reliable. In particular:
4116 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4117 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4118 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4119 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4120 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4121 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4122 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4123 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4124 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4125 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4126 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4127 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4128 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4129 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4130 non-threaded programs.
4131
4132 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4133 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4134 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4135 executable program.
4136
4137 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4138
4139 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4140 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4141 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4142 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4143 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4144
4145 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4146 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4147 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4148 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4149 for tracepoint actions.
4150
4151 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4152 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4153 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4154
4155 * Process record and replay
4156
4157 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4158 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4159 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4160 execute commands.
4161
4162 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4163 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4164 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4165 reverse execution.
4166
4167 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4168 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4169 2.6.28 or later.
4170
4171 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4172 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4173 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4174 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4175 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4176 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4177 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4178 the installation instructions for more information.
4179
4180 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4181 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4182 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4183 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4184
4185 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4186 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4187
4188 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4189 now complete on file names.
4190
4191 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4192 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4193 For instance, consider:
4194
4195 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4196 # struct example variable;
4197 (gdb) p variable.
4198
4199 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4200 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4201
4202 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4203 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4204
4205 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4206 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4207 macros.
4208
4209 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4210 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4211 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4212
4213 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4214 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4215 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4216 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4217
4218 * New remote packets
4219
4220 qSearch:memory:
4221 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4222
4223 QStartNoAckMode
4224 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4225 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4226 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4227
4228 vKill
4229 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4230 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4231
4232 qXfer:osdata:read
4233 Obtains additional operating system information
4234
4235 qXfer:siginfo:read
4236 qXfer:siginfo:write
4237 Read or write additional signal information.
4238
4239 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4240
4241 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4242 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4243 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4244
4245 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4246 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4247
4248 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4249 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4250 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4251
4252 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4253 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4254
4255 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4256
4257 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4258
4259 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4260 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4261
4262 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
4263 list of section offsets.
4264
4265 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4266 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4267 have also been fixed.
4268
4269 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4270 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4271 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4272
4273 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4274 example, given:
4275
4276 template<typename T> class C { };
4277 C<char const *> c;
4278
4279 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4280
4281 ptype C<char const *>
4282 ptype C<char const*>
4283 ptype C<const char *>
4284 ptype C<const char*>
4285
4286 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4287
4288 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4289 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4290
4291 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4292 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4293 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4294
4295 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4296 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4297
4298 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4299 gdbserver.
4300
4301 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4302 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4303
4304 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4305 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4306 as appropriate.
4307
4308 * Python scripting
4309
4310 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4311 available is determined at configure time.
4312
4313 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4314
4315 * Ada tasking support
4316
4317 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4318 been introduced:
4319
4320 info tasks
4321 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4322 info task N
4323 Print detailed information about task number N.
4324 task
4325 Print the task number of the current task.
4326 task N
4327 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4328
4329 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4330 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4331
4332 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4333
4334 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4335 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4336 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4337 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4338 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4339 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4340 below.
4341
4342 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4343 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4344 information.
4345
4346 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4347 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4348 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4349 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4350 more information.
4351
4352 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4353
4354 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4355 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4356 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4357 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4358 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4359
4360 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4361 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4362 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4363 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4364 --enable-targets configure option.
4365
4366 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4367
4368 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4369 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4370 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4371 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4372 section in the user manual for more information.
4373
4374 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4375 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4376 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4377 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4378 extensions on linux targets.
4379
4380 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4381
4382 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4383 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4384 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4385 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4386 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4387 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4388 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4389 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4390 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4391
4392 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4393 val1 [, val2, ...]
4394 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4395
4396 maint set python print-stack
4397 maint show python print-stack
4398 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4399
4400 python [CODE]
4401 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4402
4403 macro define
4404 macro list
4405 macro undef
4406 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4407 interactively.
4408
4409 info os processes
4410 Show operating system information about processes.
4411
4412 info inferiors
4413 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4414
4415 inferior NUM
4416 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4417
4418 detach inferior NUM
4419 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4420
4421 kill inferior NUM
4422 Kill inferior number NUM.
4423
4424 * New options
4425
4426 set spu stop-on-load
4427 show spu stop-on-load
4428 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4429
4430 set spu auto-flush-cache
4431 show spu auto-flush-cache
4432 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4433 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4434
4435 set sh calling-convention
4436 show sh calling-convention
4437 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4438
4439 set debug timestamp
4440 show debug timestamp
4441 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4442
4443 set disassemble-next-line
4444 show disassemble-next-line
4445 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4446 the debuggee stops.
4447
4448 set remote noack-packet
4449 show remote noack-packet
4450 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4451 under "New remote packets."
4452
4453 set remote query-attached-packet
4454 show remote query-attached-packet
4455 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4456
4457 set remote read-siginfo-object
4458 show remote read-siginfo-object
4459 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4460 packet.
4461
4462 set remote write-siginfo-object
4463 show remote write-siginfo-object
4464 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4465 packet.
4466
4467 set remote reverse-continue
4468 show remote reverse-continue
4469 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4470
4471 set remote reverse-step
4472 show remote reverse-step
4473 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4474
4475 set displaced-stepping
4476 show displaced-stepping
4477 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4478 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4479 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4480
4481 set debug displaced
4482 show debug displaced
4483 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4484
4485 maint set internal-error
4486 maint show internal-error
4487 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4488
4489 maint set internal-warning
4490 maint show internal-warning
4491 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4492
4493 set exec-wrapper
4494 show exec-wrapper
4495 unset exec-wrapper
4496 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4497
4498 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4499 show multiple-symbols
4500 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4501 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4502 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4503
4504 set breakpoint always-inserted
4505 show breakpoint always-inserted
4506 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4507 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4508 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4509
4510 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4511 show arm fallback-mode
4512 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4513 show arm force-mode
4514 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4515 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4516 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4517 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4518
4519 set disable-randomization
4520 show disable-randomization
4521 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4522 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4523 multiple debugging sessions.
