gdb/python: Add architecture method to gdb.PendingFrame
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 9
5
6 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
7 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
8 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
9 and finally the description of the command.
10
11 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
12 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
13
14 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
15 debugging information as well as source code.
16
17 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
18 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
19 being debugged.
20
21 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
22 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
23
24 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
25
26 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
27
28 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
29
30 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
31
32 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
33
34 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
35 powerpc-*-lynxos*
36 i[34567]86-*-nto*
37 bfin-*-*linux*
38 crisv32-*-linux*
39 cris-*-linux*
40 m32r*-*-linux*
41 tilegx-*-linux*
42 arm*-*-mingw32ce*
43 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
44
45 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
46 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
47
48 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
49 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
50 performance for programs with many symbols.
51
52 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
53 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
54
55 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
56
57 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
58 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
59 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
60 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
61 history.
62
63 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
64 64-bit GDB.
65
66 * New commands
67
68 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
69 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
70 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
71 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
72 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
73 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
74 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
75 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
76 attempt to detect a mismatch.
77
78 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
79 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
80 will be displayed.
81
82 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
83 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
84 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
85 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
86 reprinted.
87
88 * Changed commands
89
90 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
91 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
92 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
93 provided explicitly by the user.
94 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
95 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
96 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
97 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
98 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
99 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
100 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
101 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
102
103 * New targets
104
105 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
106
107 * Python API
108
109 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
110 in Python.
111
112 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
113 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
114 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
115 as well.
116
117 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
118 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
119
120 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
121 architecture of the pending frame.
122
123 *** Changes in GDB 9
124
125 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
126
127 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
128 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
129 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
130 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
131 such as in system-wide init files.
132
133 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
134 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
135 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
136 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
137 current GDB settings.
138
139 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
140 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
141 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
142 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
143
144 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
145 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
146 postfix [PAC].
147
148 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
149 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
150
151 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
152 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
153 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
154
155 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
156 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
157 commands.
158
159 * Command names can now use the . character.
160
161 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
162
163 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
164 messages.
165
166 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
167
168 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
169 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
170
171 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
172 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
173 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
174
175 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
176
177 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
178 not visible in the current scope.
179
180 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
181 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
182 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
183 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
184 compiled with support for that language.
185
186 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
187 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
188 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
189
190 * Multi-target debugging support
191
192 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
193 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
194 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
195 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
196 debugging a core dump, etc.
197
198 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
199 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
200 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
201 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
202 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
203 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
204
205 * Python API
206
207 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
208 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
209 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
210 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
211 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
212
213 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
214 type was defined in.
215
216 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
217 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
218 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
219 is given.
220
221 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
222 symbols with static linkage.
223
224 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
225 all static symbols with static linkage.
226
227 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
228 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
229
230 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
231 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
232
233 * New commands
234
235 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
236 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
237 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
238 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
239 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
240 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
241 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
242
243 define-prefix COMMAND
244 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
245
246 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
247 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
248 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
249 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
250 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
251 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
252 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
253 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
254 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
255 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
256 of array elements to print.
257
258 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
259 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
260
261 set may-call-functions [on|off]
262 show may-call-functions
263 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
264 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
265 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
266 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
267 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
268 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
269 in the program.
270
271 set print finish [on|off]
272 show print finish
273 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
274 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
275 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
276 default is `on'.
277
278 set print max-depth
279 show print max-depth
280 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
281 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
282 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
283 the old behavior back.
284
285 set print raw-values [on|off]
286 show print raw-values
287 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
288 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
289 of commands. The default is 'off'.
290
291 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
292 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
293 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
294
295 set style title foreground COLOR
296 set style title background COLOR
297 set style title intensity VALUE
298 Control the styling of titles.
299
300 set style highlight foreground COLOR
301 set style highlight background COLOR
302 set style highlight intensity VALUE
303 Control the styling of highlightings.
304
305 maint set worker-threads
306 maint show worker-threads
307 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
308 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
309 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
310 the names of linker symbols.
311
312 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
313 set style tui-border background COLOR
314 Control the styling of TUI borders.
315
316 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
317 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
318 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
319
320 maint set test-settings KIND
321 maint show test-settings KIND
322 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
323 infrastructure.
324
325 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
326 maint show tui-resize-message
327 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
328 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
329 TUI.
330
331 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
332 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
333 show print frame-info
334 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
335 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
336 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
337 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
338
339 set tui compact-source
340 show tui compact-source
341
342 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
343 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
344 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
345 line numbers from the source.
346
347 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
348 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
349 no REGEXP is given.
350
351 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
352 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
353 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
354 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
355 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
356 matches against the function name.
357
358 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
359 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
360 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
361 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
362 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
363 against the variable name.
364
365 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
366 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
367 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
368 "set debug remote".
369 The default is 512 bytes.
370
371 info connections
372 Lists the target connections currently in use.
373
374 * Changed commands
375
376 help
377 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
378 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
379 command names.
380
381 apropos [-v] REGEXP
382 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
383 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
384 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
385 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
386 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
387
388 printf
389 eval
390 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
391 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
392 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
393 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
394
395 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
396 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
397 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
398 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
399 parts of the files.
400
401 show style
402 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
403 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
404 the user visualize the different styles.
405
406 set print frame-arguments
407 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
408 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
409
410 set print raw-frame-arguments
411 show print raw-frame-arguments
412
413 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
414 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
415 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
416 release.
417
418 add-inferior [-no-connection]
419 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
420 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
421 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
422 current inferior. See also "info connections".
423
424 info inferior
425 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
426 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
427 "info connections" above.
428
429 maint test-options require-delimiter
430 maint test-options unknown-is-error
431 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
432 maint show test-options-completion-result
433 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
434 framework.
435
436 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
437 These commands are now case-sensitive.
438
439 * New command options, command completion
440
441 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
442 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
443 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
444 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
445 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
446 number of commands got support for new command options in this
447 release:
448
449 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
450 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
451 set by "set print" subcommands:
452
453 -address [on|off]
454 -array [on|off]
455 -array-indexes [on|off]
456 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
457 -null-stop [on|off]
458 -object [on|off]
459 -pretty [on|off]
460 -raw-values [on|off]
461 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
462 -static-members [on|off]
463 -symbol [on|off]
464 -union [on|off]
465 -vtbl [on|off]
466
467 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
468 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
469 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
470 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
471
472 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
473 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
474 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
475
476 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
477 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
478 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
479 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
480 |location-and-address|short-location
481 -past-main [on|off]
482 -past-entry [on|off]
483
484 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
485 exposed as command options too:
486
487 -full
488 -no-filters
489 -hide
490
491 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
492 support the following options:
493
494 -past-main [on|off]
495 -past-entry [on|off]
496
497 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
498 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
499
500 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
501 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
502 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
503 like for example:
504
505 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
506
507 The above is equivalent to:
508
509 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
510
511 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
512 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
513 variables" and "info functions".
514
515 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
516 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
517 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
518 from the results.
519
520 * Completion improvements
521
522 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
523 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
524 abbreviated.
525
526 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
527 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
528 commands.
529
530 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
531 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
532 completes on filenames.
533
534 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
535 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
536
537 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
538
539 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
540 elements unlimited".
541
542 * New MI commands
543
544 -complete
545 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
546 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
547 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
548
549 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
550 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
551 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
552
553 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
554 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
555 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
556
557 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
558 modules' command.
559
560 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
561 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
562 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
563
564 * Other MI changes
565
566 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
567
568 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
569 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
570 the following commands and events:
571
572 - -break-insert
573 - -break-info
574 - =breakpoint-created
575 - =breakpoint-modified
576
577 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
578 this behavior with previous MI versions.
579
580 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
581 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
582 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
583 present.
584
585 * Testsuite
586
587 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
588 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
589 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
590 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
591
592 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
593
594 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
595 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
596
597 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
598
599 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
600 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
601
602 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
603 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
604 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
605
606 * Removed targets and native configurations
607
608 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
609 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
610 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
611
612 * New Simulators
613
614 TI PRU pru-*-elf
615
616 * Removed targets and native configurations
617
618 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
619 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
620
621 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
622
623 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
624 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
625 HTM registers.
626
627 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
628 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
629 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
630 and operators.
631
632 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
633 (the C++ plug-in).
634
635 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
636 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
637 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
638
639 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
640 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
641
642 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
643 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
644 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
645 in the GDB user manual.
646
647 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
648 executed failed.
649
650 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
651
652 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
653 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
654 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
655 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
656 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
657 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
658 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
659 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
660 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
661 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
662 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
663 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
664
665 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
666 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
667 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
668 information.
669
670 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
671 lucid.
672
673 * New commands
674
675 set debug compile-cplus-types
676 show debug compile-cplus-types
677 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
678 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
679 for other languages.
680
681 set debug skip
682 show debug skip
683 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
684 displayed.
685
686 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
687 Apply a command to some frames.
688 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
689 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
690
691 taas COMMAND
692 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
693 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
694
695 faas COMMAND
696 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
697 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
698
699 tfaas COMMAND
700 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
701 output).
702 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
703
704 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
705 maint show dwarf unwinders
706 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
707
708 info proc files
709 Display a list of open files for a process.
710
711 * Changed commands
712
713 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
714 These commands all now take a frame specification which
715 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
716 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
717 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
718 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
719 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
720
721 target remote FILENAME
722 target extended-remote FILENAME
723 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
724 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
725
726 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
727 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
728 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
729 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
730 These commands can now print only the searched entities
731 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
732 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
733 printing headers or informations messages.
734
735 info functions
736 info types
737 info variables
738 rbreak
739 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
740 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
741 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
742 the shown entities.
743
744 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
745 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
746 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
747 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
748
749 set tui tab-width NCHARS
750 show tui tab-width NCHARS
751 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
752
753 set style enabled [on|off]
754 show style enabled
755 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
756 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
757
758 set style sources [on|off]
759 show style sources
760 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
761 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
762 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
763
764 set style filename foreground COLOR
765 set style filename background COLOR
766 set style filename intensity VALUE
767 Control the styling of file names.
768
769 set style function foreground COLOR
770 set style function background COLOR
771 set style function intensity VALUE
772 Control the styling of function names.
773
774 set style variable foreground COLOR
775 set style variable background COLOR
776 set style variable intensity VALUE
777 Control the styling of variable names.
778
779 set style address foreground COLOR
780 set style address background COLOR
781 set style address intensity VALUE
782 Control the styling of addresses.
783
784 * MI changes
785
786 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
787 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
788 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
789 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
790 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
791
792 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
793 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
794
795 * New native configurations
796
797 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
798 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
799
800 * New targets
801
802 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
803 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
804 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
805 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
806 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
807 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
808
809 * Removed targets
810
811 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
812 before Windows XP.
813
814 * Python API
815
816 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
817
818 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
819 space associated to that inferior.
820
821 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
822 of objfiles associated to that program space.
823
824 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
825 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
826 the gdb core.
827
828 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
829 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
830 correct and did not work properly.
831
832 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
833 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
834
835 * Configure changes
836
837 --enable-ubsan
838
839 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
840 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
841 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
842 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
843 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
844
845 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
846
847 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
848 for the MIPS target.
849
850 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
851 offset to all sections.
852
853 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
854 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
855 address of individual sections using '-s'.
856
857 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
858 (address of the text section).
859
860 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
861 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
862 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
863 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
864 default.
865
866 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
867 for the rest of the current command.
868
869 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
870 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
871
872 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
873 files created on FreeBSD systems.
874
875 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
876 alignof.
877
878 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
879 the vector length while the process is running.
880
881 * New commands
882
883 set debug fbsd-nat
884 show debug fbsd-nat
885 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
886
887 set|show varsize-limit
888 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
889 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
890 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
891
892 set|show record btrace cpu
893 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
894 branch trace decode.
895
896 maint check libthread-db
897 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
898 library
899
900 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
901 maint show check-libthread-db
902 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
903 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
904 perform such checks.
905
906 * Python API
907
908 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
909
910 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
911 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
912
913 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
914
915 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
916 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
917 of convenience variables.
918
919 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
920 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
921 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
922
923 * New targets
924
925 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
926
927 * Removed targets and native configurations
928
929 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
930 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
931 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
932 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
933
934 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
935
936 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
937 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
938 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
939 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
940 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
941 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
942 reported.
943
944 * Configure changes
945
946 --enable-codesign=CERT
947 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
948 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
949 gdb to work properly.
950
951 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
952 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
953
954 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
955
956 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
957 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
958 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
959
960 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
961 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
962
963 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
964 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
965 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
966 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
967 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
968
969 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
970 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
971 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
972 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
973
974 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
975 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
976
977 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
978 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
979 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
980
981 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
982 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
983 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
984
985 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
986 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
987 environment" command.
988
989 * Completion improvements
990
991 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
992 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
993 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
994 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
995 correctly:
996
997 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
998 (gdb) b function(int)
999
1000 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
1001 C++ anonymous namespaces:
1002
1003 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
1004 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
1005 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
1006 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
1007
1008 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
1009 completion support, that better understands what you're
1010 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
1011 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
1012 setting a breakpoint.
1013
1014 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
1015
1016 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
1017
1018 * New command line options (gcore)
1019
1020 -a
1021 Dump all memory mappings.
1022
1023 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
1024
1025 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
1026 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
1027 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
1028
1029 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
1030
1031 A::B::func()
1032 B::func()
1033
1034 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
1035 on both symbols.
1036
1037 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
1038 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
1039 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
1040 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
1041 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
1042 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
1043 a breakpoint from Python.
1044
1045 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1046
1047 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1048 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
1049 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
1050
1051 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
1052
1053 function[abi:cxx11](int)
1054 ^^^^^^^^^^^
1055
1056 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
1057 no tag, like:
1058
1059 (gdb) b function(int)
1060
1061 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
1062
1063 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
1064
1065 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
1066
1067 * Python Scripting
1068
1069 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
1070 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
1071 description of these.
1072
1073 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
1074 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
1075 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
1076
1077 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
1078 manual for a further description of this feature.
1079
1080
1081 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1082
1083 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
1084 specified initial working directory.
1085
1086 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
1087 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
1088
1089 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
1090 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
1091
1092 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
1093 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
1094
1095 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
1096 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1097 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1098 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1099 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1100
1101 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1102 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1103 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1104
1105 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1106 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1107 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1108 in the *stopped notification.
1109
1110 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1111 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1112
1113 * New remote packets
1114
1115 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1116 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1117 the inferior when starting it.
1118
1119 QEnvironmentUnset
1120 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1121 before starting the remote inferior.
1122
1123 QEnvironmentReset
1124 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1125 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1126
1127 QStartupWithShell
1128 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1129
1130 QSetWorkingDir
1131 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1132 working directory.
1133
1134 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1135 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1136
1137 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1138 filter the tests to be run.
1139
1140 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1141 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1142
1143 * New commands
1144
1145 set|show cwd
1146 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1147
1148 set|show compile-gcc
1149 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1150 with the 'compile' commands.
1151
1152 set debug separate-debug-file
1153 show debug separate-debug-file
1154 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1155
1156 set dump-excluded-mappings
1157 show dump-excluded-mappings
1158 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1159 dumped when generating a core file.
1160
1161 maint info selftests
1162 List the registered selftests.
1163
1164 starti
1165 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1166
1167 set|show debug or1k
1168 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1169
1170 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1171 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1172 type printer will show.
1173
1174 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1175 `o' for nexti.
1176
1177 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1178
1179 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1180 'int'.
1181
1182 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1183 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1184 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1185 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1186
1187 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1188 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1189 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1190 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1191 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1192 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1193
1194 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1195 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1196 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1197
1198 (gdb) p var
1199 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1200 (gdb) p (float) var
1201 $3 = 3.14
1202
1203 * New native configurations
1204
1205 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1206 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1207
1208 * New targets
1209
1210 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1211 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1212 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1213
1214 * Removed targets and native configurations
1215
1216 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1217
1218 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1219
1220 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1221 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1222 available in future Intel CPUs.
1223
1224 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1225
1226 * Python Scripting
1227
1228 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1229 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1230
1231 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1232 instructions.
1233
1234 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1235
1236 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1237
1238 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1239 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1240 removed.
1241
1242 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1243
1244 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1245 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1246
1247 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1248
1249 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1250 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1251 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1252 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1253 features.
1254
1255 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1256
1257 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1258 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1259 debugger.
1260
1261 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1262
1263 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1264 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1265
1266 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1267
1268 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1269
1270 define mycommand
1271 set $i = 0
1272 while $i < $argc
1273 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1274 set $i = $i + 1
1275 end
1276 end
1277
1278 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1279
1280 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1281 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1282
1283 * New native configurations
1284
1285 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1286
1287 * New targets
1288
1289 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1290 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1291
1292 * Removed targets and native configurations
1293
1294 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1295 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1296
1297 * New commands
1298
1299 flash-erase
1300 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1301
1302 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1303 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1304
1305 * New options
1306
1307 set disassembler-options
1308 show disassembler-options
1309 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1310 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1311 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1312 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1313 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1314
1315 * New MI commands
1316
1317 -target-flash-erase
1318 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1319 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1320
1321 -file-list-shared-libraries
1322 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1323 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1324
1325 -catch-handlers
1326 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1327 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1328
1329 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1330
1331 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1332
1333 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1334 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1335 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1336 option will be removed in a future release.
1337
1338 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1339 GDB connection.
1340
1341 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1342 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1343
1344 (gdb) bt
1345 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1346 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1347 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1348 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1349 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1350 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1351 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1352 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1353 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1354
1355 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1356 arrays of dynamic types.
1357
1358 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1359 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1360 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1361 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1362 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1363 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1364
1365 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1366 descriptions.
1367
1368 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1369 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1370 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1371
1372 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1373
1374 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1375 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1376 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1377 signal received and code location.
1378
1379 For example:
1380
1381 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1382 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1383 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1384 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1385
1386 * Rust language support.
1387 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1388 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1389 Rust.
1390
1391 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1392
1393 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1394 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1395 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1396 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1397 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1398 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1399 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1400 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1401 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1402 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1403 line.
1404
1405 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1406
1407 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1408 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1409
1410 * New commands
1411
1412 skip -file file
1413 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1414 skip -function function
1415 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1416 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1417 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1418 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1419
1420 maint info line-table REGEXP
1421 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
1422
1423 maint selftest
1424 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1425
1426 new-ui INTERP TTY
1427 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1428 using the TTY file for input/output.
1429
1430 * Python Scripting
1431
1432 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1433 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1434 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1435 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1436 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1437
1438 signal-event EVENTID
1439 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1440 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1441 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1442 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1443 signalling an event.
1444
1445 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1446 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1447 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1448
1449 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1450 been removed:
1451
1452 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1453 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1454 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1455 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1456 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1457 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1458
1459 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1460 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1461 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1462 bytecode into native code.
1463
1464 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1465 recording. For example:
1466
1467 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1468
1469 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1470
1471 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1472
1473 * New targets
1474
1475 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1476
1477 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1478
1479 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1480
1481 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1482
1483 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1484 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1485 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1486
1487 (gdb) info threads
1488 Id Target Id Frame
1489 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1490 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1491 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1492 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1493
1494 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1495 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1496 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1497
1498 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1499 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1500 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1501
1502 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1503 IDs.
1504
1505 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1506 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1507
1508 (gdb) thread 2.1
1509 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1510 (gdb)
1511
1512 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1513 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1514 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1515 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1516 threads 2.*".
1517
1518 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1519 all threads.
1520
1521 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1522 the current thread.
1523
1524 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1525 current inferior.
1526
1527 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1528 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1529 example:
1530
1531 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1532 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1533
1534 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1535
1536 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1537
1538 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1539 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1540
1541 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1542 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1543 clients.
1544
1545 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1546 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1547 at the same time.
1548
1549 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1550 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1551 into native code.
1552
1553 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1554
1555 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1556 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1557 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1558
1559 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1560 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1561
1562 * New commands
1563
1564 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1565 maint show target-non-stop
1566 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1567 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1568 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1569
1570 maint set bfd-sharing
1571 maint show bfd-sharing
1572 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1573
1574 set debug bfd-cache
1575 show debug bfd-cache
1576 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1577
1578 set debug fbsd-lwp
1579 show debug fbsd-lwp
1580 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1581
1582 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1583 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1584 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1585
1586 set remote thread-events
1587 show remote thread-events
1588 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1589
1590 set ada print-signatures on|off
1591 show ada print-signatures"
1592 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1593 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
1594
1595 set max-value-size
1596 show max-value-size
1597 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1598 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1599 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1600
1601 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1602 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1603 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1604 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1605 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1606 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1607
1608 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1609 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1610
1611 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1612 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1613
1614 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1615
1616 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1617 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1618 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1619 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1620 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1621 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1622
1623 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1624 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1625
1626 catch handlers
1627 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1628
1629 * New remote packets
1630
1631 exec stop reason
1632 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1633
1634 exec-events feature in qSupported
1635 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1636 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1637 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1638 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1639
1640 vCtrlC
1641 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1642 non-stop mode.
1643
1644 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1645 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1646
1647 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1648 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1649
1650 QThreadEvents
1651 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1652 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1653 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1654 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1655 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1656 stop for that same thread.
1657
1658 N stop reply
1659 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1660 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1661 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1662
1663 QCatchSyscalls
1664 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1665 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1666
1667 syscall_entry stop reason
1668 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1669
1670 syscall_return stop reason
1671 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1672
1673 * Extended-remote exec events
1674
1675 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1676 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1677 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1678
1679 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1680 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1681 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1682
1683 * Thread names in remote protocol
1684
1685 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1686 thread.
1687
1688 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1689
1690 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1691 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1692 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1693 fork and exec catchpoints.
1694
1695 * Remote syscall events
1696
1697 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1698 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1699
1700 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1701 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1702 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1703
1704 * MI changes
1705
1706 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1707 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1708 left.
1709
1710 * Python Scripting
1711
1712 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1713 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1714 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1715 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1716 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1717 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1718
1719 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1720
1721 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1722 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1723 including advance SIMD instructions.
1724
1725 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1726
1727 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1728 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1729 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1730 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1731 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1732 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1733 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1734
1735 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1736 cpu information :
1737 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1738
1739 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1740 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1741 remote serial I/O.
1742
1743 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1744 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1745 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1746
1747 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1748 is now available on all platforms.
1749
1750 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1751 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1752 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1753 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1754 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1755 backward compatibility.
1756
1757 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1758 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1759 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1760 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1761
1762 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1763 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1764 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1765 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1766 packets" below.
1767
1768 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1769
1770 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1771
1772 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1773 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1774 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1775 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1776 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1777 See "New remote packets" below.
1778
1779 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1780 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1781
1782 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1783 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1784 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1785 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1786 are ignored.
1787
1788 * Guile Scripting
1789
1790 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1791
1792 * Python Scripting
1793
1794 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1795 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1796 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1797 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1798 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1799 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1800 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1801 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1802 "const" version of the value respectively.
1803
1804 * New commands
1805
1806 maint print symbol-cache
1807 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1808
1809 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1810 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1811
1812 maint flush-symbol-cache
1813 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1814
1815 record btrace bts
1816 record bts
1817 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1818
1819 compile print
1820 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1821
1822 tui enable
1823 tui disable
1824 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1825
1826 show mpx bound
1827 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1828 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1829
1830 record btrace pt
1831 record pt
1832 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1833
1834 maint info btrace
1835 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1836
1837 maint btrace packet-history
1838 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1839
1840 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1841 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1842
1843 maint btrace clear
1844 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1845 anew by the next "record" command.
1846
1847 * New options
1848
1849 set debug dwarf-die
1850 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1851 show debug dwarf-die
1852 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1853
1854 set debug dwarf-read
1855 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1856 show debug dwarf-read
1857 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1858
1859 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1860 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1861 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1862 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1863
1864 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1865 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1866 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1867 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1868
1869 set debug dwarf-line
1870 show debug dwarf-line
1871 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1872
1873 set max-completions
1874 show max-completions
1875 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1876 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1877 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1878 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1879
1880 set history remove-duplicates
1881 show history remove-duplicates
1882 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1883
1884 maint set symbol-cache-size
1885 maint show symbol-cache-size
1886 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1887
1888 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1889 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1890 BTS format.
1891 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1892 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1893
1894 set debug linux-namespaces
1895 show debug linux-namespaces
1896 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1897
1898 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1899 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1900 Intel Processor Trace format.
1901 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1902 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1903
1904 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1905 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1906 packet history.
1907
1908 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1909 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1910
1911 * Python/Guile scripting
1912
1913 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1914 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1915
1916 * New remote packets
1917
1918 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1919 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1920
1921 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1922 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1923
1924 Qbtrace:pt
1925 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1926 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1927 qSupported query.
1928
1929 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1930 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1931 Trace format.
1932
1933 swbreak stop reason
1934 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1935 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1936 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1937 mode operation.
1938
1939 hwbreak stop reason
1940 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1941 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1942
1943 vFile:fstat:
1944 Return information about files on the remote system.
1945
1946 qXfer:exec-file:read
1947 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1948 create a process running on the remote system.
1949
1950 vFile:setfs:
1951 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1952 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1953 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1954 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1955
1956 fork stop reason
1957 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1958
1959 vfork stop reason
1960 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1961
1962 vforkdone stop reason
1963 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1964 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1965
1966 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1967 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1968 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1969 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1970 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1971 whether these features are enabled.
1972
1973 * Extended-remote fork events
1974
1975 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1976 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1977 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1978 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1979
1980 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1981 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1982 the btrace record target.
1983 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1984
1985 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1986 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1987
1988 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1989 targets.
1990
1991 * Removed command line options
1992
1993 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1994
1995 * Removed targets and native configurations
1996
1997 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1998 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1999
2000 * New configure options
2001
2002 --with-intel-pt
2003 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
2004 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
2005
2006 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
2007 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
2008 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
2009 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
2010
2011 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
2012
2013 * Python Scripting
2014
2015 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
2016
2017 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
2018
2019 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
2020
2021 * Python Scripting
2022
2023 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
2024 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
2025 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
2026 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
2027 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
2028 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
2029 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
2030 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
2031 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
2032 selecting a new file to debug.
2033 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
2034 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
2035
2036 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
2037 inferior.
2038
2039 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
2040 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
2041 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
2042 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
2043
2044 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2045
2046 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2047 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2048 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2049 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2050
2051 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
2052 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
2053 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
2054 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
2055 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
2056 interface with this new feature are:
2057
2058 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
2059 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
2060
2061 * New commands
2062
2063 demangle [-l language] [--] name
2064 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
2065 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
2066 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
2067 as "maint demangler-warning".
2068
2069 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
2070 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
2071
2072 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
2073 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
2074 scripts.
2075
2076 maint print user-registers
2077 List all currently available "user" registers.
2078
2079 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
2080 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
2081 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
2082
2083 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
2084 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
2085 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
2086 provided.
2087
2088 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
2089 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
2090 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
2091 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
2092 at resume time.
2093
2094 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
2095 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
2096 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2097 switched threads meanwhile.
2098
2099 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2100
2101 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2102 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2103 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2104 is now the default mode.
2105
2106 * New options
2107
2108 set debug symbol-lookup
2109 show debug symbol-lookup
2110 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2111
2112 * MI changes
2113
2114 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2115 inferiors that have exited.
2116
2117 * New targets
2118
2119 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2120
2121 * Removed targets
2122
2123 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2124
2125 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2126 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2127 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2128 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2129 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2130
2131 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2132 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2133 its alias "share", instead.
2134
2135 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
2136
2137 * New command line options
2138
2139 -D data-directory
2140 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2141
2142 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2143 as specified in ISO C99.
2144
2145 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2146 with or without disassembly.
2147
2148 * Guile scripting
2149
2150 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2151 available is determined at configure time.
2152 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2153 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2154
2155 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2156
2157 guile [code]
2158 gu [code]
2159 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2160
2161 guile-repl
2162 gr
2163 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2164
2165 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2166 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2167
2168 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2169 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2170
2171 * New options
2172
2173 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2174 show print symbol-loading
2175 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2176 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2177 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2178 becomes less useful.
2179
2180 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2181 show guile print-stack
2182 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2183
2184 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2185 show auto-load guile-scripts
2186 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2187
2188 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2189 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2190 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2191 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2192 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2193 usage of this option.
2194
2195 set auto-connect-native-target
2196
2197 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2198 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2199 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2200
2201 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2202 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2203 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2204
2205 maint set target-async (on|off)
2206 maint show target-async
2207 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2208 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2209 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2210 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2211
2212 set mi-async (on|off)
2213 show mi-async
2214 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2215 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2216
2217 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2218 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2219
2220 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2221 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2222 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2223 "set target-async on" command.
2224
2225 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2226
2227 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2228 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2229 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2230 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2231 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2232
2233 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2234 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2235 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2236
2237 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2238 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2239 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2240 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2241 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2242 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2243 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2244
2245 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2246 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2247
2248 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2249 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2250 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2251
2252 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2253 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2254 memory or registers.
2255
2256 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2257
2258 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2259 remote. It now works with all targets.
2260
2261 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2262 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2263 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2264 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2265 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2266 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2267 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2268 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2269 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2270 target-stack".
2271
2272 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2273 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2274 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2275
2276 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2277
2278 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2279 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2280 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2281
2282 * New remote packets
2283
2284 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2285 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2286 branch trace incrementally.
2287
2288 * Python Scripting
2289
2290 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2291 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2292 available.
2293 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2294 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2295 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2296 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2297 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2298
2299 * New targets
2300 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2301
2302 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2303 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2304 its alias "share", instead.
2305
2306 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2307 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2308 instead.
2309
2310 * MI changes
2311
2312 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2313 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2314 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2315 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2316 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2317 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2318 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2319 commands and CLI execution commands.
2320
2321 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2322
2323 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2324 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2325 recording has been added.
2326
2327 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2328
2329 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2330 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2331
2332 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2333 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2334 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2335 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2336 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2337 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2338 "void".
2339
2340 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2341
2342 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2343
2344 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2345 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2346 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2347 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2348
2349 (gdb) p $rax
2350 $1 = <not saved>
2351
2352 (gdb) info registers rax
2353 rax <not saved>
2354
2355 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2356 "*value not available*".
2357
2358 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2359 to binaries.
2360
2361 * Python scripting
2362
2363 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2364 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2365 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2366 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2367 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2368 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2369
2370 * New targets
2371
2372 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2373 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2374 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2375
2376 * Removed native configurations
2377
2378 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2379 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2380
2381 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2382 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2383 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2384 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2385 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2386 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2387 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2388
2389 * New commands:
2390 catch rethrow
2391 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2392 maint check-psymtabs
2393 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2394 maint check-symtabs
2395 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2396 maint expand-symtabs
2397 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2398
2399 show configuration
2400 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2401
2402 maint set|show per-command
2403 maint set|show per-command space
2404 maint set|show per-command time
2405 maint set|show per-command symtab
2406 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2407
2408 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2409 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2410 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2411 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2412 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2413
2414 info exceptions
2415 info exceptions REGEXP
2416 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2417 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2418 are listed.
2419
2420 * New options
2421
2422 set debug symfile off|on
2423 show debug symfile
2424 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2425 symbol tables within those files
2426
2427 set print raw frame-arguments
2428 show print raw frame-arguments
2429 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2430 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2431
2432 set remote trace-status-packet
2433 show remote trace-status-packet
2434 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2435
2436 set debug nios2
2437 show debug nios2
2438 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2439
2440 set range-stepping
2441 show range-stepping
2442 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2443
2444 set startup-with-shell
2445 show startup-with-shell
2446 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2447 directly.
2448
2449 set code-cache
2450 show code-cache
2451 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2452 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2453
2454 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2455 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2456 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2457 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2458 "set height 0".
2459
2460 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2461 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2462 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2463
2464 * New command-line options
2465 --configuration
2466 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2467
2468 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2469 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2470
2471 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2472 GDB command gcore.
2473
2474 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2475
2476 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2477 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2478
2479 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2480 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2481
2482 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2483 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2484 due to an uncaught signal.
2485
2486 * MI changes
2487
2488 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2489 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2490 command, which should contain "language-option".
2491
2492 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2493 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2494
2495 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2496 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2497 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2498 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2499 "undefined-command-error-code".
2500
2501 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2502 Trace Format now.
2503
2504 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2505
2506 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2507 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2508 are displayed.
2509
2510 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2511 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2512
2513 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2514 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2515 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2516
2517 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2518 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2519 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2520 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2521 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2522 "exec-run-start-option".
2523
2524 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2525 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2526
2527 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2528 the new "info exceptions" command.
2529
2530 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2531 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2532 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2533 ** ElinOS
2534 ** Wind River Linux
2535
2536 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2537 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2538 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2539 below.
2540
2541 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2542 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2543
2544 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2545 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2546 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2547
2548 * New remote packets
2549
2550 vCont;r
2551
2552 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2553 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2554 involvemement at each single-step.
2555
2556 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2557 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2558 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2559 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2560 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2561 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2562 speedup.
2563
2564 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2565
2566 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2567 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2568
2569 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2570 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2571 trace state variables.
2572
2573 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2574 target.
2575
2576 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2577 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2578
2579 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2580
2581 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2582 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2583 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2584 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2585
2586 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2587
2588 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2589 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2590 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2591 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2592
2593 set|show record full insn-number-max
2594 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2595 set|show record full memory-query
2596
2597 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2598 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2599 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2600 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2601 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2602
2603 record btrace
2604
2605 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2606 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2607
2608 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2609 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2610 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2611
2612 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2613 instruction granularity
2614
2615 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2616 function granularity
2617
2618 * New native configurations
2619
2620 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2621 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2622 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2623 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2624
2625 * New targets
2626
2627 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2628 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2629 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2630 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2631 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2632
2633 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2634 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2635 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2636 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2637 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2638 --data-directory command-line option.
2639
2640 * New command line options:
2641
2642 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2643 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2644
2645 * Removed command line options
2646
2647 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2648 Emacs.
2649
2650 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2651 type formatting.
2652
2653 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2654
2655 * Python scripting
2656
2657 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2658
2659 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2660
2661 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2662
2663 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2664
2665 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2666 of architecture in the Python API.
2667
2668 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2669 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2670
2671 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2672
2673 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2674 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2675 ** $_strlen(str)
2676 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2677
2678 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2679 given an argument.
2680
2681 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2682 default for GCC since November 2000.
2683
2684 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2685
2686 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2687 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2688
2689 * New configure options
2690
2691 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2692 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2693 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2694 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2695 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2696 options allow the user to override that default.
2697 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2698 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2699 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2700
2701 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2702
2703 catch signal
2704 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2705 conditions to be attached.
2706
2707 maint info bfds
2708 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2709
2710 python-interactive [command]
2711 pi [command]
2712 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2713 and print the result of expressions.
2714
2715 py [command]
2716 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2717
2718 enable type-printer [name]...
2719 disable type-printer [name]...
2720 Enable or disable type printers.
2721
2722 * Removed commands
2723
2724 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2725 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2726 instead.
2727
2728 * New options
2729
2730 set print type methods (on|off)
2731 show print type methods
2732 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2733 The default is to show them.
2734
2735 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2736 show print type typedefs
2737 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2738 The default is to show them.
2739
2740 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2741 show filename-display
2742 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2743 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2744
2745 set trace-buffer-size
2746 show trace-buffer-size
2747 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2748
2749 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2750 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2751 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2752
2753 set debug aarch64
2754 show debug aarch64
2755 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2756 The default is off.
2757
2758 set debug coff-pe-read
2759 show debug coff-pe-read
2760 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2761 exported symbols.
2762
2763 set debug mach-o
2764 show debug mach-o
2765 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2766 processing.
2767
2768 set debug notification
2769 show debug notification
2770 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2771
2772 * MI changes
2773
2774 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2775 "=cmd-param-changed".
2776 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2777 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2778 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2779 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2780 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2781 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2782 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2783 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2784 "=memory-changed".
2785 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2786 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2787 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2788 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2789 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2790 library load/unload events.
2791 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2792 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2793 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2794 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2795 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2796 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2797 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2798 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2799
2800 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2801 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2802 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2803 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2804
2805 * New remote packets
2806
2807 QTBuffer:size
2808 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2809 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2810
2811 Qbtrace:bts
2812 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2813 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2814 qSupported query.
2815
2816 Qbtrace:off
2817 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2818 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2819
2820 qXfer:btrace:read
2821 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2822 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2823
2824 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2825
2826 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2827 for more x32 ABI info.
2828
2829 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2830
2831 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2832
2833 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2834 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2835 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2836 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2837 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2838 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2839 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2840 "info os msg" lists message queues
2841 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2842
2843 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2844 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2845 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2846 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2847 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2848 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2849
2850 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2851 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2852 record/replay support.
2853
2854 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2855
2856 * Python scripting
2857
2858 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2859 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2860
2861 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2862
2863 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2864 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2865
2866 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2867
2868 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2869 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2870
2871 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2872 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2873 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2874 symbol's value.
2875
2876 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2877 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2878
2879 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2880 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2881 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2882
2883 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2884 object associated with a PC value.
2885
2886 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2887 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2888
2889 * Go language support.
2890 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2891 language.
2892
2893 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2894 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2895
2896 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2897 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2898
2899 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2900 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2901 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2902 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2903 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2904 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2905
2906 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2907 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2908 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2909 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2910
2911 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2912 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2913
2914 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2915 since December 2007.
2916
2917 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2918 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2919 command does. For instance:
2920
2921 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2922
2923 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2924 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2925 created, using the "condition" command.
2926
2927 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2928 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2929
2930 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2931
2932 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2933 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2934 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2935 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2936 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2937 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2938 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2939 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2940
2941 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2942 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2943 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2944 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2945 the .gdb_index section.
2946
2947 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2948
2949 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2950 target.
2951
2952 * MI changes
2953
2954 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2955
2956 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2957
2958 * New commands
2959
2960 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2961 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2962 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2963
2964 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2965 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2966
2967 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2968 several hits.
2969
2970 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2971 C++ and Java objects.
2972
2973 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2974 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2975 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2976 configured with '--with-python'.
2977
2978 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2979 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2980 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2981 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2982 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2983 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2984 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2985
2986 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2987 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2988 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2989 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2990
2991 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2992 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2993 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2994 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2995
2996 ** "set print symbol"
2997 "show print symbol"
2998 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2999 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
3000 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
3001
3002 * Deprecated commands
3003
3004 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
3005 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
3006
3007 * New targets
3008
3009 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3010 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
3011
3012 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
3013 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
3014 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
3015 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
3016 evaluates to true.
3017
3018 * New options
3019
3020 set mips compression
3021 show mips compression
3022 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
3023 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
3024 mips16
3025 micromips
3026 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
3027
3028 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
3029 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
3030 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
3031 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
3032 available mode.
3033 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
3034 target.
3035
3036 set auto-load off
3037 Disable auto-loading globally.
3038
3039 show auto-load
3040 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
3041
3042 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
3043 show auto-load gdb-scripts
3044 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
3045
3046 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
3047 show auto-load python-scripts
3048 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
3049
3050 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
3051 show auto-load local-gdbinit
3052 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
3053
3054 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
3055 show auto-load libthread-db
3056 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
3057
3058 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3059 show auto-load scripts-directory
3060 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
3061 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
3062 of the directories listed by this option.
3063 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3064
3065 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3066 show auto-load safe-path
3067 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
3068 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3069
3070 set debug auto-load on|off
3071 show debug auto-load
3072 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
3073
3074 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
3075 show dprintf-style
3076 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
3077 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
3078 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
3079 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
3080
3081 set dprintf-function <expr>
3082 show dprintf-function
3083 set dprintf-channel <expr>
3084 show dprintf-channel
3085 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
3086 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
3087
3088 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
3089 show disconnected-dprintf
3090 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
3091 after GDB disconnects.
3092
3093 * New configure options
3094
3095 --with-auto-load-dir
3096 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3097 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3098 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3099 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3100 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3101
3102 --with-auto-load-safe-path
3103 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3104 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3105
3106 --without-auto-load-safe-path
3107 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3108 security feature.
3109
3110 * New remote packets
3111
3112 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3113
3114 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3115 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3116 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3117 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3118
3119 QProgramSignals:
3120
3121 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3122 program without GDB involvement.
3123
3124 * New command line options
3125
3126 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3127 before loading inferior.
3128 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3129 execute it before loading inferior.
3130
3131 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
3132
3133 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3134 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3135 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3136 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3137 inferior changes.
3138
3139 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3140 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3141
3142 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3143 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3144 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3145 target hardware watchpoint.
3146
3147 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3148 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3149 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3150 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3151
3152 * Python scripting
3153
3154 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3155 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3156 existing one.
3157
3158 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3159 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3160 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3161 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3162 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3163 the stack trace.
3164
3165 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3166 Python API.
3167
3168 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3169 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3170 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3171 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3172 corresponding value.
3173
3174 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3175 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3176 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3177 on GDB start-up.
3178
3179 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3180 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3181 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3182 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3183
3184 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3185
3186 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3187 "gdb.breakpoints".
3188
3189 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3190 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3191 available in the CLI.
3192
3193 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3194 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3195 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3196 "some_type.items()".
3197
3198 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3199 new object file.
3200
3201 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3202 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3203 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3204 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3205 any anonymous fields.
3206
3207 * MI changes
3208
3209 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3210 "solib-event".
3211
3212 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3213 "=breakpoint-modified".
3214
3215 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3216
3217 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3218 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3219 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3220 lives.
3221
3222 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3223 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3224 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3225 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3226 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3227
3228 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3229 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3230
3231 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3232 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3233 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3234 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3235 use this option to specify where to find it.
3236
3237 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3238 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3239 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3240 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3241 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3242 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3243 section in the user manual for more details.
3244
3245 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3246 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3247 become available after that.
3248
3249 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3250
3251 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3252 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3253 gcc version 4.7.
3254
3255 * New commands
3256
3257 !SHELL COMMAND
3258 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3259 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3260
3261 * Changed commands
3262
3263 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3264 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3265 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3266
3267 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3268 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3269 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3270
3271 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3272 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3273 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3274 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3275 name starts with a hyphen.
3276
3277 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3278 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3279 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3280 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3281 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3282 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3283 number of bytes that will be collected.
3284
3285 tstart [NOTES]
3286 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3287 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3288 setting the variable trace-notes.
3289
3290 tstop [NOTES]
3291 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3292 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3293 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3294 trace-stop-notes.
3295
3296 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3297 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3298 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3299 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3300 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3301 is running.
3302
3303 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3304 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3305 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3306
3307 * New options
3308
3309 set debug dwarf2-read
3310 show debug dwarf2-read
3311 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3312 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3313
3314 set debug symtab-create
3315 show debug symtab-create
3316 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3317 creation. The default is off.
3318
3319 set extended-prompt
3320 show extended-prompt
3321 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3322 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3323 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3324 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3325 prompt is displayed.
3326
3327 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3328 show print entry-values
3329 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3330 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3331 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3332
3333 set debug entry-values
3334 show debug entry-values
3335 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3336 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3337
3338 set basenames-may-differ
3339 show basenames-may-differ
3340 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3341 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3342 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3343 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3344 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3345 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3346 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3347 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3348
3349 set trace-user
3350 show trace-user
3351 set trace-notes
3352 show trace-notes
3353 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3354 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3355 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3356 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3357
3358 set trace-stop-notes
3359 show trace-stop-notes
3360 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3361 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3362 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3363 started by someone else.
3364
3365 * New remote packets
3366
3367 QTEnable
3368
3369 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3370
3371 QTDisable
3372
3373 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3374
3375 QTNotes
3376
3377 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3378
3379 qTP
3380
3381 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3382
3383 qTMinFTPILen
3384
3385 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3386 be placed.
3387
3388 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3389 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3390
3391 * New targets
3392
3393 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3394
3395 * New Simulators
3396
3397 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3398
3399 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3400
3401 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3402
3403 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3404
3405 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3406 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3407 matches the given regular expression.
3408
3409 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3410
3411 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3412 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3413
3414 * New command line options
3415
3416 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3417 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3418
3419 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3420 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3421
3422 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3423 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3424 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3425
3426 * GDB now understands thread names.
3427
3428 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3429 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3430
3431 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3432 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3433
3434 * OpenCL C
3435 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3436 has been integrated into GDB.
3437
3438 * Python scripting
3439
3440 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3441 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3442 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3443
3444 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3445 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3446 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3447 and allows for more dynamic content.
3448
3449 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3450 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3451 have an is_valid method.
3452
3453 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3454 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3455 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3456
3457 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3458
3459 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3460 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3461 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3462 that function like so:
3463
3464 result = some_value (10,20)
3465
3466 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3467 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3468 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3469
3470 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3471 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3472 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3473 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3474 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3475
3476 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3477 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3478
3479 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3480
3481 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3482 selected thread.
3483
3484 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3485 holds the thread's name.
3486
3487 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3488 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3489 occurring in the process being debugged.
3490 The following events are currently supported:
3491 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3492 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3493 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3494
3495 * C++ Improvements:
3496
3497 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3498 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3499
3500 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3501
3502 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3503 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3504 was added to GCC 4.5.
3505
3506 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3507 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3508 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3509 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3510 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3511 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3512
3513 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3514 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3515 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3516 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3517 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3518
3519 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3520 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3521 execution to a label.
3522
3523 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3524 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3525 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3526 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3527
3528 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3529 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3530 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3531 of scope.
3532
3533 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3534
3535 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3536 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3537 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3538 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3539 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3540 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3541
3542 (gdb) info threads
3543 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3544
3545 While now you see this:
3546
3547 (gdb) info threads
3548 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3549
3550 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3551 dumps.
3552
3553 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3554 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3555 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3556 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3557
3558 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3559 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3560 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3561 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3562 section in the user manual for more details.
3563
3564 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3565
3566 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3567 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3568
3569 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3570
3571 * New native configurations
3572
3573 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3574
3575 * New targets:
3576
3577 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3578
3579 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3580 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3581 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3582 in the GDB user manual.
3583
3584 * Guile support was removed.
3585
3586 * New features in the GNU simulator
3587
3588 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3589
3590 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3591
3592 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3593
3594 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3595
3596 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3597 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3598 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3599 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3600 was always disabled for such configurations.
3601
3602 * C++ Improvements:
3603
3604 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3605
3606 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3607 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3608 For example:
3609 namespace A
3610 {
3611 class B { };
3612 void foo (B) { }
3613 }
3614 ...
3615 A::B b
3616 foo(b)
3617 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3618 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3619 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3620
3621 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3622
3623 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3624 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3625 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3626 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3627 entry.
3628 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3629 mentioned flavors of operators.
3630
3631 ** static const class members
3632
3633 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3634 class definition has been fixed.
3635
3636 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3637
3638 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3639 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3640 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3641 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3642 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3643 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3644
3645 * Static tracepoints
3646
3647 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3648 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3649 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3650 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3651 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3652 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3653 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3654 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3655 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3656 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3657 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3658 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3659 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3660 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3661 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3662 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3663 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3664 the "New remote packets" section below.
3665
3666 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3667
3668 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3669 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3670 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3671 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3672
3673 * Observer mode
3674
3675 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3676 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3677 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3678 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3679 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3680 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3681 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3682
3683 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3684 current thread.
3685
3686 * New remote packets
3687
3688 qGetTIBAddr
3689
3690 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3691
3692 qRelocInsn
3693
3694 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3695 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3696 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3697 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3698 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3699 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3700
3701 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
3702
3703 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3704
3705 qTSTMat
3706
3707 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3708 program.
3709
3710 qXfer:statictrace:read
3711
3712 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3713 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3714 to gdb's qSupported query.
3715
3716 QAllow
3717
3718 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3719
3720 QTDPsrc
3721
3722 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3723 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3724
3725 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3726 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3727 a directory.
3728
3729 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3730
3731 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3732 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3733 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3734 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3735
3736 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3737 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3738 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3739 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3740 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3741 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3742 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3743
3744 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3745 for static tracepoints support.
3746
3747 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3748
3749 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3750 it understands register description.
3751
3752 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3753
3754 * X86 general purpose registers
3755
3756 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3757 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3758 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3759 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3760 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3761
3762 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3763 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3764 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3765 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3766 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3767 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3768
3769 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3770 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3771 in the specified file.
3772
3773 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3774 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3775 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3776 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3777 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3778 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3779 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3780 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3781 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3782 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3783
3784 * New commands
3785
3786 eval template, expressions...
3787 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3788 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3789
3790 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3791 show target-file-system-kind
3792 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3793 names.
3794
3795 save breakpoints <filename>
3796 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3797 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3798 definitions, use the `source' command.
3799
3800 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3801 is now deprecated.
3802
3803 info static-tracepoint-markers
3804 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3805
3806 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3807 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3808 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3809
3810 set observer on|off
3811 show observer
3812 Enable and disable observer mode.
3813
3814 set may-write-registers on|off
3815 set may-write-memory on|off
3816 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3817 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3818 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3819 set may-interrupt on|off
3820 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3821 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3822 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3823 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3824 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3825 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3826 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3827
3828 set record memory-query on|off
3829 show record memory-query
3830 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3831 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3832
3833 * Changed commands
3834
3835 disassemble
3836 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3837
3838 * Python scripting
3839
3840 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3841 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3842 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3843 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3844 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3845
3846 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3847 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3848 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3849 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3850
3851 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3852 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3853
3854 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3855
3856 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3857
3858 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3859
3860 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3861 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3862 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3863
3864 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3865 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3866 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3867 regular breakpoints.
3868
3869 * New targets
3870
3871 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3872
3873 * D language support.
3874 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3875 language.
3876
3877 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3878 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3879 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3880 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3881 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3882
3883 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3884 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3885 conditions of the form:
3886
3887 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3888
3889 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3890 interface mentioned above.
3891
3892 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3893
3894 * C++ Improvements
3895
3896 ** Namespace Support
3897
3898 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3899 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3900 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3901 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3902 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3903
3904 ** Bug Fixes
3905
3906 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3907 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3908 qualified name.
3909
3910 ** Cast Operators
3911
3912 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3913 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3914
3915 * New targets
3916
3917 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3918 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3919
3920 * New Simulators
3921
3922 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3923 Renesas RX rx
3924
3925 * Multi-program debugging.
3926
3927 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3928 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3929 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3930 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3931 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3932 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3933 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3934 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3935
3936 * New tracing features
3937
3938 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3939
3940 ** Trace state variables
3941
3942 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3943 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3944 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3945 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3946 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3947 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3948 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3949 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3950 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3951 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3952
3953 ** Fast tracepoints
3954
3955 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3956 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3957 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3958 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3959 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3960 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3961 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3962 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3963 the regular trace command.
3964
3965 ** Disconnected tracing
3966
3967 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3968 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3969 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3970 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3971 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3972
3973 ** Trace files
3974
3975 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3976 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3977 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3978 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3979 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3980 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3981 <name>".
3982
3983 ** Circular trace buffer
3984
3985 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3986 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3987 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3988 not be available for all target agents.
3989
3990 * Changed commands
3991
3992 disassemble
3993 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3994 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3995
3996 info variables
3997 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3998 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3999
4000 source
4001 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
4002 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
4003 support.
4004
4005 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
4006 "set script-extension" (see below).
4007
4008 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4009
4010 record save [<FILENAME>]
4011 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
4012 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
4013
4014 record restore <FILENAME>
4015 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
4016 earlier time, for replay debugging.
4017
4018 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
4019 Add a new inferior.
4020
4021 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
4022 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
4023 inferior has loaded.
4024
4025 remove-inferior ID
4026 Remove an inferior.
4027
4028 maint info program-spaces
4029 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
4030
4031 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
4032 show remote interrupt-sequence
4033 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
4034 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
4035 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
4036 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
4037 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
4038
4039 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
4040 show remote interrupt-on-connect
4041 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
4042 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
4043 Linux kernel.
4044
4045 set remotebreak [on | off]
4046 show remotebreak
4047 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
4048
4049 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
4050 Create or modify a trace state variable.
4051
4052 info tvariables
4053 List trace state variables and their values.
4054
4055 delete tvariable $NAME ...
4056 Delete one or more trace state variables.
4057
4058 teval EXPR, ...
4059 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
4060 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
4061
4062 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
4063 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
4064
4065 * New expression syntax
4066
4067 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
4068 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
4069
4070 * New options
4071
4072 set follow-exec-mode new|same
4073 show follow-exec-mode
4074 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
4075 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
4076 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
4077
4078 set default-collect EXPR, ...
4079 show default-collect
4080 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
4081 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
4082 such as registers or a critical global variable.
4083
4084 set disconnected-tracing
4085 show disconnected-tracing
4086 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
4087 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
4088 upon disconnection.
4089
4090 set circular-trace-buffer
4091 show circular-trace-buffer
4092 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
4093 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
4094 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
4095 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
4096
4097 set script-extension off|soft|strict
4098 show script-extension
4099 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4100 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4101 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4102 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4103 evaluation failed.
4104 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4105
4106 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4107 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4108 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4109 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4110 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4111 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4112 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4113 is on.
4114
4115 * Python API Improvements
4116
4117 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4118 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4119 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4120
4121 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4122 `is_base_class' attribute.
4123
4124 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4125
4126 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4127 evaluate an expression.
4128
4129 * New remote packets
4130
4131 QTDV
4132 Define a trace state variable.
4133
4134 qTV
4135 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4136
4137 QTDisconnected
4138 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4139
4140 QTBuffer:circular
4141 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4142
4143 qTfP, qTsP
4144 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4145
4146 * Bug fixes
4147
4148 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4149
4150 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4151 much more reliable. In particular:
4152 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4153 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4154 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4155 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4156 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4157 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4158 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4159 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4160 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4161 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4162 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4163 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4164 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4165 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4166 non-threaded programs.
4167
4168 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4169 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4170 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4171 executable program.
4172
4173 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4174
4175 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4176 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4177 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4178 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4179 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4180
4181 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4182 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4183 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4184 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4185 for tracepoint actions.
4186
4187 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4188 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4189 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4190
4191 * Process record and replay
4192
4193 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4194 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4195 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4196 execute commands.
4197
4198 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4199 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4200 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4201 reverse execution.
4202
4203 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4204 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4205 2.6.28 or later.
4206
4207 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4208 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4209 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4210 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4211 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4212 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4213 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4214 the installation instructions for more information.
4215
4216 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4217 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4218 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4219 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4220
4221 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4222 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4223
4224 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4225 now complete on file names.
4226
4227 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4228 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4229 For instance, consider:
4230
4231 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4232 # struct example variable;
4233 (gdb) p variable.
4234
4235 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4236 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4237
4238 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4239 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4240
4241 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4242 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4243 macros.
4244
4245 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4246 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4247 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4248
4249 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4250 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4251 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4252 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4253
4254 * New remote packets
4255
4256 qSearch:memory:
4257 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4258
4259 QStartNoAckMode
4260 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4261 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4262 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4263
4264 vKill
4265 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4266 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4267
4268 qXfer:osdata:read
4269 Obtains additional operating system information
4270
4271 qXfer:siginfo:read
4272 qXfer:siginfo:write
4273 Read or write additional signal information.
4274
4275 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4276
4277 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4278 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4279 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4280
4281 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4282 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4283
4284 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4285 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4286 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4287
4288 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4289 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4290
4291 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4292
4293 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4294
4295 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4296 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4297
4298 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
4299 list of section offsets.
4300
4301 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4302 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4303 have also been fixed.
4304
4305 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4306 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4307 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4308
4309 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4310 example, given:
4311
4312 template<typename T> class C { };
4313 C<char const *> c;
4314
4315 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4316
4317 ptype C<char const *>
4318 ptype C<char const*>
4319 ptype C<const char *>
4320 ptype C<const char*>
4321
4322 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4323
4324 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4325 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4326
4327 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4328 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4329 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4330
4331 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4332 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4333
4334 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4335 gdbserver.
4336
4337 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4338 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4339
4340 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4341 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4342 as appropriate.
4343
4344 * Python scripting
4345
4346 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4347 available is determined at configure time.
4348
4349 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4350
4351 * Ada tasking support
4352
4353 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4354 been introduced:
4355
4356 info tasks
4357 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4358 info task N
4359 Print detailed information about task number N.
4360 task
4361 Print the task number of the current task.
4362 task N
4363 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4364
4365 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4366 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4367
4368 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4369
4370 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4371 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4372 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4373 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4374 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4375 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4376 below.
4377
4378 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4379 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4380 information.
4381
4382 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4383 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4384 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4385 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4386 more information.
4387
4388 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4389
4390 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4391 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4392 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4393 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4394 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4395
4396 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4397 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4398 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4399 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4400 --enable-targets configure option.
4401
4402 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4403
4404 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4405 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4406 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4407 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4408 section in the user manual for more information.
4409
4410 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4411 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4412 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4413 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4414 extensions on linux targets.
4415
4416 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4417
4418 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4419 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4420 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4421 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4422 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4423 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4424 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4425 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4426 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4427
4428 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4429 val1 [, val2, ...]
4430 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4431
4432 maint set python print-stack
4433 maint show python print-stack
4434 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4435
4436 python [CODE]
4437 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4438
4439 macro define
4440 macro list
4441 macro undef
4442 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4443 interactively.
4444
4445 info os processes
4446 Show operating system information about processes.
4447
4448 info inferiors
4449 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4450
4451 inferior NUM
4452 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4453
4454 detach inferior NUM
4455 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4456
4457 kill inferior NUM
4458 Kill inferior number NUM.
4459
4460 * New options
4461
4462 set spu stop-on-load
4463 show spu stop-on-load
4464 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4465
4466 set spu auto-flush-cache
4467 show spu auto-flush-cache
4468 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4469 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4470
4471 set sh calling-convention
4472 show sh calling-convention
4473 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4474
4475 set debug timestamp
4476 show debug timestamp
4477 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4478
4479 set disassemble-next-line
4480 show disassemble-next-line
4481 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4482 the debuggee stops.
4483
4484 set remote noack-packet
4485 show remote noack-packet
4486 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4487 under "New remote packets."
4488
4489 set remote query-attached-packet
4490 show remote query-attached-packet
4491 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4492
4493 set remote read-siginfo-object
4494 show remote read-siginfo-object
4495 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4496 packet.
4497
4498 set remote write-siginfo-object
4499 show remote write-siginfo-object
4500 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4501 packet.
4502
4503 set remote reverse-continue
4504 show remote reverse-continue
4505 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4506
4507 set remote reverse-step
4508 show remote reverse-step
4509 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4510
4511 set displaced-stepping
4512 show displaced-stepping
4513 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4514 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4515 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4516
4517 set debug displaced
4518 show debug displaced
4519 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4520
4521 maint set internal-error
4522 maint show internal-error
4523 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4524
4525 maint set internal-warning
4526 maint show internal-warning
4527 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4528
4529 set exec-wrapper
4530 show exec-wrapper
4531 unset exec-wrapper
4532 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4533
4534 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4535 show multiple-symbols
4536 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4537 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4538 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4539
4540 set breakpoint always-inserted
4541 show breakpoint always-inserted
4542 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4543 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4544 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4545
4546 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4547 show arm fallback-mode
4548 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4549 show arm force-mode
4550 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4551 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4552 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4553 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4554
4555 set disable-randomization
4556 show disable-randomization
4557 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4558 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4559 multiple debugging sessions.
4560
4561 set non-stop
4562 show non-stop
4563 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4564 a breakpoint.
4565
4566 set target-async
4567 show target-async
4568 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4569 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4570 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4571 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4572
4573 set target-wide-charset
4574 show target-wide-charset
4575 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4576 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4577
4578 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4579 show tcp auto-retry
4580 set tcp connect-timeout
4581 show tcp connect-timeout
4582 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4583 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4584 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4585
4586 set libthread-db-search-path
4587 show libthread-db-search-path
4588 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4589 libthread_db.
4590
4591 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4592 show schedule-multiple
4593 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4594 the current process.
4595
4596 set stack-cache
4597 show stack-cache
4598 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4599 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4600 affecting correctness.
4601
4602 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4603 show interactive-mode
4604 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4605 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4606 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4607 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4608 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4609
4610 * Removed commands
4611
4612 info forks
4613 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4614 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4615 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4616 command.
4617
4618 fork NUM
4619 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4620 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4621 alias for the `fork' command.
4622
4623 process PID
4624 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4625 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4626 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4627
4628 delete fork NUM
4629 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4630 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4631 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4632 fork' command.
4633
4634 detach fork NUM
4635 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4636 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4637 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4638 fork' command.
4639
4640 * New native configurations
4641
4642 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4643
4644 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4645
4646 * New targets
4647
4648 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4649 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4650 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4651 S+core 3 score-*-*
4652
4653 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4654 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4655
4656 * Removed commands
4657
4658 catch load
4659 catch unload
4660 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4661
4662 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4663
4664 * New native configurations
4665
4666 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4667 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4668
4669 * New targets
4670
4671 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4672 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4673
4674 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4675
4676 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4677 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4678 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4679 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4680
4681 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4682 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4683
4684 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4685 is resolved.
4686
4687 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4688 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4689 and in inlined functions.
4690
4691 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4692 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4693 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4694
4695 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4696
4697 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4698 registers on PowerPC targets.
4699
4700 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4701 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4702
4703 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4704 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4705
4706 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4707 extended-remote mode.
4708
4709 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4710 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4711 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4712 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4713
4714 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4715 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4716 target architectures.
4717
4718 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4719 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4720 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4721 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4722
4723 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4724 breakpoints now.
4725
4726 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4727 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4728 include:
4729 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4730 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4731 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4732 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4733 of an assignment
4734 - Improved command completion in Ada
4735 - Several bug fixes
4736
4737 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4738 process.
4739
4740 * New commands
4741
4742 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4743 show print frame-arguments
4744 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4745 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4746
4747 remote put
4748 remote get
4749 remote delete
4750 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4751
4752 * New MI commands
4753
4754 -target-file-put
4755 -target-file-get
4756 -target-file-delete
4757 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4758
4759 * New remote packets
4760
4761 vFile:open:
4762 vFile:close:
4763 vFile:pread:
4764 vFile:pwrite:
4765 vFile:unlink:
4766 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4767
4768 vAttach
4769 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4770 mode.
4771
4772 vRun
4773 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4774
4775 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4776
4777 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4778 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4779 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4780
4781 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4782 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4783 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4784
4785 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4786 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4787 is not supported.
4788
4789 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4790 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4791
4792 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4793 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4794
4795 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4796
4797 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4798 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4799 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4800
4801 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4802 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4803
4804 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4805 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4806 as strings.
4807
4808 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4809 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4810 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4811
4812 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4813 iWMMXt coprocessor.
4814
4815 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4816 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4817 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4818
4819 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4820
4821 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4822
4823 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4824 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4825 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4826
4827 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4828 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4829
4830 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4831 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4832 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4833 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4834 Windows and SymbianOS).
4835
4836 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4837 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4838
4839 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4840 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4841
4842 * New commands
4843
4844 set remoteflow
4845 show remoteflow
4846 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4847 when debugging using remote targets.
4848
4849 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4850 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4851 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4852 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4853 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4854 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4855 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4856
4857 set breakpoint auto-hw
4858 show breakpoint auto-hw
4859 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4860 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4861 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4862 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4863 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4864 including "next" and "finish".
4865
4866 catch exception
4867 catch exception unhandled
4868 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4869
4870 catch assert
4871 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4872
4873 set sysroot
4874 show sysroot
4875 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4876 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4877 an alias to "set sysroot".
4878
4879 info spu
4880 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4881 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4882 architecture.
4883
4884 * New native configurations
4885
4886 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4887
4888 set tdesc filename
4889 unset tdesc filename
4890 show tdesc filename
4891 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4892 not query the target for its built-in description.
4893
4894 * New targets
4895
4896 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4897 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4898 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4899
4900 * New remote packets
4901
4902 QPassSignals:
4903 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4904 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4905
4906 qXfer:features:read:
4907 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4908 features.
4909
4910 qXfer:spu:read:
4911 qXfer:spu:write:
4912 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4913 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4914
4915 qXfer:libraries:read:
4916 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4917 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4918 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4919 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4920
4921 * Removed targets
4922
4923 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4924
4925 alpha*-*-osf1*
4926 alpha*-*-osf2*
4927 d10v-*-*
4928 hppa*-*-hiux*
4929 i[34567]86-ncr-*
4930 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4931 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4932 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4933 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4934 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4935 i[34567]86-*-sco*
4936 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4937 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4938 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4939 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4940 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4941 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4942 i[34567]86-*-isc*
4943 m68*-cisco*-*
4944 m68*-tandem-*
4945 mips*-*-pe
4946 rs6000-*-lynxos*
4947 sh*-*-pe
4948
4949 * Other removed features
4950
4951 target abug
4952 target cpu32bug
4953 target est
4954 target rom68k
4955
4956 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4957
4958 target hms
4959 target e7000
4960 target sh3
4961 target sh3e
4962
4963 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4964 H8/300.
4965
4966 target ocd
4967
4968 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4969 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4970 interfaces.
4971
4972 DWARF 1 support
4973
4974 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4975 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4976
4977 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4978
4979 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4980 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4981 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4982 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4983
4984 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4985
4986 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4987 in debugging information.
4988
4989 Scheme support
4990
4991 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4992 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4993
4994 set mips stack-arg-size
4995 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4996
4997 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4998
4999 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
5000
5001 * New targets
5002
5003 Xtensa xtensa-elf
5004 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
5005
5006 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
5007 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
5008 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
5009
5010 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
5011 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
5012 supported.
5013
5014 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
5015 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
5016
5017 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
5018 stub provides the required support.
5019
5020 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
5021 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
5022
5023 * New commands
5024
5025 set substitute-path
5026 unset substitute-path
5027 show substitute-path
5028 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
5029 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
5030 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
5031 between compilation and debugging.
5032
5033 set trace-commands
5034 show trace-commands
5035 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
5036 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
5037 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
5038
5039 * REMOVED features
5040
5041 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
5042
5043 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
5044 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
5045
5046 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
5047
5048 * New remote packets
5049
5050 qSupported:
5051 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
5052 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
5053 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
5054 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
5055 target.
5056
5057 qXfer:auxv:read:
5058 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
5059 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
5060
5061 qXfer:memory-map:read:
5062 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
5063 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
5064
5065 vFlashErase:
5066 vFlashWrite:
5067 vFlashDone:
5068 Erase and program a flash memory device.
5069
5070 * Removed remote packets
5071
5072 qPart:auxv:read:
5073 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
5074 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
5075
5076 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
5077
5078 * New targets
5079
5080 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
5081
5082 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5083
5084 * New commands
5085
5086 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
5087 only if it doesn't already have a value.
5088
5089 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
5090
5091 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
5092
5093 restart <n> Return the program state to a
5094 previously saved state.
5095
5096 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5097
5098 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5099
5100 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5101 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5102
5103 info forks List forks of the user program that
5104 are available to be debugged.
5105
5106 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5107 forks of the user program that are
5108 available to be debugged.
5109
5110 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5111 that are available to be debugged (and
5112 kill the forked process).
5113
5114 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5115 that are available to be debugged (and
5116 allow the process to continue).
5117
5118 * New architecture
5119
5120 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5121
5122 * Improved Windows host support
5123
5124 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5125 native console support, and remote communications using either
5126 network sockets or serial ports.
5127
5128 * Improved Modula-2 language support
5129
5130 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5131 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5132 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5133 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5134 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5135 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5136
5137 * REMOVED features
5138
5139 The ARM rdi-share module.
5140
5141 The Netware NLM debug server.
5142
5143 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5144
5145 * New native configurations
5146
5147 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5148 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5149
5150 * New targets
5151
5152 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5153
5154 * New command line options
5155
5156 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5157 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5158 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5159 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5160 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5161 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5162 with the --command (-x) option.
5163
5164 * Deprecated commands removed
5165
5166 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5167 removed:
5168
5169 Command Replacement
5170 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5171 othernames set arm disassembler
5172 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5173 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5174 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5175 regs info registers
5176
5177 * New BSD user-level threads support
5178
5179 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5180 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5181 configurations are:
5182
5183 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5184 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5185 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5186
5187 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5188 are not yet supported.
5189
5190 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5191 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5192
5193 * REMOVED configurations and files
5194
5195 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5196 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5197 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5198
5199 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5200
5201 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5202 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5203 behavior.
5204
5205 * VAX floating point support
5206
5207 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5208
5209 * User-defined command support
5210
5211 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5212 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5213 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5214
5215 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5216
5217 * New command line option
5218
5219 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5220 debugging.
5221
5222 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5223
5224 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5225 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5226 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5227 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5228 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5229
5230 * Internationalization
5231
5232 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5233 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5234 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5235
5236 * Ada
5237
5238 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5239 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5240 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5241
5242 * New native configurations
5243
5244 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5245
5246 * Remote 'p' packet
5247
5248 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5249 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5250
5251 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5252
5253 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5254 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5255 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5256 i386 application).
5257
5258 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
5259 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5260 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5261 configurations:
5262
5263 hppa-*-hpux
5264 ia64-*-aix
5265 mips-*-irix*
5266 *-*-lynx
5267 mips-*-linux-gnu
5268 sds protocol
5269 xdr protocol
5270 powerpc bdm protocol
5271
5272 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5273 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5274
5275 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5276
5277 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5278 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5279 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5280 permanently REMOVED.
5281
5282 h8300-*-*
5283 mcore-*-*
5284 mn10300-*-*
5285 ns32k-*-*
5286 sh64-*-*
5287 v850-*-*
5288
5289 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5290
5291 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5292
5293 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5294 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5295 been fixed.
5296
5297 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5298
5299 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5300 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5301 IRIX long double values).
5302
5303 * VAX and "next"
5304
5305 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5306 command. This problem has been fixed.
5307
5308 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5309
5310 * Fix for ``many threads''
5311
5312 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5313 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5314 error message:
5315
5316 ptrace: No such process.
5317 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5318
5319 This problem has been fixed.
5320
5321 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5322
5323 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5324 GDB to dump core).
5325
5326 * New ``start'' command.
5327
5328 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
5329
5330 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5331
5332 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5333 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5334 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5335
5336 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5337 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5338 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5339 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5340 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5341 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5342 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5343 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5344 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5345
5346 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5347
5348 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5349 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5350 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5351 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5352 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5353
5354 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5355 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5356 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5357
5358 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5359
5360 * New native configurations
5361
5362 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5363 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5364 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5365 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5366 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5367 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5368 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5369
5370 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5371
5372 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5373 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5374 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5375 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5376 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5377 work, was also included.
5378
5379 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5380 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5381
5382 h8300-*-*
5383 mcore-*-*
5384 mn10300-*-*
5385 ns32k-*-*
5386 sh64-*-*
5387 v850-*-*
5388 xstormy16-*-*
5389
5390 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5391 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5392
5393 * REMOVED configurations and files
5394
5395 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5396 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5397 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5398 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5399 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5400 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5401 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5402 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5403 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5404 sonymips mips-sony-*
5405 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5406
5407 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5408
5409 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5410
5411 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5412 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5413 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5414 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5415 with GDB".
5416
5417 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5418
5419 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5420 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5421 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5422 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5423 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5424 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5425 are created.
5426
5427 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5428
5429 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5430
5431 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5432 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5433 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5434
5435 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5436
5437 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5438 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5439
5440 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5441
5442 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5443 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5444 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5445
5446 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5447
5448 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5449 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5450
5451 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5452
5453 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5454 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5455 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5456
5457 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5458
5459 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5460 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5461 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5462
5463 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5464
5465 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5466
5467 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5468 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5469
5470 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5471
5472 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5473 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5474 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5475 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5476
5477 * Revised SPARC target
5478
5479 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5480 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5481 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5482 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5483 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5484
5485 * New C++ demangler
5486
5487 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5488 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5489 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5490 programs.
5491
5492 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5493
5494 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5495 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5496 encountered these.
5497
5498 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5499
5500 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5501 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5502 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5503 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5504 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5505 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5506 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5507 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5508 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5509
5510 * New native configurations
5511
5512 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5513 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5514 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5515 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5516 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5517
5518 * New debugging protocols
5519
5520 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5521
5522 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5523
5524 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5525 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5526 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5527
5528 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5529
5530 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5531 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5532 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5533 permanently REMOVED.
5534
5535 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5536 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5537 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5538 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5539 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5540 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5541 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5542 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5543 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5544 sonymips mips-sony-*
5545 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5546
5547 * REMOVED configurations and files
5548
5549 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5550 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5551 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5552 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5553 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5554 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5555 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5556 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5557 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5558 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5559 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5560 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5561 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5562 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5563 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5564 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5565 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5566
5567 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5568
5569 * Objective-C
5570
5571 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5572 integrated into GDB.
5573
5574 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5575
5576 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5577 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5578 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5579 backtraces.
5580
5581 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5582 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5583 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5584
5585 * Hosted file I/O.
5586
5587 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5588 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5589 remote protocol documentation for details.
5590
5591 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5592
5593 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5594 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5595 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5596 ppc32 on ppc64).
5597
5598 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5599
5600 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5601 per-thread variables.
5602
5603 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5604
5605 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5606 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5607
5608 * Separate debug info.
5609
5610 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5611 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5612 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5613 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5614 and optional debug files.
5615
5616 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5617
5618 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5619 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5620 debugger.
5621
5622 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5623 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5624
5625 * Java
5626
5627 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5628 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5629 considered "useable".
5630
5631 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5632
5633 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5634 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5635 kernel.
5636
5637 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5638
5639 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5640 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5641
5642 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5643
5644 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5645 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5646 command.
5647
5648 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5649
5650 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5651 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5652
5653 * Profiling support
5654
5655 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5656 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5657 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5658 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5659 data, for more informative profiling results.
5660
5661 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5662
5663 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5664 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5665 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5666
5667 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5668 removed.
5669
5670 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5671 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5672 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5673 in a subsequent -var-update.
5674
5675 * New native configurations.
5676
5677 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5678
5679 * Multi-arched targets.
5680
5681 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5682 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5683
5684 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5685
5686 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5687 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5688 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5689 permanently REMOVED.
5690
5691 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5692 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5693 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5694 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5695 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5696 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5697 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5698 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5699 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5700 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5701 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5702 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5703
5704 * REMOVED configurations and files
5705
5706 V850EA ISA
5707 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5708 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5709 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5710 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5711 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5712 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5713 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5714 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5715 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5716 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5717 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5718 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5719 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5720
5721 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5722
5723 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5724 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5725 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5726 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5727 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5728
5729 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5730
5731 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5732
5733 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5734 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5735 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5736 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5737 shared libs like mad''.
5738
5739 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5740
5741 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5742 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5743 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5744 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5745
5746 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5747
5748 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5749 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5750 they expand.
5751
5752 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5753 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5754
5755 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5756 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5757
5758 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5759 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5760 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5761 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5762
5763 * Multi-arched targets.
5764
5765 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5766 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5767 NEC V850 v850-*-*
5768 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5769 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5770 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5771
5772 * New targets.
5773
5774 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5775
5776
5777 * New native configurations
5778
5779 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5780 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5781 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5782 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5783
5784 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5785
5786 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5787 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5788 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5789 permanently REMOVED.
5790
5791 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5792 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5793 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5794 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5795 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5796 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5797 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5798 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5799 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5800 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5801 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5802 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5803 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5804
5805 * OBSOLETE languages
5806
5807 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5808
5809 * REMOVED configurations and files
5810
5811 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5812 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5813 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5814 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5815 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5816
5817 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5818
5819 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5820
5821 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5822 commands. The default is 1024.
5823
5824 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5825
5826 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5827
5828 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5829
5830 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5831 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5832 from a file into memory (restore).
5833
5834 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5835
5836 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5837 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5838 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5839
5840 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5841
5842 * New targets.
5843
5844 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5845
5846 * Bug fixes
5847
5848 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5849 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5850 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5851
5852 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5853 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5854 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5855
5856 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5857 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5858 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5859
5860 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5861 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5862 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5863
5864 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5865
5866 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5867
5868 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5869 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5870 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5871 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5872 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5873 (notably embedded) targets.
5874
5875 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5876
5877 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5878 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5879 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5880 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5881
5882 * New command line option
5883
5884 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5885
5886 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5887
5888 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5889 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5890 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5891 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5892 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5893 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5894 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5895 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5896 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5897 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5898
5899 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5900
5901 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5902 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5903
5904 * New native configurations
5905
5906 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5907 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5908 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5909 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5910
5911 * New targets
5912
5913 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5914
5915 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5916
5917 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5918 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5919 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5920 permanently REMOVED.
5921
5922 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5923 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5924 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5925 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5926 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5927
5928 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5929
5930 * REMOVED configurations and files
5931
5932 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5933 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5934 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5935 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5936 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5937 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5938 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5939 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5940 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5941 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5942 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5943 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5944 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5945
5946 * Changes to command line processing
5947
5948 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5949 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5950
5951 * Changes to key bindings
5952
5953 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5954
5955 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5956
5957 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5958
5959 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5960 corrupted.
5961
5962 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5963
5964 Numerous documentation fixes.
5965
5966 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5967
5968 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5969
5970 * New native configurations
5971
5972 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5973 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5974 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5975 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5976 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5977 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5978
5979 * New targets
5980
5981 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5982 CRIS cris-axis
5983 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5984
5985 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5986
5987 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5988 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5989 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5990 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5991 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5992 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5993 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5994 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5995 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5996 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5997 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5998 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5999 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6000 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
6001
6002 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
6003 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
6004
6005 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6006 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6007 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6008 permanently REMOVED.
6009
6010 * REMOVED configurations and files
6011
6012 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6013 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6014 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6015 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6016 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6017 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
6018
6019 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
6020
6021 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
6022 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
6023 present.
6024
6025 * Other news:
6026
6027 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
6028
6029 * The MI enabled by default.
6030
6031 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
6032 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
6033 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
6034 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
6035 which is now deprecated.
6036
6037 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
6038
6039 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
6040 main features are supported:
6041
6042 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
6043
6044 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
6045 extension;
6046
6047 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
6048
6049 - a Pascal expression parser.
6050
6051 However, some important features are not yet supported.
6052
6053 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
6054
6055 - there are some problems with boolean types;
6056
6057 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
6058 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
6059
6060 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
6061
6062 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
6063
6064 * Changes in completion.
6065
6066 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
6067 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
6068 users expect at the shell prompt.
6069
6070 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
6071 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
6072 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
6073 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
6074 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
6075 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
6076 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
6077
6078 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
6079
6080 * New platform-independent commands:
6081
6082 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
6083 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
6084 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
6085
6086 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
6087
6088 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
6089 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
6090 many threads as your system allows you to have.
6091
6092 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
6093
6094 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
6095 multi-threaded programs though.
6096
6097 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
6098
6099 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6100
6101 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6102 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6103 supported.)
6104
6105 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6106
6107 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6108 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6109 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6110 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6111 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6112 registers.
6113
6114 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6115 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6116 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6117
6118 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6119
6120 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6121 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6122
6123 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6124 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6125 IDT.
6126
6127 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6128 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6129 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6130 a given linear address.
6131
6132 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6133 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6134 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6135
6136 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6137
6138 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6139
6140 * Changes in documentation.
6141
6142 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6143 Documentation License.
6144
6145 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6146 manual.
6147
6148 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6149
6150 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6151 manual.
6152
6153 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6154 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6155 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6156
6157 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6158
6159 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6160 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6161 contents of this file.
6162
6163 * gdba.el deleted
6164
6165 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6166
6167 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6168
6169 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6170
6171 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6172 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6173 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6174 greater level of detail.
6175
6176 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6177
6178 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6179 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6180 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6181 written.
6182
6183 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6184
6185 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6186 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6187 machines ``out of the box''.
6188
6189 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6190 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6191 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6192 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6193 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6194
6195 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6196 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6197 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6198 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6199 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6200
6201 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6202 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6203 also works.
6204
6205 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6206 GDB.
6207
6208 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6209 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6210 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6211 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6212
6213 * New native configurations
6214
6215 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6216 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6217
6218 * New targets
6219
6220 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6221 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6222 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6223 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6224
6225 * OBSOLETE configurations
6226
6227 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6228 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6229 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6230 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6231 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6232
6233 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6234 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6235 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6236 be permanently REMOVED.
6237
6238 * Gould support removed
6239
6240 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6241
6242 * New features for SVR4
6243
6244 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6245 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6246 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6247
6248 * Many C++ enhancements
6249
6250 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6251 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6252
6253 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6254
6255 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6256 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6257 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6258 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6259
6260 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6261 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6262
6263 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6264
6265 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6266 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6267 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6268
6269 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6270 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6271
6272 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6273
6274 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6275 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6276 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6277
6278 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6279
6280 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6281 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6282 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6283
6284 * ``apropos'' command added.
6285
6286 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6287 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6288 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6289
6290 * New MI interface
6291
6292 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6293 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6294 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6295 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6296 enabled by configuring with:
6297
6298 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6299
6300 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6301
6302 * New native configurations
6303
6304 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6305 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6306 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6307
6308 * New targets
6309
6310 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6311 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6312 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6313
6314 * OBSOLETE configurations
6315
6316 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6317
6318 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6319 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6320 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6321 be permanently REMOVED.
6322
6323 * ANSI/ISO C
6324
6325 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6326 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6327 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6328 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6329 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6330 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6331 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6332 already.
6333
6334 * Readline 2.2
6335
6336 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6337
6338 * set extension-language
6339
6340 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6341 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6342 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6343 set extension-language .c c++
6344 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6345 and their associated languages.
6346
6347 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6348
6349 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6350 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6351 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6352
6353 set processor NAME
6354
6355 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6356 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6357
6358 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6359 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6360 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6361 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6362 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6363 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6364 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6365 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6366 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6367 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6368 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6369
6370 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6371 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6372 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6373 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6374
6375 * HP-UX support
6376
6377 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6378 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6379 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6380 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6381 for xdb and dbx commands.
6382
6383 * Catchpoints
6384
6385 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6386 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6387 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6388
6389 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6390 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6391 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6392
6393 * Debugging across forks
6394
6395 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6396 in the inferior.
6397
6398 * TUI
6399
6400 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6401 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6402 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6403
6404 * GDB remote protocol additions
6405
6406 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6407 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6408 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6409 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6410
6411 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6412 full 64-bit address. The command
6413
6414 set remoteaddresssize 32
6415
6416 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6417 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6418 will be discarded.
6419
6420 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6421 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6422
6423 maint packet heythere
6424
6425 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6426 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6427 time.
6428
6429 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6430 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6431 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6432
6433 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6434
6435 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6436 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6437 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6438
6439 * mask-address variable for Mips
6440
6441 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6442 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6443 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6444
6445 * Higher serial baud rates
6446
6447 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6448 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6449 to achieve all of these rates.)
6450
6451 * i960 simulator
6452
6453 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6454 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6455
6456
6457 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6458
6459 * New native configurations
6460
6461 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6462 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6463 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6464 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6465 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6466 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6467 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6468
6469 * New targets
6470
6471 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6472 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6473 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6474 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6475 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6476 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6477 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6478 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6479 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6480 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6481 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6482
6483 * New debugging protocols
6484
6485 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6486 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6487 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6488 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6489 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6490 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6491
6492 * DWARF 2
6493
6494 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6495 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6496 information.
6497
6498 * Java frontend
6499
6500 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6501 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6502
6503 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6504
6505 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6506 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6507 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6508
6509 * Live range splitting
6510
6511 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6512 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6513 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6514
6515 * Hurd support
6516
6517 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6518 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6519
6520 * ARM Thumb support
6521
6522 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6523 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6524 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6525 accordingly.
6526
6527 * MIPS16 support
6528
6529 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6530 instruction set.
6531
6532 * Overlay support
6533
6534 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6535 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6536 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6537 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6538 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6539 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6540
6541 * info symbol
6542
6543 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6544 the symbol at the specified address.
6545
6546 * Trace support
6547
6548 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6549 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6550 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6551 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6552 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6553
6554 * MIPS simulator
6555
6556 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6557 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6558 of most MIPS variants.
6559
6560 * Sparc simulator
6561
6562 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6563 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6564 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6565
6566 * set architecture
6567
6568 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6569 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6570 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6571 the possible architectures.
6572
6573 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6574
6575 * New native configurations
6576
6577 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6578 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6579 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6580 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6581 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6582 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6583
6584 * New targets
6585
6586 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6587 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6588 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6589 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6590 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6591 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
6592 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6593
6594 * PowerPC simulator
6595
6596 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6597 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6598 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6599 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6600 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6601
6602 * Solaris 2.5
6603
6604 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6605
6606 * Windows 95/NT native
6607
6608 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6609 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6610 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6611 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6612 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6613
6614 * dont-repeat command
6615
6616 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6617 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6618 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6619 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6620
6621 * Send break instead of ^C
6622
6623 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6624 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6625 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6626
6627 * Remote protocol timeout
6628
6629 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6630 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6631 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6632
6633 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6634
6635 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6636 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6637 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6638 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6639 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6640
6641 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6642 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6643 automatically on hpux10.
6644
6645 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6646
6647 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6648
6649 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6650
6651 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6652 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6653 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6654 every character. The default value is 1050.
6655
6656 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6657
6658 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6659 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6660 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6661 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6662 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6663 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6664
6665 * Speedups for remote debugging
6666
6667 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6668 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6669 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6670
6671 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6672
6673 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6674 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6675
6676 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6677
6678 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6679
6680 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6681 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6682
6683 * Remote targets use caching
6684
6685 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6686 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6687 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6688 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6689 off' turns the data cache off.
6690
6691 * Remote targets may have threads
6692
6693 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6694 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6695 gdb/remote.c for details.
6696
6697 * NetROM support
6698
6699 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6700 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6701 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6702 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6703 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6704 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6705 sequence is something like
6706
6707 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6708 load <prog>
6709 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6710
6711 * Macintosh host
6712
6713 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6714 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6715 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6716 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6717 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6718 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6719 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6720 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6721
6722 * Autoconf
6723
6724 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6725 but does simplify configuration and building.
6726
6727 * hpux10
6728
6729 GDB now supports hpux10.
6730
6731 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6732
6733 * New native configurations
6734
6735 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6736 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6737 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6738 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6739
6740 * New targets
6741
6742 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6743 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6744 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6745 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6746 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6747
6748 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6749
6750 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6751 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6752 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6753 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6754 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6755
6756 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6757
6758 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6759 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6760 trivial example:
6761 define adder
6762 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6763
6764 To execute the command use:
6765 adder 1 2 3
6766
6767 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6768 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6769 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6770
6771 * New `if' and `while' commands
6772
6773 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6774 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6775 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6776 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6777 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6778 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6779 if the expression is zero.
6780
6781 * Fortran source language mode
6782
6783 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6784 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6785 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6786 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6787 Fortran compilers.
6788
6789 * Better HPUX support
6790
6791 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6792 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6793 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6794 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6795 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6796
6797 adb -w a.out
6798 __dld_flags?W 0x5
6799 control-d
6800
6801 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6802 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6803
6804 adb -w a.out
6805 __dld_flags?W 0x4
6806 control-d
6807
6808 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6809 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6810 external linkage.
6811
6812 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6813 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6814
6815 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6816
6817 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6818 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6819 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6820 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6821 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6822 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6823
6824 * New DOS host serial code
6825
6826 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6827 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6828 a PC's serial port.
6829
6830 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6831
6832 * New "complete" command
6833
6834 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6835 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6836
6837 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6838
6839 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6840 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6841
6842 * Breakpoint hit counts
6843
6844 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6845 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6846 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6847 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6848 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6849 that breakpoint.
6850
6851 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6852
6853 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6854 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6855 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6856
6857 * Shared library breakpoints
6858
6859 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6860 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6861
6862 * Hardware watchpoints
6863
6864 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6865 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6866
6867 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6868
6869 * Annotations
6870
6871 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6872 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6873
6874 * Improved Irix 5 support
6875
6876 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6877
6878 * Improved HPPA support
6879
6880 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6881
6882 * New native configurations
6883
6884 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6885 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6886 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6887 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6888
6889 * New targets
6890
6891 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6892 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6893 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6894
6895 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6896
6897 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6898 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6899
6900 * Fixes
6901
6902 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6903 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6904
6905 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6906
6907 * Irix 5 is now supported
6908
6909 * HPPA support
6910
6911 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6912 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6913 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6914 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6915 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6916
6917
6918 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6919
6920 * User visible changes:
6921
6922 * Remote Debugging
6923
6924 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6925 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6926 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6927 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6928 debugging info for the mips target).
6929
6930 * DEC Alpha native support
6931
6932 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6933 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6934 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6935 Alpha-specific notes.
6936
6937 * Preliminary thread implementation
6938
6939 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6940
6941 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6942
6943 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6944 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6945 for details).
6946
6947 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6948
6949 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6950 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6951 call methods, ...etc.
6952
6953 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6954
6955 * User visible changes:
6956
6957 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6958 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6959 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6960 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6961
6962 Filename completion now works.
6963
6964 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6965 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6966 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6967
6968 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6969 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6970 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6971 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6972 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6973
6974 * DEC alpha support
6975
6976 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6977 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6978
6979
6980 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6981
6982 * Testsuite
6983
6984 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6985 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6986 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6987
6988 * C++ demangling
6989
6990 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6991 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6992 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6993 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6994 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6995
6996 * Simulators
6997
6998 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6999 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
7000 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
7001
7002 * New targets supported
7003
7004 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7005 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7006 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
7007 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7008 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
7009
7010 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
7011 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
7012 GO32 memory extender.
7013
7014 * New remote protocols
7015
7016 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
7017
7018 * New source languages supported
7019
7020 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
7021 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
7022 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
7023
7024
7025 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
7026
7027 * HP Precision Architecture supported
7028
7029 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
7030 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
7031 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
7032 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
7033 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
7034 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
7035
7036 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
7037
7038 * Faster and better demangling
7039
7040 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
7041 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
7042 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
7043 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
7044 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
7045 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
7046 symbol lookups.
7047
7048 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
7049 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
7050 compiler does not actually implement.
7051
7052 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
7053
7054 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
7055 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
7056 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
7057 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
7058 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
7059 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
7060 fix.
7061
7062 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
7063 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
7064
7065 * Improved configure script
7066
7067 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
7068 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
7069 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
7070 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
7071
7072 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
7073 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
7074 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
7075 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
7076 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
7077 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
7078
7079 * Documentation improvements
7080
7081 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
7082 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
7083 before submitting changes.
7084
7085 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
7086 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
7087 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
7088 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
7089 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
7090
7091 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
7092 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
7093 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
7094 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
7095 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
7096 around this problem.
7097
7098 * New features
7099
7100 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7101 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7102 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7103 the target program.
7104
7105 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7106 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7107
7108 * New native hosts supported
7109
7110 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7111 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7112
7113 * New targets supported
7114
7115 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7116
7117 * New file formats supported
7118
7119 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7120 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7121
7122 * Major bug fixes
7123
7124 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7125
7126 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7127 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7128
7129 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7130 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7131 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7132
7133 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7134 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7135
7136 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7137 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7138 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7139 libraries.
7140
7141 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7142 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7143 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7144 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7145 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7146
7147 * Internal improvements
7148
7149 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7150 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7151
7152 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7153 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7154 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7155 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7156 shared code that handles any of them.
7157
7158 * New command line options
7159
7160 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7161
7162 * Mmalloc licensing
7163
7164 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7165 General Public License.
7166
7167 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7168
7169 * Host/native/target split
7170
7171 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7172 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7173 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7174 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7175 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7176
7177 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7178 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7179 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7180 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7181 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7182 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7183 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7184
7185 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7186 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7187 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7188
7189 * New hosts supported
7190
7191 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7192 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7193 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7194
7195 * New targets supported
7196
7197 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7198 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7199
7200 * New native hosts supported
7201
7202 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7203 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7204 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7205
7206 * New file formats supported
7207
7208 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7209 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7210 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7211
7212 * New commands
7213
7214 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7215 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7216 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7217
7218 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7219
7220 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7221 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7222 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7223 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7224
7225 * C++ improvements
7226
7227 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7228 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7229 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7230
7231 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7232
7233 * Major bug fixes
7234
7235 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7236 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7237 by the compiler.
7238
7239 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7240 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7241
7242 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7243 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7244 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7245 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7246 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7247 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7248
7249 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7250 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7251 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7252 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7253
7254 * AMD 29k support
7255
7256 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7257 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7258 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7259 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7260 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7261
7262 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7263 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7264 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7265 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7266
7267 * Remote interfaces
7268
7269 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7270 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7271 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7272 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7273 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7274 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7275 each instruction being stepped through.
7276
7277 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7278 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7279
7280 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7281 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7282 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7283 processor with a serial port.
7284
7285 * Configuration
7286
7287 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7288 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7289 supported, and what files each one uses.
7290
7291 * Library changes
7292
7293 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7294 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7295 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7296 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7297
7298 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7299 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7300 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7301 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7302
7303 * Documentation
7304
7305 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7306 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7307 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7308 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7309 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7310 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7311
7312 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7313
7314
7315 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7316
7317 * Better support for C++ function names
7318
7319 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7320 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7321 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7322 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7323 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7324
7325 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7326 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7327 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7328 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7329 for the list of formats.
7330
7331 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7332
7333 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7334 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7335 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7336 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
7337 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7338 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7339 this problem.)
7340
7341 * New 'maintenance' command
7342
7343 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7344 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7345 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7346
7347 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7348 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7349 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7350 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7351 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7352 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7353
7354 The following commands are new:
7355
7356 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7357 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7358 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7359
7360 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7361
7362 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7363 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7364 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7365 read after argv processing.
7366
7367 * New hosts supported
7368
7369 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7370
7371 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7372
7373 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7374 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7375 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7376 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7377 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7378 It costs extra.
7379
7380 * New targets supported
7381
7382 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7383
7384 * More smarts about finding #include files
7385
7386 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7387 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7388 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7389 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7390 the one that contains your sources.
7391
7392 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7393 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7394 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7395
7396 * Interesting infernals change
7397
7398 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7399 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7400 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7401 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7402
7403 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7404
7405 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7406 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7407 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7408
7409 See the ChangeLog for details.
7410
7411 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7412
7413 * New machines supported (host and target)
7414
7415 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7416
7417 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7418
7419 * New malloc package
7420
7421 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7422 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
7423 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7424 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7425 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7426 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7427
7428 * info proc
7429
7430 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7431 'help info proc' for details.
7432
7433 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7434
7435 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7436 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7437 possible.
7438
7439 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7440
7441 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7442 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7443 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7444 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7445 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7446 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7447
7448 * Cross byte order fixes
7449
7450 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7451 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7452
7453 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7454
7455 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7456 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7457 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7458 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7459 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7460 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7461 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7462 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7463 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7464 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7465
7466 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7467 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7468 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7469 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7470
7471 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7472 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7473 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7474 use is:
7475
7476 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7477
7478 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7479 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7480 shared across multiple host platforms.
7481
7482 * longjmp() handling
7483
7484 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7485 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7486 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7487 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7488
7489 * Solaris 2.0
7490
7491 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7492 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7493 reading symbols.
7494
7495 * Bug fixes
7496
7497 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7498 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7499 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7500
7501 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7502
7503 * New machines supported (host and target)
7504
7505 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7506 (except core files)
7507 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7508 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7509
7510 * New machines supported (target)
7511
7512 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7513
7514 * C++ support
7515
7516 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7517 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7518 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7519
7520 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7521 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7522 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7523 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7524 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7525 released.
7526
7527 * New features for SVR4
7528
7529 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7530 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7531 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7532
7533 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7534 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7535 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7536
7537 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7538 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7539
7540 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7541
7542 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7543 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7544 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7545 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7546 same code linked statically.
7547
7548 * New Getopt
7549
7550 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7551 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7552 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7553 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7554 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7555 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7556
7557 * Bugs fixed
7558
7559 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7560 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7561 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7562
7563
7564 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7565
7566 * New machines supported (host and target)
7567
7568 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7569 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7570 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7571
7572 * Almost SCO Unix support
7573
7574 We had hoped to support:
7575 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7576 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7577 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7578 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7579
7580 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7581
7582 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7583 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7584 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7585 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7586 reqired (if any).
7587
7588 * New Readline
7589
7590 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7591 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7592 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7593
7594 * Bugs fixed
7595
7596 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7597 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7598 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7599
7600 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7601
7602 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7603 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7604 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7605
7606 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7607 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7608 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7609 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7610 version 2.
7611
7612 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7613 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7614 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7615 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7616 situation somewhat.
7617
7618 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7619 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7620 methods.
7621
7622 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7623 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7624 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7625
7626
7627 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7628
7629 * Improved configuration
7630
7631 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7632 Porting BFD is simpler.
7633
7634 * Stepping improved
7635
7636 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7637 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7638 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7639 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7640
7641 * Bug fixing
7642
7643 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7644
7645 * New host supported (not target)
7646
7647 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7648
7649
7650 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7651
7652 * Multiple source language support
7653
7654 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7655 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7656 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7657 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7658 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7659 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7660
7661 * GDB and Modula-2
7662
7663 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7664 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7665 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7666 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7667
7668 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7669 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7670 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7671
7672 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7673 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7674
7675 * set write on/off
7676
7677 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7678 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7679 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7680 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7681 effect immediately.
7682
7683 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7684
7685 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7686 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7687 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7688 examining core files.
7689
7690 * set listsize
7691
7692 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7693 The default is 10.
7694
7695 * New machines supported (host and target)
7696
7697 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7698 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7699 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7700
7701 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7702
7703 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7704
7705 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7706
7707 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7708 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7709 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7710
7711 * New remote interfaces
7712
7713 AMD 29000 Adapt
7714 AMD 29000 Minimon
7715
7716
7717 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7718
7719 * New Facilities
7720
7721 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7722
7723 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7724 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7725 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7726 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7727 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7728 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7729 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7730 stub on the target system.
7731
7732 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7733
7734 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7735 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7736 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7737
7738 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7739 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7740
7741
7742 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7743
7744 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7745 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7746
7747 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7748 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7749 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7750
7751 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7752 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7753 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7754 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7755
7756 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7757 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7758 it is already running. Default is ON.
7759
7760 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7761 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7762 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7763 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7764 Default is ON.
7765
7766 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7767 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7768 or the value of the environment variable
7769 GDBHISTFILE.
7770
7771 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7772 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7773 HISTSIZE.
7774
7775 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7776 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7777 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7778
7779 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7780 history expansion will be performed on
7781 command line input. The default is OFF.
7782
7783 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7784 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7785 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7786
7787 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7788 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7789 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7790 variable TERM.
7791
7792 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7793 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7794 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7795 variable TERM.
7796
7797 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7798 ``set width'' instead.
7799
7800 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7801 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7802 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7803 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7804
7805 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7806 is OFF.
7807
7808 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7809 "raw" form if off.
7810
7811 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7812 like instructions.
7813
7814 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7815
7816
7817 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7818
7819 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7820 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7821 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7822 window.
7823
7824
7825 * Support for Shared Libraries
7826
7827 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7828 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7829 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7830 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7831 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7832 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7833 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7834 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7835
7836 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7837 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7838 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7839
7840 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7841
7842
7843 * Watchpoints
7844
7845 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7846 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7847 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7848 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7849 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7850 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7851
7852 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7853
7854 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7855
7856 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7857 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7858 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7859
7860
7861 * C++ multiple inheritance
7862
7863 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7864 for C++ programs.
7865
7866 * C++ exception handling
7867
7868 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7869 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7870 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7871 handler's context).
7872
7873 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7874 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7875 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7876
7877 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7878 current stack frame.
7879
7880
7881 * Minor command changes
7882
7883 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7884 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7885 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7886
7887 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7888 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7889 frames without printing.
7890
7891 * New directory command
7892
7893 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7894 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7895 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7896 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7897 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7898
7899 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7900
7901 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7902 for more details.
7903
7904 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7905 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7906 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7907 where the program that you are debugging will run.