1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
7 now complete on file names.
9 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
10 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
11 For instance, consider:
13 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
14 # struct example variable;
17 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
18 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
23 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
25 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
27 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
28 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
29 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
31 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
34 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
35 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
37 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
38 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
39 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
41 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
42 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
44 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
46 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
47 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
49 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
50 list of section offsets.
52 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
53 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
56 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
58 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
59 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
61 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
62 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
63 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
67 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
69 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
73 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
78 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
80 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
82 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
83 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
84 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
86 set breakpoint always-inserted
87 show breakpoint always-inserted
88 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
89 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
90 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
92 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
93 show arm fallback-mode
94 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
96 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
97 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
98 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
99 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
103 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
105 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
107 * New native configurations
109 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
110 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
114 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
115 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
117 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
119 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
120 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
121 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
122 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
124 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
125 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
127 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
130 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
131 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
132 and in inlined functions.
134 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
135 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
136 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
138 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
140 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
141 registers on PowerPC targets.
143 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
144 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
146 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
147 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
149 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
150 extended-remote mode.
152 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
153 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
154 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
155 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
157 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
158 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
159 target architectures.
161 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
162 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
163 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
164 stored in two consecutive float registers.
166 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
169 * Improved support for debugging Ada
170 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
172 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
173 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
174 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
175 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
177 - Improved command completion in Ada
180 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
185 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
186 show print frame-arguments
187 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
188 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
193 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
200 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
209 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
212 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
216 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
218 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
220 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
221 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
222 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
224 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
225 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
226 -Bsymbolic linker option.
228 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
229 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
232 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
233 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
235 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
236 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
238 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
240 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
241 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
242 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
244 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
245 automatically displayed as character or string data.
247 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
248 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
251 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
252 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
253 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
255 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
258 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
259 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
260 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
262 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
264 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
266 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
267 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
268 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
270 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
271 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
273 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
274 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
275 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
276 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
277 Windows and SymbianOS).
279 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
280 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
282 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
283 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
289 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
290 when debugging using remote targets.
292 set mem inaccessible-by-default
293 show mem inaccessible-by-default
294 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
295 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
296 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
297 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
298 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
300 set breakpoint auto-hw
301 show breakpoint auto-hw
302 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
303 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
304 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
305 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
306 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
307 including "next" and "finish".
310 catch exception unhandled
311 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
314 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
318 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
319 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
320 an alias to "set sysroot".
323 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
324 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
327 * New native configurations
329 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
334 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
335 not query the target for its built-in description.
339 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
340 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
341 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
346 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
347 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
350 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
355 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
356 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
358 qXfer:libraries:read:
359 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
360 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
361 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
362 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
366 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
375 i[34567]86-*-netware*
376 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
377 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
379 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
382 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
383 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
392 * Other removed features
399 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
406 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
411 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
412 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
417 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
418 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
420 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
422 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
423 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
424 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
425 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
429 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
430 in debugging information.
434 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
435 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
437 set mips stack-arg-size
438 set mips saved-gpreg-size
440 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
442 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
447 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
449 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
450 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
451 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
453 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
454 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
457 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
458 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
460 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
461 stub provides the required support.
463 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
464 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
469 unset substitute-path
471 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
472 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
473 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
474 between compilation and debugging.
478 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
479 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
480 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
484 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
486 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
487 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
489 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
494 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
495 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
496 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
497 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
501 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
502 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
504 qXfer:memory-map:read:
505 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
506 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
511 Erase and program a flash memory device.
513 * Removed remote packets
516 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
517 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
519 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
523 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
525 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
529 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
530 only if it doesn't already have a value.
532 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
534 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
536 restart <n> Return the program state to a
537 previously saved state.
539 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
541 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
543 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
544 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
546 info forks List forks of the user program that
547 are available to be debugged.
549 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
550 forks of the user program that are
551 available to be debugged.
553 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
554 that are available to be debugged (and
555 kill the forked process).
557 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
558 that are available to be debugged (and
559 allow the process to continue).
563 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
565 * Improved Windows host support
567 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
568 native console support, and remote communications using either
569 network sockets or serial ports.
571 * Improved Modula-2 language support
573 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
574 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
575 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
576 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
577 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
578 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
582 The ARM rdi-share module.
584 The Netware NLM debug server.
586 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
588 * New native configurations
590 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
591 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
595 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
597 * New command line options
599 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
600 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
601 the child (debugged) program exited with.