4524
4525 set non-stop
4526 show non-stop
4527 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4528 a breakpoint.
4529
4530 set target-async
4531 show target-async
4532 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4533 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4534 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4535 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4536
4537 set target-wide-charset
4538 show target-wide-charset
4539 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4540 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4541
4542 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4543 show tcp auto-retry
4544 set tcp connect-timeout
4545 show tcp connect-timeout
4546 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4547 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4548 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4549
4550 set libthread-db-search-path
4551 show libthread-db-search-path
4552 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4553 libthread_db.
4554
4555 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4556 show schedule-multiple
4557 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4558 the current process.
4559
4560 set stack-cache
4561 show stack-cache
4562 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4563 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4564 affecting correctness.
4565
4566 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4567 show interactive-mode
4568 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4569 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4570 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4571 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4572 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4573
4574 * Removed commands
4575
4576 info forks
4577 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4578 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4579 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4580 command.
4581
4582 fork NUM
4583 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4584 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4585 alias for the `fork' command.
4586
4587 process PID
4588 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4589 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4590 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4591
4592 delete fork NUM
4593 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4594 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4595 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4596 fork' command.
4597
4598 detach fork NUM
4599 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4600 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4601 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4602 fork' command.
4603
4604 * New native configurations
4605
4606 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4607
4608 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4609
4610 * New targets
4611
4612 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4613 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4614 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4615 S+core 3 score-*-*
4616
4617 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4618 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4619
4620 * Removed commands
4621
4622 catch load
4623 catch unload
4624 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4625
4626 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4627
4628 * New native configurations
4629
4630 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4631 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4632
4633 * New targets
4634
4635 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4636 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
4637
4638 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4639
4640 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4641 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4642 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4643 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4644
4645 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4646 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4647
4648 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4649 is resolved.
4650
4651 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4652 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4653 and in inlined functions.
4654
4655 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4656 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4657 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4658
4659 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4660
4661 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4662 registers on PowerPC targets.
4663
4664 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4665 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4666
4667 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4668 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4669
4670 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4671 extended-remote mode.
4672
4673 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4674 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4675 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4676 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4677
4678 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4679 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4680 target architectures.
4681
4682 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4683 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4684 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4685 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4686
4687 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4688 breakpoints now.
4689
4690 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4691 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4692 include:
4693 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4694 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4695 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4696 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4697 of an assignment
4698 - Improved command completion in Ada
4699 - Several bug fixes
4700
4701 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4702 process.
4703
4704 * New commands
4705
4706 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4707 show print frame-arguments
4708 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4709 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4710
4711 remote put
4712 remote get
4713 remote delete
4714 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4715
4716 * New MI commands
4717
4718 -target-file-put
4719 -target-file-get
4720 -target-file-delete
4721 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4722
4723 * New remote packets
4724
4725 vFile:open:
4726 vFile:close:
4727 vFile:pread:
4728 vFile:pwrite:
4729 vFile:unlink:
4730 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4731
4732 vAttach
4733 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4734 mode.
4735
4736 vRun
4737 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4738
4739 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4740
4741 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4742 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4743 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4744
4745 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4746 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4747 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4748
4749 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4750 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4751 is not supported.
4752
4753 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4754 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4755
4756 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4757 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4758
4759 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4760
4761 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4762 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4763 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4764
4765 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4766 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4767
4768 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4769 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4770 as strings.
4771
4772 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4773 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4774 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4775
4776 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4777 iWMMXt coprocessor.
4778
4779 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4780 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4781 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4782
4783 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4784
4785 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4786
4787 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4788 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4789 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4790
4791 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4792 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4793
4794 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4795 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4796 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4797 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4798 Windows and SymbianOS).
4799
4800 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4801 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4802
4803 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4804 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4805
4806 * New commands
4807
4808 set remoteflow
4809 show remoteflow
4810 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4811 when debugging using remote targets.
4812
4813 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4814 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4815 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4816 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4817 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4818 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4819 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4820
4821 set breakpoint auto-hw
4822 show breakpoint auto-hw
4823 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4824 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4825 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4826 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4827 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4828 including "next" and "finish".
4829
4830 catch exception
4831 catch exception unhandled
4832 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4833
4834 catch assert
4835 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4836
4837 set sysroot
4838 show sysroot
4839 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4840 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4841 an alias to "set sysroot".
4842
4843 info spu
4844 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4845 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4846 architecture.
4847
4848 * New native configurations
4849
4850 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4851
4852 set tdesc filename
4853 unset tdesc filename
4854 show tdesc filename
4855 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4856 not query the target for its built-in description.
4857
4858 * New targets
4859
4860 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4861 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4862 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4863
4864 * New remote packets
4865
4866 QPassSignals:
4867 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4868 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4869
4870 qXfer:features:read:
4871 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4872 features.
4873
4874 qXfer:spu:read:
4875 qXfer:spu:write:
4876 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4877 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4878
4879 qXfer:libraries:read:
4880 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4881 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4882 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4883 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4884
4885 * Removed targets
4886
4887 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4888
4889 alpha*-*-osf1*
4890 alpha*-*-osf2*
4891 d10v-*-*
4892 hppa*-*-hiux*
4893 i[34567]86-ncr-*
4894 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4895 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4896 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4897 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4898 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4899 i[34567]86-*-sco*
4900 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4901 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4902 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4903 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4904 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4905 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4906 i[34567]86-*-isc*
4907 m68*-cisco*-*
4908 m68*-tandem-*
4909 mips*-*-pe
4910 rs6000-*-lynxos*
4911 sh*-*-pe
4912
4913 * Other removed features
4914
4915 target abug
4916 target cpu32bug
4917 target est
4918 target rom68k
4919
4920 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4921
4922 target hms
4923 target e7000
4924 target sh3
4925 target sh3e
4926
4927 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4928 H8/300.
4929
4930 target ocd
4931
4932 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4933 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4934 interfaces.
4935
4936 DWARF 1 support
4937
4938 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4939 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4940
4941 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4942
4943 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4944 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4945 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4946 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4947
4948 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4949
4950 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4951 in debugging information.
4952
4953 Scheme support
4954
4955 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4956 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4957
4958 set mips stack-arg-size
4959 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4960
4961 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4962
4963 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4964
4965 * New targets
4966
4967 Xtensa xtensa-elf
4968 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4969
4970 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4971 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4972 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4973
4974 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4975 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4976 supported.
4977
4978 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4979 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4980
4981 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4982 stub provides the required support.
4983
4984 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4985 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4986
4987 * New commands
4988
4989 set substitute-path
4990 unset substitute-path
4991 show substitute-path
4992 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4993 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4994 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4995 between compilation and debugging.
4996
4997 set trace-commands
4998 show trace-commands
4999 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
5000 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
5001 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
5002
5003 * REMOVED features
5004
5005 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
5006
5007 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
5008 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
5009
5010 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
5011
5012 * New remote packets
5013
5014 qSupported:
5015 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
5016 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
5017 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
5018 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
5019 target.
5020
5021 qXfer:auxv:read:
5022 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
5023 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
5024
5025 qXfer:memory-map:read:
5026 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
5027 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
5028
5029 vFlashErase:
5030 vFlashWrite:
5031 vFlashDone:
5032 Erase and program a flash memory device.
5033
5034 * Removed remote packets
5035
5036 qPart:auxv:read:
5037 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
5038 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
5039
5040 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
5041
5042 * New targets
5043
5044 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
5045
5046 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5047
5048 * New commands
5049
5050 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
5051 only if it doesn't already have a value.
5052
5053 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
5054
5055 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
5056
5057 restart <n> Return the program state to a
5058 previously saved state.
5059
5060 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5061
5062 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5063
5064 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5065 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5066
5067 info forks List forks of the user program that
5068 are available to be debugged.
5069
5070 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5071 forks of the user program that are
5072 available to be debugged.
5073
5074 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5075 that are available to be debugged (and
5076 kill the forked process).
5077
5078 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5079 that are available to be debugged (and
5080 allow the process to continue).
5081
5082 * New architecture
5083
5084 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5085
5086 * Improved Windows host support
5087
5088 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5089 native console support, and remote communications using either
5090 network sockets or serial ports.
5091
5092 * Improved Modula-2 language support
5093
5094 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5095 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5096 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5097 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5098 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5099 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5100
5101 * REMOVED features
5102
5103 The ARM rdi-share module.
5104
5105 The Netware NLM debug server.
5106
5107 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5108
5109 * New native configurations
5110
5111 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5112 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5113
5114 * New targets
5115
5116 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5117
5118 * New command line options
5119
5120 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5121 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5122 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5123 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5124 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5125 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5126 with the --command (-x) option.
5127
5128 * Deprecated commands removed
5129
5130 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5131 removed:
5132
5133 Command Replacement
5134 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5135 othernames set arm disassembler
5136 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5137 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5138 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5139 regs info registers
5140
5141 * New BSD user-level threads support
5142
5143 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5144 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5145 configurations are:
5146
5147 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5148 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5149 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5150
5151 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5152 are not yet supported.
5153
5154 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5155 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5156
5157 * REMOVED configurations and files
5158
5159 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5160 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5161 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5162
5163 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5164
5165 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5166 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5167 behavior.
5168
5169 * VAX floating point support
5170
5171 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5172
5173 * User-defined command support
5174
5175 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5176 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5177 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5178
5179 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5180
5181 * New command line option
5182
5183 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5184 debugging.
5185
5186 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5187
5188 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5189 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5190 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5191 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5192 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5193
5194 * Internationalization
5195
5196 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5197 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5198 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5199
5200 * Ada
5201
5202 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5203 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5204 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5205
5206 * New native configurations
5207
5208 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5209
5210 * Remote 'p' packet
5211
5212 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5213 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5214
5215 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5216
5217 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5218 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5219 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5220 i386 application).
5221
5222 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
5223 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5224 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5225 configurations:
5226
5227 hppa-*-hpux
5228 ia64-*-aix
5229 mips-*-irix*
5230 *-*-lynx
5231 mips-*-linux-gnu
5232 sds protocol
5233 xdr protocol
5234 powerpc bdm protocol
5235
5236 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5237 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5238
5239 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5240
5241 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5242 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5243 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5244 permanently REMOVED.
5245
5246 h8300-*-*
5247 mcore-*-*
5248 mn10300-*-*
5249 ns32k-*-*
5250 sh64-*-*
5251 v850-*-*
5252
5253 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5254
5255 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5256
5257 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5258 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5259 been fixed.
5260
5261 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5262
5263 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5264 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5265 IRIX long double values).
5266
5267 * VAX and "next"
5268
5269 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5270 command. This problem has been fixed.
5271
5272 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5273
5274 * Fix for ``many threads''
5275
5276 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5277 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5278 error message:
5279
5280 ptrace: No such process.
5281 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5282
5283 This problem has been fixed.
5284
5285 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5286
5287 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5288 GDB to dump core).
5289
5290 * New ``start'' command.
5291
5292 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
5293
5294 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5295
5296 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5297 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5298 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5299
5300 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5301 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5302 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5303 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5304 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5305 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5306 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5307 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5308 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5309
5310 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5311
5312 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5313 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5314 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5315 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5316 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5317
5318 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5319 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5320 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5321
5322 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5323
5324 * New native configurations
5325
5326 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5327 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5328 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5329 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5330 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5331 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5332 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5333
5334 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5335
5336 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5337 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5338 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5339 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5340 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5341 work, was also included.
5342
5343 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5344 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5345
5346 h8300-*-*
5347 mcore-*-*
5348 mn10300-*-*
5349 ns32k-*-*
5350 sh64-*-*
5351 v850-*-*
5352 xstormy16-*-*
5353
5354 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5355 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5356
5357 * REMOVED configurations and files
5358
5359 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5360 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5361 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5362 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5363 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5364 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5365 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5366 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5367 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5368 sonymips mips-sony-*
5369 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5370
5371 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5372
5373 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5374
5375 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5376 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5377 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5378 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5379 with GDB".
5380
5381 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5382
5383 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5384 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5385 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5386 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5387 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5388 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5389 are created.
5390
5391 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5392
5393 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5394
5395 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5396 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5397 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5398
5399 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5400
5401 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5402 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5403
5404 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5405
5406 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5407 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5408 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5409
5410 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5411
5412 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5413 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5414
5415 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5416
5417 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5418 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5419 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5420
5421 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5422
5423 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5424 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5425 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5426
5427 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5428
5429 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5430
5431 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5432 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5433
5434 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5435
5436 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5437 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5438 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5439 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5440
5441 * Revised SPARC target
5442
5443 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5444 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5445 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5446 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5447 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5448
5449 * New C++ demangler
5450
5451 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5452 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5453 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5454 programs.
5455
5456 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5457
5458 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5459 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5460 encountered these.
5461
5462 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5463
5464 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5465 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5466 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5467 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5468 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5469 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5470 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5471 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5472 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5473
5474 * New native configurations
5475
5476 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5477 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5478 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5479 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5480 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5481
5482 * New debugging protocols
5483
5484 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5485
5486 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5487
5488 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5489 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5490 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5491
5492 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5493
5494 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5495 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5496 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5497 permanently REMOVED.
5498
5499 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5500 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5501 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5502 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5503 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5504 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5505 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5506 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5507 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5508 sonymips mips-sony-*
5509 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5510
5511 * REMOVED configurations and files
5512
5513 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5514 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5515 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5516 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5517 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5518 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5519 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5520 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5521 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5522 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5523 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5524 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5525 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5526 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5527 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5528 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5529 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5530
5531 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5532
5533 * Objective-C
5534
5535 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5536 integrated into GDB.
5537
5538 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5539
5540 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5541 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5542 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5543 backtraces.
5544
5545 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5546 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5547 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5548
5549 * Hosted file I/O.
5550
5551 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5552 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5553 remote protocol documentation for details.
5554
5555 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5556
5557 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5558 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5559 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5560 ppc32 on ppc64).
5561
5562 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5563
5564 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5565 per-thread variables.
5566
5567 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5568
5569 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5570 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5571
5572 * Separate debug info.
5573
5574 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5575 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5576 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5577 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5578 and optional debug files.
5579
5580 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5581
5582 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5583 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5584 debugger.
5585
5586 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5587 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5588
5589 * Java
5590
5591 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5592 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5593 considered "useable".
5594
5595 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5596
5597 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5598 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5599 kernel.
5600
5601 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5602
5603 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5604 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5605
5606 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5607
5608 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5609 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5610 command.
5611
5612 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5613
5614 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5615 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5616
5617 * Profiling support
5618
5619 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5620 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5621 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5622 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5623 data, for more informative profiling results.
5624
5625 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5626
5627 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5628 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5629 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5630
5631 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5632 removed.
5633
5634 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5635 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5636 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5637 in a subsequent -var-update.
5638
5639 * New native configurations.
5640
5641 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5642
5643 * Multi-arched targets.
5644
5645 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5646 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5647
5648 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5649
5650 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5651 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5652 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5653 permanently REMOVED.
5654
5655 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5656 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5657 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5658 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5659 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5660 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5661 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5662 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5663 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5664 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5665 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5666 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5667
5668 * REMOVED configurations and files
5669
5670 V850EA ISA
5671 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5672 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5673 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5674 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5675 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5676 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5677 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5678 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5679 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5680 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5681 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5682 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5683 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5684
5685 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5686
5687 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5688 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5689 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5690 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5691 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5692
5693 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5694
5695 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5696
5697 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5698 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5699 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5700 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5701 shared libs like mad''.
5702
5703 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5704
5705 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5706 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5707 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5708 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5709
5710 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5711
5712 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5713 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5714 they expand.
5715
5716 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5717 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5718
5719 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5720 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5721
5722 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5723 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5724 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5725 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5726
5727 * Multi-arched targets.
5728
5729 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5730 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5731 NEC V850 v850-*-*
5732 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5733 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5734 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5735
5736 * New targets.
5737
5738 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5739
5740
5741 * New native configurations
5742
5743 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5744 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5745 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5746 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5747
5748 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5749
5750 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5751 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5752 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5753 permanently REMOVED.
5754
5755 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5756 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5757 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5758 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5759 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5760 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5761 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5762 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5763 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5764 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5765 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5766 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5767 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5768
5769 * OBSOLETE languages
5770
5771 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5772
5773 * REMOVED configurations and files
5774
5775 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5776 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5777 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5778 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5779 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5780
5781 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5782
5783 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5784
5785 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5786 commands. The default is 1024.
5787
5788 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5789
5790 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5791
5792 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5793
5794 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5795 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5796 from a file into memory (restore).
5797
5798 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5799
5800 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5801 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5802 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5803
5804 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5805
5806 * New targets.
5807
5808 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5809
5810 * Bug fixes
5811
5812 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5813 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5814 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5815
5816 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5817 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5818 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5819
5820 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5821 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5822 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5823
5824 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5825 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5826 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5827
5828 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5829
5830 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5831
5832 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5833 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5834 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5835 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5836 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5837 (notably embedded) targets.
5838
5839 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5840
5841 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5842 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5843 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5844 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5845
5846 * New command line option
5847
5848 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5849
5850 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5851
5852 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5853 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5854 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5855 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5856 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5857 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5858 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5859 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5860 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5861 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5862
5863 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5864
5865 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5866 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5867
5868 * New native configurations
5869
5870 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5871 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5872 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5873 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5874
5875 * New targets
5876
5877 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5878
5879 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5880
5881 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5882 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5883 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5884 permanently REMOVED.
5885
5886 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5887 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5888 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5889 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5890 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5891
5892 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5893
5894 * REMOVED configurations and files
5895
5896 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5897 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5898 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5899 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5900 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5901 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5902 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5903 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5904 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5905 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5906 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5907 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5908 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5909
5910 * Changes to command line processing
5911
5912 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5913 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5914
5915 * Changes to key bindings
5916
5917 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5918
5919 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5920
5921 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5922
5923 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5924 corrupted.
5925
5926 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5927
5928 Numerous documentation fixes.
5929
5930 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5931
5932 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5933
5934 * New native configurations
5935
5936 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5937 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5938 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5939 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5940 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5941 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5942
5943 * New targets
5944
5945 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5946 CRIS cris-axis
5947 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5948
5949 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5950
5951 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5952 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5953 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5954 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5955 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5956 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5957 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5958 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5959 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5960 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5961 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5962 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5963 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5964 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5965
5966 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5967 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5968
5969 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5970 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5971 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5972 permanently REMOVED.
5973
5974 * REMOVED configurations and files
5975
5976 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5977 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5978 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5979 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5980 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5981 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5982
5983 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5984
5985 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5986 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5987 present.
5988
5989 * Other news:
5990
5991 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5992
5993 * The MI enabled by default.
5994
5995 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5996 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5997 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5998 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5999 which is now deprecated.
6000
6001 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
6002
6003 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
6004 main features are supported:
6005
6006 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
6007
6008 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
6009 extension;
6010
6011 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
6012
6013 - a Pascal expression parser.
6014
6015 However, some important features are not yet supported.
6016
6017 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
6018
6019 - there are some problems with boolean types;
6020
6021 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
6022 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
6023
6024 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
6025
6026 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
6027
6028 * Changes in completion.
6029
6030 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
6031 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
6032 users expect at the shell prompt.
6033
6034 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
6035 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
6036 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
6037 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
6038 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
6039 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
6040 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
6041
6042 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
6043
6044 * New platform-independent commands:
6045
6046 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
6047 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
6048 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
6049
6050 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
6051
6052 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
6053 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
6054 many threads as your system allows you to have.
6055
6056 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
6057
6058 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
6059 multi-threaded programs though.
6060
6061 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
6062
6063 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6064
6065 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6066 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6067 supported.)
6068
6069 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6070
6071 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6072 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6073 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6074 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6075 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6076 registers.
6077
6078 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6079 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6080 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6081
6082 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6083
6084 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6085 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6086
6087 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6088 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6089 IDT.
6090
6091 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6092 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6093 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6094 a given linear address.
6095
6096 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6097 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6098 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6099
6100 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6101
6102 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6103
6104 * Changes in documentation.
6105
6106 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6107 Documentation License.
6108
6109 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6110 manual.
6111
6112 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6113
6114 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6115 manual.
6116
6117 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6118 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6119 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6120
6121 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6122
6123 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6124 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6125 contents of this file.
6126
6127 * gdba.el deleted
6128
6129 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6130
6131 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6132
6133 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6134
6135 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6136 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6137 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6138 greater level of detail.
6139
6140 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6141
6142 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6143 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6144 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6145 written.
6146
6147 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6148
6149 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6150 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6151 machines ``out of the box''.
6152
6153 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6154 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6155 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6156 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6157 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6158
6159 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6160 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6161 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6162 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6163 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6164
6165 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6166 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6167 also works.
6168
6169 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6170 GDB.
6171
6172 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6173 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6174 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6175 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6176
6177 * New native configurations
6178
6179 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6180 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6181
6182 * New targets
6183
6184 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6185 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6186 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6187 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6188
6189 * OBSOLETE configurations
6190
6191 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6192 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6193 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6194 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6195 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6196
6197 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6198 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6199 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6200 be permanently REMOVED.
6201
6202 * Gould support removed
6203
6204 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6205
6206 * New features for SVR4
6207
6208 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6209 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6210 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6211
6212 * Many C++ enhancements
6213
6214 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6215 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6216
6217 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6218
6219 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6220 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6221 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6222 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6223
6224 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6225 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6226
6227 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6228
6229 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6230 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6231 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6232
6233 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6234 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6235
6236 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6237
6238 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6239 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6240 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6241
6242 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6243
6244 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6245 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6246 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6247
6248 * ``apropos'' command added.
6249
6250 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6251 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6252 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6253
6254 * New MI interface
6255
6256 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6257 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6258 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6259 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6260 enabled by configuring with:
6261
6262 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6263
6264 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6265
6266 * New native configurations
6267
6268 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6269 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6270 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6271
6272 * New targets
6273
6274 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6275 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6276 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6277
6278 * OBSOLETE configurations
6279
6280 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6281
6282 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6283 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6284 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6285 be permanently REMOVED.
6286
6287 * ANSI/ISO C
6288
6289 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6290 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6291 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6292 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6293 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6294 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6295 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6296 already.
6297
6298 * Readline 2.2
6299
6300 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6301
6302 * set extension-language
6303
6304 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6305 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6306 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6307 set extension-language .c c++
6308 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6309 and their associated languages.
6310
6311 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6312
6313 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6314 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6315 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6316
6317 set processor NAME
6318
6319 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6320 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6321
6322 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6323 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6324 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6325 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6326 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6327 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6328 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6329 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6330 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6331 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6332 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6333
6334 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6335 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6336 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6337 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6338
6339 * HP-UX support
6340
6341 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6342 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6343 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6344 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6345 for xdb and dbx commands.
6346
6347 * Catchpoints
6348
6349 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6350 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6351 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6352
6353 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6354 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6355 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6356
6357 * Debugging across forks
6358
6359 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6360 in the inferior.
6361
6362 * TUI
6363
6364 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6365 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6366 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6367
6368 * GDB remote protocol additions
6369
6370 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6371 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6372 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6373 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6374
6375 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6376 full 64-bit address. The command
6377
6378 set remoteaddresssize 32
6379
6380 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6381 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6382 will be discarded.
6383
6384 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6385 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6386
6387 maint packet heythere
6388
6389 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6390 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6391 time.
6392
6393 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6394 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6395 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6396
6397 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6398
6399 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6400 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6401 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6402
6403 * mask-address variable for Mips
6404
6405 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6406 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6407 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6408
6409 * Higher serial baud rates
6410
6411 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6412 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6413 to achieve all of these rates.)
6414
6415 * i960 simulator
6416
6417 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6418 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6419
6420
6421 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6422
6423 * New native configurations
6424
6425 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6426 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6427 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6428 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6429 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6430 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6431 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6432
6433 * New targets
6434
6435 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6436 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6437 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6438 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6439 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6440 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6441 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6442 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6443 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6444 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6445 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6446
6447 * New debugging protocols
6448
6449 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6450 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6451 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6452 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6453 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6454 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6455
6456 * DWARF 2
6457
6458 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6459 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6460 information.
6461
6462 * Java frontend
6463
6464 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6465 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6466
6467 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6468
6469 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6470 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6471 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6472
6473 * Live range splitting
6474
6475 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6476 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6477 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6478
6479 * Hurd support
6480
6481 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6482 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6483
6484 * ARM Thumb support
6485
6486 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6487 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6488 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6489 accordingly.
6490
6491 * MIPS16 support
6492
6493 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6494 instruction set.
6495
6496 * Overlay support
6497
6498 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6499 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6500 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6501 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6502 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6503 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6504
6505 * info symbol
6506
6507 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6508 the symbol at the specified address.
6509
6510 * Trace support
6511
6512 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6513 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6514 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6515 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6516 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6517
6518 * MIPS simulator
6519
6520 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6521 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6522 of most MIPS variants.
6523
6524 * Sparc simulator
6525
6526 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6527 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6528 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6529
6530 * set architecture
6531
6532 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6533 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6534 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6535 the possible architectures.
6536
6537 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6538
6539 * New native configurations
6540
6541 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6542 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6543 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6544 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6545 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6546 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6547
6548 * New targets
6549
6550 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6551 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6552 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6553 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6554 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6555 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
6556 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6557
6558 * PowerPC simulator
6559
6560 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6561 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6562 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6563 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6564 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6565
6566 * Solaris 2.5
6567
6568 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6569
6570 * Windows 95/NT native
6571
6572 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6573 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6574 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6575 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6576 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6577
6578 * dont-repeat command
6579
6580 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6581 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6582 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6583 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6584
6585 * Send break instead of ^C
6586
6587 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6588 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6589 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6590
6591 * Remote protocol timeout
6592
6593 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6594 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6595 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6596
6597 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6598
6599 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6600 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6601 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6602 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6603 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6604
6605 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6606 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6607 automatically on hpux10.
6608
6609 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6610
6611 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6612
6613 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6614
6615 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6616 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6617 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6618 every character. The default value is 1050.
6619
6620 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6621
6622 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6623 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6624 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6625 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6626 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6627 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6628
6629 * Speedups for remote debugging
6630
6631 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6632 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6633 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6634
6635 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6636
6637 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6638 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6639
6640 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6641
6642 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6643
6644 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6645 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6646
6647 * Remote targets use caching
6648
6649 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6650 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6651 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6652 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6653 off' turns the data cache off.
6654
6655 * Remote targets may have threads
6656
6657 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6658 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6659 gdb/remote.c for details.
6660
6661 * NetROM support
6662
6663 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6664 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6665 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6666 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6667 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6668 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6669 sequence is something like
6670
6671 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6672 load <prog>
6673 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6674
6675 * Macintosh host
6676
6677 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6678 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6679 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6680 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6681 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6682 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6683 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6684 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6685
6686 * Autoconf
6687
6688 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6689 but does simplify configuration and building.
6690
6691 * hpux10
6692
6693 GDB now supports hpux10.
6694
6695 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6696
6697 * New native configurations
6698
6699 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6700 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6701 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6702 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6703
6704 * New targets
6705
6706 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6707 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6708 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6709 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6710 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6711
6712 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6713
6714 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6715 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6716 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6717 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6718 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6719
6720 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6721
6722 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6723 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6724 trivial example:
6725 define adder
6726 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6727
6728 To execute the command use:
6729 adder 1 2 3
6730
6731 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6732 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6733 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6734
6735 * New `if' and `while' commands
6736
6737 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6738 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6739 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6740 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6741 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6742 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6743 if the expression is zero.
6744
6745 * Fortran source language mode
6746
6747 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6748 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6749 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6750 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6751 Fortran compilers.
6752
6753 * Better HPUX support
6754
6755 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6756 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6757 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6758 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6759 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6760
6761 adb -w a.out
6762 __dld_flags?W 0x5
6763 control-d
6764
6765 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6766 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6767
6768 adb -w a.out
6769 __dld_flags?W 0x4
6770 control-d
6771
6772 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6773 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6774 external linkage.
6775
6776 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6777 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6778
6779 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6780
6781 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6782 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6783 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6784 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6785 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6786 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6787
6788 * New DOS host serial code
6789
6790 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6791 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6792 a PC's serial port.
6793
6794 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6795
6796 * New "complete" command
6797
6798 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6799 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6800
6801 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6802
6803 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6804 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6805
6806 * Breakpoint hit counts
6807
6808 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6809 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6810 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6811 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6812 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6813 that breakpoint.
6814
6815 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6816
6817 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6818 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6819 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6820
6821 * Shared library breakpoints
6822
6823 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6824 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6825
6826 * Hardware watchpoints
6827
6828 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6829 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6830
6831 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6832
6833 * Annotations
6834
6835 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6836 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6837
6838 * Improved Irix 5 support
6839
6840 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6841
6842 * Improved HPPA support
6843
6844 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6845
6846 * New native configurations
6847
6848 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6849 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6850 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6851 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6852
6853 * New targets
6854
6855 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6856 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6857 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6858
6859 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6860
6861 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6862 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6863
6864 * Fixes
6865
6866 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6867 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6868
6869 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6870
6871 * Irix 5 is now supported
6872
6873 * HPPA support
6874
6875 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6876 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6877 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6878 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6879 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6880
6881
6882 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6883
6884 * User visible changes:
6885
6886 * Remote Debugging
6887
6888 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6889 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6890 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6891 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6892 debugging info for the mips target).
6893
6894 * DEC Alpha native support
6895
6896 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6897 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6898 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6899 Alpha-specific notes.
6900
6901 * Preliminary thread implementation
6902
6903 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6904
6905 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6906
6907 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6908 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6909 for details).
6910
6911 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6912
6913 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6914 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6915 call methods, ...etc.
6916
6917 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6918
6919 * User visible changes:
6920
6921 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6922 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6923 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6924 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6925
6926 Filename completion now works.
6927
6928 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6929 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6930 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6931
6932 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6933 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6934 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6935 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6936 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6937
6938 * DEC alpha support
6939
6940 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6941 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6942
6943
6944 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6945
6946 * Testsuite
6947
6948 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6949 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6950 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6951
6952 * C++ demangling
6953
6954 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6955 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6956 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6957 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6958 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6959
6960 * Simulators
6961
6962 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6963 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6964 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6965
6966 * New targets supported
6967
6968 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6969 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6970 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6971 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6972 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6973
6974 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6975 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6976 GO32 memory extender.
6977
6978 * New remote protocols
6979
6980 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6981
6982 * New source languages supported
6983
6984 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6985 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6986 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6987
6988
6989 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6990
6991 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6992
6993 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6994 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6995 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6996 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6997 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6998 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6999
7000 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
7001
7002 * Faster and better demangling
7003
7004 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
7005 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
7006 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
7007 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
7008 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
7009 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
7010 symbol lookups.
7011
7012 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
7013 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
7014 compiler does not actually implement.
7015
7016 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
7017
7018 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
7019 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
7020 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
7021 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
7022 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
7023 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
7024 fix.
7025
7026 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
7027 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
7028
7029 * Improved configure script
7030
7031 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
7032 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
7033 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
7034 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
7035
7036 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
7037 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
7038 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
7039 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
7040 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
7041 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
7042
7043 * Documentation improvements
7044
7045 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
7046 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
7047 before submitting changes.
7048
7049 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
7050 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
7051 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
7052 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
7053 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
7054
7055 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
7056 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
7057 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
7058 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
7059 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
7060 around this problem.
7061
7062 * New features
7063
7064 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7065 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7066 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7067 the target program.
7068
7069 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7070 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7071
7072 * New native hosts supported
7073
7074 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7075 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7076
7077 * New targets supported
7078
7079 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7080
7081 * New file formats supported
7082
7083 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7084 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7085
7086 * Major bug fixes
7087
7088 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7089
7090 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7091 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7092
7093 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7094 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7095 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7096
7097 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7098 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7099
7100 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7101 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7102 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7103 libraries.
7104
7105 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7106 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7107 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7108 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7109 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7110
7111 * Internal improvements
7112
7113 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7114 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7115
7116 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7117 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7118 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7119 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7120 shared code that handles any of them.
7121
7122 * New command line options
7123
7124 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7125
7126 * Mmalloc licensing
7127
7128 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7129 General Public License.
7130
7131 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7132
7133 * Host/native/target split
7134
7135 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7136 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7137 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7138 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7139 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7140
7141 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7142 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7143 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7144 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7145 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7146 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7147 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7148
7149 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7150 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7151 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7152
7153 * New hosts supported
7154
7155 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7156 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7157 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7158
7159 * New targets supported
7160
7161 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7162 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7163
7164 * New native hosts supported
7165
7166 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7167 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7168 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7169
7170 * New file formats supported
7171
7172 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7173 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7174 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7175
7176 * New commands
7177
7178 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7179 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7180 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7181
7182 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7183
7184 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7185 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7186 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7187 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7188
7189 * C++ improvements
7190
7191 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7192 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7193 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7194
7195 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7196
7197 * Major bug fixes
7198
7199 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7200 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7201 by the compiler.
7202
7203 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7204 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7205
7206 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7207 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7208 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7209 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7210 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7211 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7212
7213 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7214 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7215 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7216 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7217
7218 * AMD 29k support
7219
7220 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7221 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7222 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7223 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7224 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7225
7226 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7227 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7228 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7229 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7230
7231 * Remote interfaces
7232
7233 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7234 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7235 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7236 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7237 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7238 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7239 each instruction being stepped through.
7240
7241 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7242 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7243
7244 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7245 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7246 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7247 processor with a serial port.
7248
7249 * Configuration
7250
7251 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7252 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7253 supported, and what files each one uses.
7254
7255 * Library changes
7256
7257 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7258 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7259 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7260 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7261
7262 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7263 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7264 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7265 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7266
7267 * Documentation
7268
7269 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7270 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7271 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7272 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7273 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7274 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7275
7276 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7277
7278
7279 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7280
7281 * Better support for C++ function names
7282
7283 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7284 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7285 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7286 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7287 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7288
7289 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7290 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7291 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7292 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7293 for the list of formats.
7294
7295 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7296
7297 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7298 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7299 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7300 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
7301 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7302 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7303 this problem.)
7304
7305 * New 'maintenance' command
7306
7307 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7308 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7309 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7310
7311 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7312 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7313 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7314 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7315 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7316 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7317
7318 The following commands are new:
7319
7320 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7321 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7322 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7323
7324 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7325
7326 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7327 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7328 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7329 read after argv processing.
7330
7331 * New hosts supported
7332
7333 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7334
7335 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7336
7337 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7338 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7339 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7340 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7341 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7342 It costs extra.
7343
7344 * New targets supported
7345
7346 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7347
7348 * More smarts about finding #include files
7349
7350 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7351 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7352 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7353 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7354 the one that contains your sources.
7355
7356 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7357 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7358 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7359
7360 * Interesting infernals change
7361
7362 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7363 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7364 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7365 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7366
7367 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7368
7369 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7370 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7371 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7372
7373 See the ChangeLog for details.
7374
7375 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7376
7377 * New machines supported (host and target)
7378
7379 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7380
7381 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7382
7383 * New malloc package
7384
7385 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7386 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
7387 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7388 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7389 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7390 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7391
7392 * info proc
7393
7394 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7395 'help info proc' for details.
7396
7397 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7398
7399 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7400 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7401 possible.
7402
7403 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7404
7405 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7406 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7407 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7408 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7409 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7410 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7411
7412 * Cross byte order fixes
7413
7414 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7415 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7416
7417 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7418
7419 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7420 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7421 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7422 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7423 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7424 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7425 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7426 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7427 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7428 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7429
7430 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7431 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7432 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7433 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7434
7435 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7436 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7437 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7438 use is:
7439
7440 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7441
7442 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7443 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7444 shared across multiple host platforms.
7445
7446 * longjmp() handling
7447
7448 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7449 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7450 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7451 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7452
7453 * Solaris 2.0
7454
7455 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7456 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7457 reading symbols.
7458
7459 * Bug fixes
7460
7461 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7462 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7463 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7464
7465 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7466
7467 * New machines supported (host and target)
7468
7469 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7470 (except core files)
7471 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7472 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7473
7474 * New machines supported (target)
7475
7476 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7477
7478 * C++ support
7479
7480 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7481 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7482 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7483
7484 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7485 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7486 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7487 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7488 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7489 released.
7490
7491 * New features for SVR4
7492
7493 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7494 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7495 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7496
7497 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7498 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7499 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7500
7501 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7502 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7503
7504 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7505
7506 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7507 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7508 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7509 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7510 same code linked statically.
7511
7512 * New Getopt
7513
7514 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7515 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7516 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7517 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7518 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7519 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7520
7521 * Bugs fixed
7522
7523 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7524 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7525 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7526
7527
7528 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7529
7530 * New machines supported (host and target)
7531
7532 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7533 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7534 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7535
7536 * Almost SCO Unix support
7537
7538 We had hoped to support:
7539 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7540 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7541 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7542 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7543
7544 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7545
7546 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7547 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7548 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7549 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7550 reqired (if any).
7551
7552 * New Readline
7553
7554 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7555 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7556 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7557
7558 * Bugs fixed
7559
7560 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7561 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7562 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7563
7564 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7565
7566 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7567 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7568 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7569
7570 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7571 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7572 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7573 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7574 version 2.
7575
7576 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7577 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7578 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7579 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7580 situation somewhat.
7581
7582 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7583 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7584 methods.
7585
7586 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7587 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7588 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7589
7590
7591 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7592
7593 * Improved configuration
7594
7595 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7596 Porting BFD is simpler.
7597
7598 * Stepping improved
7599
7600 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7601 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7602 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7603 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7604
7605 * Bug fixing
7606
7607 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7608
7609 * New host supported (not target)
7610
7611 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7612
7613
7614 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7615
7616 * Multiple source language support
7617
7618 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7619 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7620 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7621 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7622 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7623 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7624
7625 * GDB and Modula-2
7626
7627 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7628 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7629 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7630 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7631
7632 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7633 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7634 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7635
7636 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7637 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7638
7639 * set write on/off
7640
7641 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7642 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7643 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7644 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7645 effect immediately.
7646
7647 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7648
7649 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7650 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7651 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7652 examining core files.
7653
7654 * set listsize
7655
7656 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7657 The default is 10.
7658
7659 * New machines supported (host and target)
7660
7661 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7662 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7663 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7664
7665 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7666
7667 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7668
7669 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7670
7671 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7672 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7673 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7674
7675 * New remote interfaces
7676
7677 AMD 29000 Adapt
7678 AMD 29000 Minimon
7679
7680
7681 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7682
7683 * New Facilities
7684
7685 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7686
7687 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7688 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7689 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7690 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7691 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7692 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7693 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7694 stub on the target system.
7695
7696 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7697
7698 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7699 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7700 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7701
7702 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7703 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7704
7705
7706 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7707
7708 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7709 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7710
7711 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7712 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7713 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7714
7715 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7716 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7717 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7718 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7719
7720 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7721 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7722 it is already running. Default is ON.
7723
7724 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7725 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7726 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7727 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7728 Default is ON.
7729
7730 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7731 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7732 or the value of the environment variable
7733 GDBHISTFILE.
7734
7735 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7736 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7737 HISTSIZE.
7738
7739 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7740 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7741 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7742
7743 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7744 history expansion will be performed on
7745 command line input. The default is OFF.
7746
7747 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7748 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7749 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7750
7751 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7752 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7753 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7754 variable TERM.
7755
7756 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7757 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7758 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7759 variable TERM.
7760
7761 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7762 ``set width'' instead.
7763
7764 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7765 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7766 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7767 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7768
7769 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7770 is OFF.
7771
7772 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7773 "raw" form if off.
7774
7775 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7776 like instructions.
7777
7778 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7779
7780
7781 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7782
7783 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7784 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7785 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7786 window.
7787
7788
7789 * Support for Shared Libraries
7790
7791 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7792 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7793 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7794 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7795 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7796 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7797 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7798 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7799
7800 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7801 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7802 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7803
7804 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7805
7806
7807 * Watchpoints
7808
7809 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7810 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7811 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7812 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7813 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7814 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7815
7816 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7817
7818 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7819
7820 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7821 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7822 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7823
7824
7825 * C++ multiple inheritance
7826
7827 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7828 for C++ programs.
7829
7830 * C++ exception handling
7831
7832 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7833 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7834 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7835 handler's context).
7836
7837 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7838 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7839 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7840
7841 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7842 current stack frame.
7843
7844
7845 * Minor command changes
7846
7847 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7848 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7849 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7850
7851 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7852 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7853 frames without printing.
7854
7855 * New directory command
7856
7857 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7858 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7859 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7860 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7861 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7862
7863 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7864
7865 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7866 for more details.
7867
7868 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7869 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7870 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7871 where the program that you are debugging will run.