1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.2:
6 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
8 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
10 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
13 * New ``start'' command.
15 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
17 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
19 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
20 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
21 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
23 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
24 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
25 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
26 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
27 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
28 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
29 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
30 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
31 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
33 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
35 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
36 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
37 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
38 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
39 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
41 These fixes were tested on i386 GNU/Linux systems that include a 2.4
44 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
46 * New native configurations
48 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
49 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
50 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
51 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
52 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
53 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
54 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
56 * REMOVED configurations and files
58 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
59 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
60 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
61 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
62 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
63 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
64 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
65 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
66 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
68 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
70 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
72 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
74 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
75 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
76 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
77 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
80 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
82 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
83 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
84 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
85 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
86 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
87 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
90 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
92 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
94 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
95 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
96 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
98 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
100 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
101 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
103 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
105 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
106 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
107 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
109 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
111 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
112 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
114 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
116 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
117 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
118 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
120 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
122 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
123 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
124 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
126 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
128 * Removed --with-mmalloc
130 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
131 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
133 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
135 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
136 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
137 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
138 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
140 * Revised SPARC target
142 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
143 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
144 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
145 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
146 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
150 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
151 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
152 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
155 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
157 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
158 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
161 * C++ nested types and namespaces
163 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
164 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
165 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
166 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
167 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
168 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
169 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
170 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
171 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
173 * New native configurations
175 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
176 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
177 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
178 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
179 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
181 * New debugging protocols
183 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
185 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
187 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
188 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
189 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
191 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
193 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
194 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
195 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
198 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
199 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
200 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
201 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
202 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
203 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
204 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
205 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
206 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
208 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
210 * REMOVED configurations and files
212 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
213 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
214 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
215 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
216 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
217 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
218 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
219 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
220 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
221 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
222 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
223 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
224 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
225 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
226 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
227 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
228 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
230 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
234 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
237 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
239 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
240 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
241 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
244 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
245 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
250 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
251 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
252 remote protocol documentation for details.
254 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
256 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
257 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
258 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
261 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
263 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
264 per-thread variables.
266 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
268 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
269 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
271 * Separate debug info.
273 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
274 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
275 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
276 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
277 and optional debug files.
279 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
281 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
282 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
285 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
286 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
290 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
291 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
292 considered "useable".
294 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
296 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
297 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
300 * GDB supports logging output to a file
302 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
303 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
305 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
307 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
308 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
311 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
313 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
314 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
318 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
319 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
320 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
321 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
322 data, for more informative profiling results.
324 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
326 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
327 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
328 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
330 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
333 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
334 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
335 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
336 in a subsequent -var-update.
338 * New native configurations.
340 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
342 * Multi-arched targets.
344 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
345 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
347 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
349 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
350 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
351 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
354 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
355 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
356 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
357 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
358 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
359 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
360 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
361 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
362 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
363 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
364 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
365 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
367 * REMOVED configurations and files
370 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
371 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
372 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
373 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
374 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
375 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
377 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
378 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
379 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
380 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
381 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
382 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
384 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
386 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
387 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
388 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
389 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
390 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
392 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
394 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
396 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
397 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
398 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
399 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
400 shared libs like mad''.
402 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
404 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
405 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
406 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
407 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
409 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
411 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
412 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
415 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
416 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
418 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
419 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
421 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
422 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
423 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
424 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
426 * Multi-arched targets.
428 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
429 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
431 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
432 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
433 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
437 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
440 * New native configurations
442 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
443 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
444 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
445 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
447 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
449 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
450 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
451 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
454 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
455 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
456 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
457 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
458 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
459 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
460 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
461 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
462 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
463 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
465 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
466 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
470 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
472 * REMOVED configurations and files
474 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
475 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
476 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
477 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
478 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
480 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
482 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
484 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
485 commands. The default is 1024.
487 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
489 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
491 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
493 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
494 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
495 from a file into memory (restore).
497 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
499 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
500 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
501 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
503 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
511 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
512 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
513 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
515 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
516 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
517 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
519 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
520 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
521 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
523 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
524 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
525 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
527 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
529 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
531 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
532 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
533 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
534 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
535 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
536 (notably embedded) targets.