602 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
603 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
604 specified multiple times and in conjunction
605 with the --command (-x) option.
607 * Deprecated commands removed
609 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
613 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
614 othernames set arm disassembler
615 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
616 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
617 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
620 * New BSD user-level threads support
622 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
623 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
626 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
627 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
628 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
630 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
631 are not yet supported.
633 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
634 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
636 * REMOVED configurations and files
638 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
639 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
640 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
642 * New "set print array-indexes" command
644 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
645 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
648 * VAX floating point support
650 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
652 * User-defined command support
654 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
655 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
656 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
658 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
660 * New command line option
662 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
665 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
667 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
668 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
669 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
670 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
671 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
673 * Internationalization
675 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
676 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
677 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
681 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
682 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
683 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
685 * New native configurations
687 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
691 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
692 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
694 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
696 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
697 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
698 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
701 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
702 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
703 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
715 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
716 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
718 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
720 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
721 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
722 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
732 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
734 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
736 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
737 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
740 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
742 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
743 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
744 IRIX long double values).
748 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
749 command. This problem has been fixed.
751 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
753 * Fix for ``many threads''
755 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
756 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
759 ptrace: No such process.
760 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
762 This problem has been fixed.
764 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
766 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
769 * New ``start'' command.
771 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
773 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
775 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
776 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
777 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
779 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
780 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
781 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
782 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
783 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
784 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
785 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
786 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
787 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
789 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
791 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
792 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
793 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
794 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
795 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
797 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
798 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
799 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
801 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
803 * New native configurations
805 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
806 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
807 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
808 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
809 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
810 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
811 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
813 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
815 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
816 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
817 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
818 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
819 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
820 work, was also included.
822 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
823 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
833 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
834 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
836 * REMOVED configurations and files
838 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
839 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
840 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
841 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
842 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
843 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
844 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
845 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
846 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
848 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
850 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
852 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
854 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
855 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
856 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
857 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
860 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
862 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
863 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
864 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
865 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
866 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
867 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
870 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
872 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
874 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
875 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
876 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
878 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
880 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
881 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
883 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
885 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
886 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
887 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
889 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
891 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
892 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
894 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
896 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
897 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
898 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
900 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
902 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
903 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
904 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
906 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
908 * Removed --with-mmalloc
910 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
911 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
913 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
915 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
916 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
917 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
918 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
920 * Revised SPARC target
922 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
923 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
924 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
925 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
926 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
930 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
931 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
932 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
935 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
937 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
938 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
941 * C++ nested types and namespaces
943 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
944 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
945 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
946 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
947 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
948 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
949 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
950 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
951 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
953 * New native configurations
955 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
956 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
957 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
958 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
959 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
961 * New debugging protocols
963 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
965 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
967 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
968 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
969 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
971 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
973 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
974 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
975 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
978 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
979 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
980 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
981 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
982 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
983 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
984 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
985 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
986 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
988 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
990 * REMOVED configurations and files
992 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
993 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
994 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
995 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
996 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
997 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
998 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
999 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1000 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1001 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1002 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1003 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1004 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1005 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1006 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1007 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1008 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1010 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1014 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1015 integrated into GDB.
1017 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1019 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1020 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1021 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1024 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1025 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1026 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1030 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1031 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1032 remote protocol documentation for details.
1034 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1036 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1037 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1038 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1041 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1043 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1044 per-thread variables.
1046 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1048 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1049 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1051 * Separate debug info.
1053 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1054 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1055 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1056 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1057 and optional debug files.
1059 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1061 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1062 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1065 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1066 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1070 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1071 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1072 considered "useable".
1074 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1076 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1077 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1080 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1082 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1083 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1085 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1087 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1088 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1091 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1093 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1094 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1098 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1099 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1100 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1101 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1102 data, for more informative profiling results.
1104 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1106 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1107 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1108 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1110 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1113 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1114 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1115 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1116 in a subsequent -var-update.
1118 * New native configurations.
1120 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1122 * Multi-arched targets.
1124 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1125 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1127 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1129 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1130 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1131 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1132 permanently REMOVED.
1134 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1135 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1136 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1137 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1138 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1139 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1140 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1141 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1142 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1143 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1144 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1145 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1147 * REMOVED configurations and files
1150 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1151 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1152 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1153 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1154 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1155 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1157 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1158 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1159 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1160 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1161 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1162 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1164 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1166 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1167 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1168 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1169 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1170 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1172 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1174 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1176 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1177 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1178 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1179 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1180 shared libs like mad''.
1182 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1184 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1185 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1186 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1187 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1189 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1191 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1192 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1195 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1196 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1198 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1199 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1201 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1202 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1203 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1204 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1206 * Multi-arched targets.
1208 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1209 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1211 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1212 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1213 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1217 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1220 * New native configurations
1222 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1223 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1224 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1225 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1227 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1229 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1230 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1231 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1232 permanently REMOVED.
1234 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1235 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1236 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1237 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1238 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1239 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1240 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1241 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1242 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1243 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1245 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1246 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1248 * OBSOLETE languages
1250 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1252 * REMOVED configurations and files
1254 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1255 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1256 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1257 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1258 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1260 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1262 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1264 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1265 commands. The default is 1024.
1267 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1269 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1271 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1273 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1274 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1275 from a file into memory (restore).
1277 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1279 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1280 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1281 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1283 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1291 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1292 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1293 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1295 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1296 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1297 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1299 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1300 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1301 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1303 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1304 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1305 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1307 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1309 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1311 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1312 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1313 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1314 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1315 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1316 (notably embedded) targets.
1318 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1320 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1321 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1322 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1323 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1325 * New command line option
1327 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1329 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1331 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1332 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1333 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1334 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1335 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1336 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1337 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1338 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1339 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1340 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1342 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1344 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1345 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1347 * New native configurations
1349 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1350 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1351 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1352 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1356 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1358 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1360 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1361 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1362 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1363 permanently REMOVED.
1365 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1366 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1367 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1368 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1369 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1371 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1373 * REMOVED configurations and files
1375 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1377 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1378 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1379 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1380 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1381 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1382 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1383 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1384 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1385 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1386 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1387 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1389 * Changes to command line processing
1391 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1392 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1394 * Changes to key bindings
1396 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1398 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1400 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1402 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1405 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1407 Numerous documentation fixes.
1409 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1411 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1413 * New native configurations
1415 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1416 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1417 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1418 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1419 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1420 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1424 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1426 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1428 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1430 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1431 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1432 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1433 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1434 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1436 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1437 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1438 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1439 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1440 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1441 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1442 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1443 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1445 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1446 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1448 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1449 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1450 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1451 permanently REMOVED.
1453 * REMOVED configurations and files
1455 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1456 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1458 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1462 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1464 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1465 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1470 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1472 * The MI enabled by default.
1474 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1475 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1476 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1477 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1478 which is now deprecated.
1480 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1482 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1483 main features are supported:
1485 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1487 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1490 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1492 - a Pascal expression parser.
1494 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1496 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1498 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1500 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1501 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1503 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1505 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1507 * Changes in completion.
1509 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1510 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1511 users expect at the shell prompt.
1513 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1514 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1515 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1516 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1517 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1518 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1519 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1521 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1523 * New platform-independent commands:
1525 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1526 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1527 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1529 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1531 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1532 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1533 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1535 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1537 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1538 multi-threaded programs though.
1540 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1542 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1544 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1545 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1548 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1550 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1551 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1552 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1553 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1554 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1557 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1558 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1559 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1561 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1563 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1564 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1566 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1567 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1570 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1571 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1572 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1573 a given linear address.
1575 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1576 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1577 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1579 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1581 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1583 * Changes in documentation.
1585 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1586 Documentation License.
1588 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1591 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1593 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1596 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1597 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1598 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1600 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1602 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1603 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1604 contents of this file.
1608 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1610 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1612 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1614 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1615 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1616 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1617 greater level of detail.
1619 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1621 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1622 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1623 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1626 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1628 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1629 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1630 machines ``out of the box''.
1632 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1633 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1634 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1635 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1636 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1638 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1639 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1640 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1641 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1642 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1644 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1645 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1648 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1651 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1652 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1653 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1654 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1656 * New native configurations
1658 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1659 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1663 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1664 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1665 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1666 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1668 * OBSOLETE configurations
1670 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1671 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1673 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1676 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1677 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1678 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1679 be permanently REMOVED.
1681 * Gould support removed
1683 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1685 * New features for SVR4
1687 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1688 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1689 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1691 * Many C++ enhancements
1693 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1694 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1696 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1698 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1699 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1700 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1701 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1703 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1704 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1706 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1708 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1709 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1710 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1712 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1713 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1715 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1717 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1718 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1719 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1721 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1723 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1724 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1725 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1727 * ``apropos'' command added.
1729 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1730 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1731 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1735 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1736 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1737 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1738 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1739 enabled by configuring with:
1741 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1743 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1745 * New native configurations
1747 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1748 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1749 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1753 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1754 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1755 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1757 * OBSOLETE configurations
1759 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1761 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1762 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1763 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1764 be permanently REMOVED.
1768 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1769 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1770 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1771 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1772 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1773 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1774 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1779 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1781 * set extension-language
1783 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1784 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1785 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1786 set extension-language .c c++
1787 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1788 and their associated languages.
1790 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1792 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1793 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1794 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1798 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1799 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1801 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1802 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1804 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1805 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1806 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1807 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1808 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1809 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1810 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1811 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1813 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1814 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1815 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1816 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1820 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1821 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1822 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1823 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1824 for xdb and dbx commands.
1828 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1829 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1830 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1832 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1833 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1834 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1836 * Debugging across forks
1838 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1843 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1844 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1845 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1847 * GDB remote protocol additions
1849 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1850 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1851 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1852 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1854 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1855 full 64-bit address. The command
1857 set remoteaddresssize 32
1859 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1860 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1863 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1864 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1866 maint packet heythere
1868 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1869 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1872 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1873 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1874 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1876 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1878 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1879 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1880 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1882 * mask-address variable for Mips
1884 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1885 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1886 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1888 * Higher serial baud rates
1890 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1891 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1892 to achieve all of these rates.)
1896 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1897 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1900 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1902 * New native configurations
1904 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1905 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1906 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1907 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1908 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1909 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1910 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1914 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1915 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1916 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1917 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1918 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1919 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1920 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1921 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1922 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1923 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1924 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1926 * New debugging protocols
1928 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1929 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1930 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1931 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1932 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1933 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1937 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1938 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1943 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1944 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1946 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1948 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1949 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1950 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1952 * Live range splitting
1954 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1955 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1956 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1960 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1961 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1965 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1966 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1967 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1972 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1977 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1978 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1979 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1980 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1981 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1982 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1986 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1987 the symbol at the specified address.
1991 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1992 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1993 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1994 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1995 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1999 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2000 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2001 of most MIPS variants.
2005 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2006 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2007 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2011 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2012 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2013 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2014 the possible architectures.
2016 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2018 * New native configurations
2020 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2021 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2022 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2023 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2024 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2025 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2029 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2030 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2031 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2032 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2033 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2035 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2039 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2040 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2041 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2042 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2043 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2047 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2049 * Windows 95/NT native
2051 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2052 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2053 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2054 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2055 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2057 * dont-repeat command
2059 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2060 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2061 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2062 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2064 * Send break instead of ^C
2066 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2067 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2068 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2070 * Remote protocol timeout
2072 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2073 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2074 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2076 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2078 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2079 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2080 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2081 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2082 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2084 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2085 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2086 automatically on hpux10.
2088 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2090 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2092 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2094 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2095 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2096 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2097 every character. The default value is 1050.
2099 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2101 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2102 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2103 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2104 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2105 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2106 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2108 * Speedups for remote debugging
2110 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2111 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2112 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2114 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2116 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2117 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2119 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2121 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2123 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2124 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2126 * Remote targets use caching
2128 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2129 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2130 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2131 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2132 off' turns the the data cache off.
2134 * Remote targets may have threads
2136 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2137 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2138 gdb/remote.c for details.
2142 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2143 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2144 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2145 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2146 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2147 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2148 sequence is something like
2150 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2152 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2156 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2157 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2158 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2159 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2160 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2161 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2162 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2163 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2167 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2168 but does simplify configuration and building.
2172 GDB now supports hpux10.
2174 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2176 * New native configurations
2178 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2179 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2180 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2181 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2185 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2186 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2187 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2188 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2191 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2193 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2194 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2195 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2196 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2197 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2199 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2201 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2202 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2205 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2207 To execute the command use:
2210 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2211 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2212 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2214 * New `if' and `while' commands
2216 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2217 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2218 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2219 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2220 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2221 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2222 if the expression is zero.
2224 * Fortran source language mode
2226 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2227 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2228 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2229 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2232 * Better HPUX support
2234 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2235 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2236 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2237 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2238 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2244 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2245 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2251 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2252 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2255 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2256 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2258 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2260 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2261 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2262 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2263 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2264 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2265 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2267 * New DOS host serial code
2269 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2270 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2273 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2275 * New "complete" command
2277 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2278 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2280 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2282 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2283 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2285 * Breakpoint hit counts
2287 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2288 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2289 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2290 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2291 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2294 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2296 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2297 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2298 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2300 * Shared library breakpoints
2302 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2303 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2305 * Hardware watchpoints
2307 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2308 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2310 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2314 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2315 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2317 * Improved Irix 5 support
2319 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2321 * Improved HPPA support
2323 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2325 * New native configurations
2327 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2328 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2329 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2330 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2334 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2335 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2338 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2340 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2341 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2345 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2346 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2348 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2350 * Irix 5 is now supported
2354 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2355 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2356 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2357 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2358 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2361 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2363 * User visible changes:
2367 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2368 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2369 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2370 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2371 debugging info for the mips target).
2373 * DEC Alpha native support
2375 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2376 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2377 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2378 Alpha-specific notes.
2380 * Preliminary thread implementation
2382 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2384 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2386 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2387 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2390 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2392 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2393 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2394 call methods, ...etc.
2396 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2398 * User visible changes:
2400 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2401 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2402 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2403 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2405 Filename completion now works.
2407 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2408 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2409 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2411 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2412 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2413 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2414 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2415 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2419 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2420 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2423 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2427 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2428 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2429 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2433 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2434 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2435 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2436 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2437 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2441 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2442 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2443 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2445 * New targets supported
2447 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2448 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2449 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2450 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2451 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2453 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2454 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2455 GO32 memory extender.
2457 * New remote protocols
2459 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2461 * New source languages supported
2463 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2464 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2465 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2468 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2470 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2472 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2473 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2474 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2475 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2476 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2477 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2479 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2481 * Faster and better demangling
2483 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2484 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2485 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2486 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2487 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2488 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2491 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2492 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2493 compiler does not actually implement.
2495 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2497 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2498 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2499 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2500 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2501 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2502 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2505 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2506 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2508 * Improved configure script
2510 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2511 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2512 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2513 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2515 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2516 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2517 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2518 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2519 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2520 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2522 * Documentation improvements
2524 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2525 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2526 before submitting changes.
2528 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2529 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2530 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2531 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2532 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2534 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2535 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2536 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2537 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2538 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2539 around this problem.
2543 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2544 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2545 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2548 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2549 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2551 * New native hosts supported
2553 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2554 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2556 * New targets supported
2558 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2560 * New file formats supported
2562 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2563 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2567 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2569 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2570 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2572 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2573 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2574 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2576 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2577 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2579 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2580 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2581 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2584 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2585 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2586 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2587 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2588 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2590 * Internal improvements
2592 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2593 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2595 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2596 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2597 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2598 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2599 shared code that handles any of them.
2601 * New command line options
2603 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2607 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2608 General Public License.
2610 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2612 * Host/native/target split
2614 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2615 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2616 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2617 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2618 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2620 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2621 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2622 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2623 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2624 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2625 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2626 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2628 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2629 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2630 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2632 * New hosts supported
2634 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2635 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2636 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2638 * New targets supported
2640 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2641 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2643 * New native hosts supported
2645 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2646 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2647 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2649 * New file formats supported
2651 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2652 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2653 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2657 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2658 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2659 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2661 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2663 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2664 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2665 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2666 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2670 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2671 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2672 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2674 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2678 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2679 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2682 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2683 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2685 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2686 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2687 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2688 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2689 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2690 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2692 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2693 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2694 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2695 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2699 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2700 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2701 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2702 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2703 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2705 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2706 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2707 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2708 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2712 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2713 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2714 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2715 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2716 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2717 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2718 each instruction being stepped through.
2720 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2721 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2723 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2724 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2725 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2726 processor with a serial port.
2730 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2731 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2732 supported, and what files each one uses.
2736 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2737 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2738 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2739 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2741 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2742 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2743 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2744 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2748 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2749 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2750 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2751 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2752 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2753 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2755 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2758 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2760 * Better support for C++ function names
2762 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2763 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2764 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2765 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2766 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2768 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2769 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2770 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2771 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2772 for the list of formats.
2774 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2776 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2777 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2778 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2779 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2780 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2781 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2784 * New 'maintenance' command
2786 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2787 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2788 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2790 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2791 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2792 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2793 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2794 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2795 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2797 The following commands are new:
2799 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2800 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2801 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2803 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2805 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2806 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2807 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2808 read after argv processing.
2810 * New hosts supported
2812 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2814 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2816 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2817 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2818 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2819 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2820 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2823 * New targets supported
2825 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2827 * More smarts about finding #include files
2829 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2830 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2831 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2832 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2833 the one that contains your sources.
2835 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2836 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2837 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2839 * Interesting infernals change
2841 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2842 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2843 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2844 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2846 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2848 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2849 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2850 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2852 See the ChangeLog for details.
2854 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2856 * New machines supported (host and target)
2858 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2860 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2862 * New malloc package
2864 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2865 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2866 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2867 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2868 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2869 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2873 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2874 'help info proc' for details.
2876 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2878 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2879 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2882 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2884 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2885 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2886 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2887 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2888 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2889 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2891 * Cross byte order fixes
2893 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2894 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2896 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2898 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2899 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2900 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2901 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2902 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2903 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2904 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2905 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2906 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2907 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2909 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2910 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2911 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2912 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2914 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2915 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2916 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2919 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2921 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2922 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2923 shared across multiple host platforms.
2925 * longjmp() handling
2927 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2928 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2929 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2930 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2934 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2935 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2940 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2941 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2942 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2944 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2946 * New machines supported (host and target)
2948 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2950 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2951 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2953 * New machines supported (target)
2955 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2959 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2960 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2961 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2963 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2964 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2965 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2966 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2967 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2970 * New features for SVR4
2972 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2973 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2974 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2976 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2977 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2978 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2980 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2981 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2983 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2985 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2986 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2987 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2988 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2989 same code linked statically.
2993 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2994 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2995 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2996 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2997 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2998 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3002 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3003 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3004 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3007 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3009 * New machines supported (host and target)
3011 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3012 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3013 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3015 * Almost SCO Unix support
3017 We had hoped to support:
3018 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3019 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3020 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3021 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3023 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3025 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3026 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3027 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3028 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3033 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3034 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3035 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3039 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3040 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3041 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3043 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3045 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3046 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3047 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3049 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3050 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3051 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3052 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3055 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3056 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3057 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3058 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3061 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3062 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3065 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3066 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3067 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3070 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3072 * Improved configuration
3074 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3075 Porting BFD is simpler.
3079 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3080 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3081 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3082 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3086 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3088 * New host supported (not target)
3090 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3093 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3095 * Multiple source language support
3097 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3098 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3099 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3100 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3101 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3102 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3106 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3107 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3108 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3109 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3111 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3112 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3113 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3115 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3116 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3120 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3121 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3122 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3123 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3126 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3128 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3129 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3130 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3131 examining core files.
3135 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3138 * New machines supported (host and target)
3140 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3141 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3142 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3144 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3146 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3148 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3150 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3151 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3152 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3154 * New remote interfaces
3160 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3164 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3166 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3167 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3168 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3169 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3170 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3171 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3172 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3173 stub on the target system.
3175 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3177 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3178 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3179 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3181 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3182 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3185 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3187 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3188 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3190 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3191 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3192 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3194 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3195 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3196 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3197 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3199 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3200 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3201 it is already running. Default is ON.
3203 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3204 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3205 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3206 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3209 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3210 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3211 or the value of the environment variable
3214 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3215 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3218 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3219 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3220 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3222 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3223 history expansion will be performed on
3224 command line input. The default is OFF.
3226 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3227 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3228 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3230 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3231 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3232 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3235 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3236 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3237 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3240 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3241 ``set width'' instead.
3243 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3244 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3245 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3246 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3248 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3251 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3254 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3257 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3260 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3262 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3263 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3264 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3268 * Support for Shared Libraries
3270 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3271 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3272 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3273 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3274 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3275 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3276 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3277 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3279 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3280 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3281 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3283 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3288 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3289 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3290 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3291 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3292 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3293 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3295 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3297 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3299 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3300 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3301 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3304 * C++ multiple inheritance
3306 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3309 * C++ exception handling
3311 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3312 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3313 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3316 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3317 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3318 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3320 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3321 current stack frame.
3324 * Minor command changes
3326 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3327 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3328 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3330 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3331 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3332 frames without printing.
3334 * New directory command
3336 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3337 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3338 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3339 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3340 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3342 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3344 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3347 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3348 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3349 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3350 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob