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