538 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
540 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
541 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
542 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
543 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
545 * New command line option
547 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
549 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
551 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
552 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
553 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
554 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
555 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
556 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
557 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
558 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
559 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
560 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
562 * Changes in ARM configurations.
564 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
565 configuration is fully multi-arch.
567 * New native configurations
569 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
570 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
571 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
572 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
576 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
578 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
580 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
581 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
582 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
585 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
586 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
587 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
588 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
589 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
591 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
593 * REMOVED configurations and files
595 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
597 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
598 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
599 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
600 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
601 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
602 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
603 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
604 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
605 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
606 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
607 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
609 * Changes to command line processing
611 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
612 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
614 * Changes to key bindings
616 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
618 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
620 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
622 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
625 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
627 Numerous documentation fixes.
629 Numerous testsuite fixes.
631 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
633 * New native configurations
635 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
636 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
637 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
638 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
640 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
644 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
646 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
648 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
650 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
651 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
652 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
653 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
654 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
656 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
657 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
658 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
659 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
660 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
661 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
662 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
663 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
665 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
666 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
668 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
669 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
670 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
673 * REMOVED configurations and files
675 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
676 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
678 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
682 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
684 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
685 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
690 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
692 * The MI enabled by default.
694 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
695 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
696 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
697 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
698 which is now deprecated.
700 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
702 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
703 main features are supported:
705 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
707 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
710 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
712 - a Pascal expression parser.
714 However, some important features are not yet supported.
716 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
718 - there are some problems with boolean types;
720 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
721 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
723 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
725 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
727 * Changes in completion.
729 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
730 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
731 users expect at the shell prompt.
733 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
734 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
735 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
736 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
737 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
738 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
739 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
741 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
743 * New platform-independent commands:
745 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
746 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
747 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
749 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
751 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
752 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
753 many threads as your system allows you to have.
755 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
757 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
758 multi-threaded programs though.
760 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
762 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
764 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
765 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
768 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
770 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
771 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
772 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
773 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
774 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
777 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
778 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
779 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
781 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
783 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
784 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
786 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
787 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
790 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
791 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
792 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
793 a given linear address.
795 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
796 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
797 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
799 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
801 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
803 * Changes in documentation.
805 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
806 Documentation License.
808 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
811 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
813 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
816 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
817 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
818 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
820 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
822 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
823 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
824 contents of this file.
828 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
830 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
832 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
834 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
835 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
836 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
837 greater level of detail.
839 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
841 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
842 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
843 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
846 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
848 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
849 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
850 machines ``out of the box''.
852 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
853 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
854 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
855 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
856 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
858 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
859 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
860 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
861 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
862 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
864 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
865 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
868 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
871 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
872 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
873 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
874 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
876 * New native configurations
878 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
879 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
883 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
884 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
885 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
886 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
888 * OBSOLETE configurations
890 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
891 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
893 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
896 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
897 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
898 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
899 be permanently REMOVED.
901 * Gould support removed
903 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
905 * New features for SVR4
907 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
908 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
909 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
911 * Many C++ enhancements
913 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
914 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
916 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
918 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
919 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
920 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
921 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
923 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
924 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
926 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
928 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
929 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
930 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
932 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
933 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
935 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
937 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
938 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
939 include ``set remote P-packet''.
941 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
943 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
944 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
945 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
947 * ``apropos'' command added.
949 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
950 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
951 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
955 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
956 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
957 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
958 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
959 enabled by configuring with:
961 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
963 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
965 * New native configurations
967 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
968 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
969 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
973 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
974 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
975 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
977 * OBSOLETE configurations
979 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
981 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
982 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
983 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
984 be permanently REMOVED.
988 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
989 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
990 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
991 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
992 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
993 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
994 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
999 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1001 * set extension-language
1003 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1004 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1005 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1006 set extension-language .c c++
1007 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1008 and their associated languages.
1010 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1012 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1013 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1014 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1018 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1019 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1021 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1022 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1024 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1025 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1026 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1027 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1028 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1029 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1030 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1031 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1033 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1034 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1035 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1036 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1040 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1041 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1042 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1043 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1044 for xdb and dbx commands.
1048 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1049 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1050 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1052 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1053 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1054 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1056 * Debugging across forks
1058 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1063 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1064 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1065 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1067 * GDB remote protocol additions
1069 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1070 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1071 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1072 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1074 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1075 full 64-bit address. The command
1077 set remoteaddresssize 32
1079 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1080 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1083 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1084 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1086 maint packet heythere
1088 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1089 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1092 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1093 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1094 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1096 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1098 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1099 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1100 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1102 * mask-address variable for Mips
1104 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1105 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1106 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1108 * Higher serial baud rates
1110 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1111 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1112 to achieve all of these rates.)
1116 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1117 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1120 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1122 * New native configurations
1124 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1125 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1126 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1127 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1128 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1129 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1130 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1134 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1135 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1136 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1137 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1138 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1139 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1140 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1141 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1142 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1143 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1144 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1146 * New debugging protocols
1148 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1149 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1150 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1151 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1152 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1153 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1157 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1158 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1163 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1164 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1166 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1168 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1169 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1170 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1172 * Live range splitting
1174 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1175 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1176 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1180 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1181 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1185 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1186 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1187 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1192 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1197 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1198 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1199 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1200 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1201 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1202 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1206 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1207 the symbol at the specified address.
1211 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1212 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1213 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1214 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1215 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1219 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1220 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1221 of most MIPS variants.
1225 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1226 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1227 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1231 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1232 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1233 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1234 the possible architectures.
1236 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1238 * New native configurations
1240 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1241 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1242 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1243 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1244 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1245 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1249 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1250 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1251 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1252 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1253 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1255 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1259 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1260 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1261 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1262 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1263 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1267 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1269 * Windows 95/NT native
1271 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1272 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1273 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1274 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1275 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1277 * dont-repeat command
1279 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1280 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1281 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1282 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1284 * Send break instead of ^C
1286 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1287 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1288 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1290 * Remote protocol timeout
1292 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1293 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1294 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1296 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1298 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1299 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1300 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1301 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1302 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1304 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1305 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1306 automatically on hpux10.
1308 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1310 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1312 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1314 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1315 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1316 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1317 every character. The default value is 1050.
1319 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1321 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1322 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1323 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1324 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1325 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1326 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1328 * Speedups for remote debugging
1330 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1331 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1332 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1334 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1336 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1337 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1339 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1341 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1343 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1344 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1346 * Remote targets use caching
1348 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1349 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1350 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1351 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1352 off' turns the the data cache off.
1354 * Remote targets may have threads
1356 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1357 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1358 gdb/remote.c for details.
1362 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1363 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1364 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1365 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1366 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1367 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1368 sequence is something like
1370 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1372 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1376 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1377 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1378 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1379 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1380 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1381 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1382 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1383 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1387 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1388 but does simplify configuration and building.
1392 GDB now supports hpux10.
1394 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1396 * New native configurations
1398 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1399 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1400 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1401 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1405 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1406 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1407 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1408 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1411 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1413 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1414 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1415 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1416 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1417 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1419 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1421 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1422 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1425 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1427 To execute the command use:
1430 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1431 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1432 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1434 * New `if' and `while' commands
1436 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1437 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1438 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1439 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1440 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1441 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1442 if the expression is zero.
1444 * Fortran source language mode
1446 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1447 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1448 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1449 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1452 * Better HPUX support
1454 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1455 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1456 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1457 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1458 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1464 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1465 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1471 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1472 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1475 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1476 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1478 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1480 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1481 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1482 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1483 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1484 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1485 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1487 * New DOS host serial code
1489 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1490 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1493 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1495 * New "complete" command
1497 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1498 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1500 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1502 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1503 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1505 * Breakpoint hit counts
1507 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1508 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1509 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1510 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1511 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1514 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1516 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1517 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1518 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1520 * Shared library breakpoints
1522 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1523 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1525 * Hardware watchpoints
1527 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1528 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1530 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1534 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1535 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1537 * Improved Irix 5 support
1539 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1541 * Improved HPPA support
1543 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1545 * New native configurations
1547 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1548 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1549 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1550 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1554 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1555 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1558 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1560 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1561 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1565 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1566 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1568 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1570 * Irix 5 is now supported
1574 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1575 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1576 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1577 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1578 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1581 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1583 * User visible changes:
1587 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1588 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1589 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1590 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1591 debugging info for the mips target).
1593 * DEC Alpha native support
1595 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1596 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1597 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1598 Alpha-specific notes.
1600 * Preliminary thread implementation
1602 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1604 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1606 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1607 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1610 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1612 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1613 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1614 call methods, ...etc.
1616 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1618 * User visible changes:
1620 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1621 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1622 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1623 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1625 Filename completion now works.
1627 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1628 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1629 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1631 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1632 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1633 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1634 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1635 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1639 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1640 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1643 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1647 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1648 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1649 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1653 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1654 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1655 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1656 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1657 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1661 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1662 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1663 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1665 * New targets supported
1667 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1668 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1669 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1670 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1671 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1673 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1674 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1675 GO32 memory extender.
1677 * New remote protocols
1679 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1681 * New source languages supported
1683 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1684 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1685 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1688 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1690 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1692 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1693 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1694 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1695 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1696 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1697 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1699 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1701 * Faster and better demangling
1703 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1704 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1705 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1706 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1707 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1708 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1711 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1712 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1713 compiler does not actually implement.
1715 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1717 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1718 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1719 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1720 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1721 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1722 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1725 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1726 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1728 * Improved configure script
1730 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1731 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1732 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1733 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1735 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1736 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1737 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1738 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1739 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1740 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1742 * Documentation improvements
1744 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1745 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1746 before submitting changes.
1748 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1749 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1750 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1751 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1752 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1754 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1755 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1756 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1757 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1758 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1759 around this problem.
1763 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1764 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1765 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1768 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1769 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1771 * New native hosts supported
1773 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1774 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1776 * New targets supported
1778 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1780 * New file formats supported
1782 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1783 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1787 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1789 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1790 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1792 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1793 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1794 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1796 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1797 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1799 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1800 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1801 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1804 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1805 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1806 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1807 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1808 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1810 * Internal improvements
1812 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1813 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1815 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1816 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1817 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1818 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1819 shared code that handles any of them.
1821 * New command line options
1823 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1827 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1828 General Public License.
1830 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1832 * Host/native/target split
1834 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1835 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1836 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1837 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1838 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1840 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1841 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1842 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1843 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1844 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1845 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1846 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1848 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1849 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1850 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1852 * New hosts supported
1854 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1855 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1856 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1858 * New targets supported
1860 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1861 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1863 * New native hosts supported
1865 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1866 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1867 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1869 * New file formats supported
1871 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1872 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1873 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1877 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1878 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1879 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1881 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1883 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1884 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1885 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1886 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1890 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1891 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1892 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1894 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1898 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1899 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1902 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1903 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1905 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1906 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1907 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1908 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1909 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1910 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1912 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1913 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1914 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1915 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1919 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1920 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1921 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1922 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1923 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1925 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1926 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1927 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1928 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1932 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1933 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1934 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1935 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1936 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1937 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1938 each instruction being stepped through.
1940 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1941 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1943 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1944 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1945 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1946 processor with a serial port.
1950 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1951 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1952 supported, and what files each one uses.
1956 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1957 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1958 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1959 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1961 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1962 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1963 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1964 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1968 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1969 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1970 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1971 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1972 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1973 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1975 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1978 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1980 * Better support for C++ function names
1982 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1983 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1984 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1985 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1986 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1988 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1989 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1990 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1991 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1992 for the list of formats.
1994 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1996 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1997 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1998 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1999 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2000 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2001 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2004 * New 'maintenance' command
2006 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2007 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2008 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2010 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2011 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2012 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2013 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2014 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2015 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2017 The following commands are new:
2019 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2020 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2021 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2023 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2025 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2026 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2027 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2028 read after argv processing.
2030 * New hosts supported
2032 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2034 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2036 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2037 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2038 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2039 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2040 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2043 * New targets supported
2045 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2047 * More smarts about finding #include files
2049 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2050 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2051 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2052 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2053 the one that contains your sources.
2055 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2056 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2057 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2059 * Interesting infernals change
2061 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2062 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2063 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2064 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2066 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2068 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2069 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2070 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2072 See the ChangeLog for details.
2074 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2076 * New machines supported (host and target)
2078 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2080 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2082 * New malloc package
2084 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2085 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2086 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2087 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2088 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2089 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2093 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2094 'help info proc' for details.
2096 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2098 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2099 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2102 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2104 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2105 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2106 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2107 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2108 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2109 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2111 * Cross byte order fixes
2113 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2114 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2116 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2118 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2119 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2120 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2121 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2122 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2123 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2124 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2125 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2126 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2127 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2129 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2130 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2131 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2132 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2134 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2135 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2136 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2139 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2141 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2142 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2143 shared across multiple host platforms.
2145 * longjmp() handling
2147 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2148 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2149 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2150 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2154 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2155 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2160 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2161 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2162 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2164 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2166 * New machines supported (host and target)
2168 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2170 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2171 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2173 * New machines supported (target)
2175 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2179 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2180 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2181 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2183 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2184 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2185 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2186 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2187 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2190 * New features for SVR4
2192 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2193 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2194 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2196 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2197 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2198 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2200 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2201 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2203 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2205 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2206 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2207 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2208 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2209 same code linked statically.
2213 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2214 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2215 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2216 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2217 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2218 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2222 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2223 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2224 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2227 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2229 * New machines supported (host and target)
2231 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2232 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2233 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2235 * Almost SCO Unix support
2237 We had hoped to support:
2238 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2239 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2240 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2241 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2243 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2245 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2246 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2247 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2248 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2253 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2254 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2255 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2259 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2260 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2261 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2263 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2265 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2266 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2267 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2269 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2270 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2271 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2272 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2275 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2276 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2277 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2278 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2281 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2282 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2285 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2286 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2287 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2290 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2292 * Improved configuration
2294 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2295 Porting BFD is simpler.
2299 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2300 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2301 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2302 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2306 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2308 * New host supported (not target)
2310 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2313 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2315 * Multiple source language support
2317 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2318 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2319 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2320 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2321 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2322 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2326 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2327 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2328 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2329 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2331 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2332 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2333 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2335 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2336 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2340 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2341 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2342 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2343 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2346 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2348 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2349 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2350 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2351 examining core files.
2355 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2358 * New machines supported (host and target)
2360 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2361 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2362 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2364 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2366 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2368 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2370 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2371 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2372 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2374 * New remote interfaces
2380 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2384 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2386 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2387 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2388 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2389 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2390 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2391 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2392 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2393 stub on the target system.
2395 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2397 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2398 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2399 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2401 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2402 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2405 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2407 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2408 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2410 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2411 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2412 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2414 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2415 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2416 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2417 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2419 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2420 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2421 it is already running. Default is ON.
2423 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2424 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2425 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2426 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2429 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2430 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2431 or the value of the environment variable
2434 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2435 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2438 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2439 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2440 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2442 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2443 history expansion will be performed on
2444 command line input. The default is OFF.
2446 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2447 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2448 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2450 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2451 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2452 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2455 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2456 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2457 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2460 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2461 ``set width'' instead.
2463 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2464 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2465 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2466 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2468 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2471 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2474 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2477 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2480 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2482 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2483 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2484 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2488 * Support for Shared Libraries
2490 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2491 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2492 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2493 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2494 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2495 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2496 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2497 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2499 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2500 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2501 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2503 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2508 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2509 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2510 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2511 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2512 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2513 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2515 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2517 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2519 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2520 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2521 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2524 * C++ multiple inheritance
2526 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2529 * C++ exception handling
2531 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2532 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2533 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2536 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2537 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2538 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2540 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2541 current stack frame.
2544 * Minor command changes
2546 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2547 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2548 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2550 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2551 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2552 frames without printing.
2554 * New directory command
2556 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2557 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2558 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2559 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2560 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2562 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2564 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2567 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2568 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2569 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2570 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob