NEWS: Mention native target renames.
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.7
5
6 * New command line options
7
8 -D data-directory
9 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
10
11 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
12 as specified in ISO C99.
13
14 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
15 with or without disassembly.
16
17 * Guile scripting
18
19 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
20 available is determined at configure time.
21 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
22 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
23
24 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
25
26 guile [code]
27 gu [code]
28 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
29
30 guile-repl
31 gr
32 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
33
34 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
35 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
36
37 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
38 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
39
40 * New options
41
42 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
43 show print symbol-loading
44 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
45 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
46 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
47 becomes less useful.
48
49 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
50 show guile print-stack
51 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
52
53 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
54 show auto-load guile-scripts
55 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
56
57 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
58 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
59 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
60 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
61 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
62 usage of this option.
63
64 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
65
66 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
67 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
68 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
69 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
70 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
71
72 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
73 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
74 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
75
76 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
77 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
78 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
79 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
80 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
81 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
82 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
83
84 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
85 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
86
87 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
88 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
89 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
90
91 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
92 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
93 memory or registers.
94
95 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
96
97 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
98 remote. It now works with all targets.
99
100 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
101 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
102 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
103 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
104 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
105 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
106 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
107 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
108 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
109 target-stack".
110
111 * New remote packets
112
113 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
114 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
115 branch trace incrementally.
116
117 * Python Scripting
118
119 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
120 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
121 available.
122
123 * New targets
124 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
125
126 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
127 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
128 its alias "share", instead.
129
130 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
131
132 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
133 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
134 recording has been added.
135
136 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
137
138 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
139 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
140
141 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
142 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
143 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
144 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
145 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
146 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
147 "void".
148
149 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
150
151 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
152
153 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
154 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
155 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
156 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
157
158 (gdb) p $rax
159 $1 = <not saved>
160
161 (gdb) info registers rax
162 rax <not saved>
163
164 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
165 "*value not available*".
166
167 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
168 to binaries.
169
170 * Python scripting
171
172 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
173 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
174 ** Line tables representation has been added.
175 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
176 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
177 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
178
179 * New targets
180
181 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
182 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
183 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
184
185 * Removed native configurations
186
187 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
188 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
189
190 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
191 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
192 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
193 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
194 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
195 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
196 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
197
198 * New commands:
199 catch rethrow
200 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
201 maint check-psymtabs
202 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
203 maint check-symtabs
204 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
205 maint expand-symtabs
206 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
207
208 show configuration
209 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
210
211 maint set|show per-command
212 maint set|show per-command space
213 maint set|show per-command time
214 maint set|show per-command symtab
215 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
216
217 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
218 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
219 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
220 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
221 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
222
223 info exceptions
224 info exceptions REGEXP
225 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
226 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
227 are listed.
228
229 * New options
230
231 set debug symfile off|on
232 show debug symfile
233 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
234 symbol tables within those files
235
236 set print raw frame-arguments
237 show print raw frame-arguments
238 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
239 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
240
241 set remote trace-status-packet
242 show remote trace-status-packet
243 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
244
245 set debug nios2
246 show debug nios2
247 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
248
249 set range-stepping
250 show range-stepping
251 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
252
253 set startup-with-shell
254 show startup-with-shell
255 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
256 directly.
257
258 set code-cache
259 show code-cache
260 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
261 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
262
263 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
264 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
265 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
266 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
267 "set height 0".
268
269 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
270 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
271 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
272
273 * New command-line options
274 --configuration
275 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
276
277 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
278 buffer in Common Trace Format.
279
280 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
281 GDB command gcore.
282
283 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
284
285 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
286 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
287
288 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
289 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
290
291 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
292 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
293 due to an uncaught signal.
294
295 * MI changes
296
297 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
298 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
299 command, which should contain "language-option".
300
301 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
302 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
303
304 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
305 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
306 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
307 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
308 "undefined-command-error-code".
309
310 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
311 Trace Format now.
312
313 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
314
315 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
316 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
317 are displayed.
318
319 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
320 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
321
322 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
323 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
324 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
325
326 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
327 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
328 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
329 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
330 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
331 "exec-run-start-option".
332
333 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
334 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
335
336 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
337 the new "info exceptions" command.
338
339 * New system-wide configuration scripts
340 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
341 configuration scripts for the following systems:
342 ** ElinOS
343 ** Wind River Linux
344
345 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
346 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
347 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
348 below.
349
350 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
351 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
352
353 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
354 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
355 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
356
357 * New remote packets
358
359 vCont;r
360
361 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
362 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
363 involvemement at each single-step.
364
365 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
366 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
367 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
368 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
369 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
370 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
371 speedup.
372
373 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
374
375 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
376 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
377
378 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
379 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
380 trace state variables.
381
382 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
383 target.
384
385 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
386 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
387
388 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
389
390 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
391 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
392 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
393 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
394
395 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
396
397 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
398 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
399 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
400 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
401
402 set|show record full insn-number-max
403 set|show record full stop-at-limit
404 set|show record full memory-query
405
406 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
407 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
408 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
409 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
410 This new recording method can be enabled using:
411
412 record btrace
413
414 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
415 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
416
417 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
418 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
419 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
420
421 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
422 instruction granularity
423
424 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
425 function granularity
426
427 * New native configurations
428
429 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
430 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
431 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
432 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
433
434 * New targets
435
436 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
437 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
438 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
439 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
440 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
441
442 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
443 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
444 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
445 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
446 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
447 --data-directory command-line option.
448
449 * New command line options:
450
451 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
452 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
453
454 * Removed command line options
455
456 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
457 Emacs.
458
459 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
460 type formatting.
461
462 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
463
464 * Python scripting
465
466 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
467
468 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
469
470 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
471
472 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
473
474 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
475 of architecture in the Python API.
476
477 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
478 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
479
480 * New Python-based convenience functions:
481
482 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
483 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
484 ** $_strlen(str)
485 ** $_regex(str, regex)
486
487 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
488 given an argument.
489
490 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
491 default for GCC since November 2000.
492
493 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
494
495 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
496 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
497
498 * New configure options
499
500 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
501 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
502 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
503 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
504 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
505 options allow the user to override that default.
506 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
507 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
508 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
509
510 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
511
512 catch signal
513 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
514 conditions to be attached.
515
516 maint info bfds
517 List the BFDs known to GDB.
518
519 python-interactive [command]
520 pi [command]
521 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
522 and print the result of expressions.
523
524 py [command]
525 "py" is a new alias for "python".
526
527 enable type-printer [name]...
528 disable type-printer [name]...
529 Enable or disable type printers.
530
531 * Removed commands
532
533 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
534 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
535 instead.
536
537 * New options
538
539 set print type methods (on|off)
540 show print type methods
541 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
542 The default is to show them.
543
544 set print type typedefs (on|off)
545 show print type typedefs
546 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
547 The default is to show them.
548
549 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
550 show filename-display
551 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
552 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
553
554 set trace-buffer-size
555 show trace-buffer-size
556 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
557
558 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
559 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
560 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
561
562 set debug aarch64
563 show debug aarch64
564 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
565 The default is off.
566
567 set debug coff-pe-read
568 show debug coff-pe-read
569 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
570 exported symbols.
571
572 set debug mach-o
573 show debug mach-o
574 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
575 processing.
576
577 set debug notification
578 show debug notification
579 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
580
581 * MI changes
582
583 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
584 "=cmd-param-changed".
585 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
586 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
587 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
588 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
589 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
590 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
591 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
592 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
593 "=memory-changed".
594 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
595 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
596 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
597 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
598 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
599 library load/unload events.
600 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
601 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
602 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
603 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
604 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
605 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
606 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
607 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
608
609 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
610 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
611 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
612 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
613
614 * New remote packets
615
616 QTBuffer:size
617 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
618 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
619
620 Qbtrace:bts
621 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
622 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
623 qSupported query.
624
625 Qbtrace:off
626 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
627 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
628
629 qXfer:btrace:read
630 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
631 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
632
633 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
634
635 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
636 for more x32 ABI info.
637
638 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
639
640 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
641
642 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
643 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
644 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
645 "info os files" lists file descriptors
646 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
647 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
648 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
649 "info os msg" lists message queues
650 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
651
652 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
653 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
654 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
655 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
656 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
657 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
658
659 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
660 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
661 record/replay support.
662
663 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
664
665 * Python scripting
666
667 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
668 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
669
670 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
671
672 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
673 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
674
675 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
676
677 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
678 the source at which the symbol was defined.
679
680 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
681 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
682 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
683 symbol's value.
684
685 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
686 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
687
688 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
689 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
690 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
691
692 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
693 object associated with a PC value.
694
695 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
696 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
697
698 * Go language support.
699 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
700 language.
701
702 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
703 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
704
705 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
706 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
707
708 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
709 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
710 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
711 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
712 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
713 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
714
715 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
716 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
717 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
718 build/libcpp/expr.c.
719
720 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
721 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
722
723 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
724 since December 2007.
725
726 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
727 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
728 command does. For instance:
729
730 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
731
732 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
733 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
734 created, using the "condition" command.
735
736 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
737 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
738
739 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
740
741 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
742 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
743 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
744 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
745 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
746 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
747 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
748 files with older .gdb_index sections.
749
750 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
751 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
752 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
753 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
754 the .gdb_index section.
755
756 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
757
758 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
759 target.
760
761 * MI changes
762
763 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
764
765 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
766
767 * New commands
768
769 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
770 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
771 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
772
773 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
774 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
775
776 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
777 several hits.
778
779 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
780 C++ and Java objects.
781
782 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
783 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
784 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
785 configured with '--with-python'.
786
787 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
788 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
789 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
790 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
791 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
792 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
793 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
794
795 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
796 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
797 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
798 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
799
800 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
801 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
802 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
803 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
804
805 ** "set print symbol"
806 "show print symbol"
807 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
808 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
809 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
810
811 * Deprecated commands
812
813 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
814 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
815
816 * New targets
817
818 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
819 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
820
821 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
822 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
823 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
824 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
825 evaluates to true.
826
827 * New options
828
829 set mips compression
830 show mips compression
831 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
832 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
833 mips16
834 micromips
835 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
836
837 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
838 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
839 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
840 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
841 available mode.
842 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
843 target.
844
845 set auto-load off
846 Disable auto-loading globally.
847
848 show auto-load
849 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
850
851 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
852 show auto-load gdb-scripts
853 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
854
855 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
856 show auto-load python-scripts
857 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
858
859 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
860 show auto-load local-gdbinit
861 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
862
863 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
864 show auto-load libthread-db
865 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
866
867 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
868 show auto-load scripts-directory
869 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
870 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
871 of the directories listed by this option.
872 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
873
874 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
875 show auto-load safe-path
876 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
877 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
878
879 set debug auto-load on|off
880 show debug auto-load
881 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
882
883 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
884 show dprintf-style
885 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
886 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
887 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
888 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
889
890 set dprintf-function <expr>
891 show dprintf-function
892 set dprintf-channel <expr>
893 show dprintf-channel
894 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
895 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
896
897 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
898 show disconnected-dprintf
899 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
900 after GDB disconnects.
901
902 * New configure options
903
904 --with-auto-load-dir
905 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
906 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
907 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
908 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
909 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
910
911 --with-auto-load-safe-path
912 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
913 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
914
915 --without-auto-load-safe-path
916 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
917 security feature.
918
919 * New remote packets
920
921 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
922
923 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
924 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
925 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
926 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
927
928 QProgramSignals:
929
930 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
931 program without GDB involvement.
932
933 * New command line options
934
935 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
936 before loading inferior.
937 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
938 execute it before loading inferior.
939
940 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
941
942 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
943 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
944 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
945 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
946 inferior changes.
947
948 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
949 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
950
951 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
952 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
953 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
954 target hardware watchpoint.
955
956 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
957 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
958 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
959 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
960
961 * Python scripting
962
963 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
964 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
965 existing one.
966
967 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
968 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
969 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
970 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
971 now "message", which just prints the error message without
972 the stack trace.
973
974 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
975 Python API.
976
977 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
978 modules library. This module provides functionality for
979 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
980 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
981 corresponding value.
982
983 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
984 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
985 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
986 on GDB start-up.
987
988 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
989 static_block will return the global and static blocks
990 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
991 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
992
993 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
994
995 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
996 "gdb.breakpoints".
997
998 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
999 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1000 available in the CLI.
1001
1002 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1003 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1004 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1005 "some_type.items()".
1006
1007 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1008 new object file.
1009
1010 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1011 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1012 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1013 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1014 any anonymous fields.
1015
1016 * MI changes
1017
1018 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1019 "solib-event".
1020
1021 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1022 "=breakpoint-modified".
1023
1024 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1025
1026 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1027 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1028 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1029 lives.
1030
1031 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1032 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1033 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1034 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1035 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1036
1037 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1038 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1039
1040 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1041 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1042 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1043 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1044 use this option to specify where to find it.
1045
1046 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1047 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1048 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1049 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1050 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1051 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1052 section in the user manual for more details.
1053
1054 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1055 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1056 become available after that.
1057
1058 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
1059
1060 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1061 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1062 gcc version 4.7.
1063
1064 * New commands
1065
1066 !SHELL COMMAND
1067 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1068 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1069
1070 * Changed commands
1071
1072 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1073 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1074 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1075
1076 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1077 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1078 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1079
1080 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1081 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1082 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1083 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1084 name starts with a hyphen.
1085
1086 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1087 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1088 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1089 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1090 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1091 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1092 number of bytes that will be collected.
1093
1094 tstart [NOTES]
1095 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1096 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1097 setting the variable trace-notes.
1098
1099 tstop [NOTES]
1100 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1101 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1102 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1103 trace-stop-notes.
1104
1105 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1106 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1107 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1108 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1109 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1110 is running.
1111
1112 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1113 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1114 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1115
1116 * New options
1117
1118 set debug dwarf2-read
1119 show debug dwarf2-read
1120 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1121 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1122
1123 set debug symtab-create
1124 show debug symtab-create
1125 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1126 creation. The default is off.
1127
1128 set extended-prompt
1129 show extended-prompt
1130 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1131 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1132 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1133 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1134 prompt is displayed.
1135
1136 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1137 show print entry-values
1138 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1139 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1140 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1141
1142 set debug entry-values
1143 show debug entry-values
1144 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1145 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1146
1147 set basenames-may-differ
1148 show basenames-may-differ
1149 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1150 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1151 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1152 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1153 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1154 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1155 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1156 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1157
1158 set trace-user
1159 show trace-user
1160 set trace-notes
1161 show trace-notes
1162 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1163 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1164 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1165 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1166
1167 set trace-stop-notes
1168 show trace-stop-notes
1169 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1170 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1171 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1172 started by someone else.
1173
1174 * New remote packets
1175
1176 QTEnable
1177
1178 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1179
1180 QTDisable
1181
1182 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1183
1184 QTNotes
1185
1186 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1187
1188 qTP
1189
1190 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1191
1192 qTMinFTPILen
1193
1194 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1195 be placed.
1196
1197 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1198 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1199
1200 * New targets
1201
1202 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1203
1204 * New Simulators
1205
1206 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1207
1208 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1209
1210 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1211
1212 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
1213
1214 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1215 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1216 matches the given regular expression.
1217
1218 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1219
1220 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1221 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1222
1223 * New command line options
1224
1225 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1226 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1227
1228 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1229 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1230
1231 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1232 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1233 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1234
1235 * GDB now understands thread names.
1236
1237 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1238 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1239
1240 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1241 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1242
1243 * OpenCL C
1244 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1245 has been integrated into GDB.
1246
1247 * Python scripting
1248
1249 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1250 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1251 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1252
1253 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1254 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1255 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1256 and allows for more dynamic content.
1257
1258 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1259 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1260 have an is_valid method.
1261
1262 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1263 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1264 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1265
1266 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1267
1268 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1269 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1270 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1271 that function like so:
1272
1273 result = some_value (10,20)
1274
1275 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1276 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1277 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1278
1279 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1280 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1281 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1282 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1283 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1284
1285 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1286 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1287
1288 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1289
1290 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1291 selected thread.
1292
1293 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1294 holds the thread's name.
1295
1296 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1297 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
1298 occurring in the process being debugged.
1299 The following events are currently supported:
1300 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1301 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1302 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1303
1304 * C++ Improvements:
1305
1306 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1307 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1308
1309 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1310
1311 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1312 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1313 was added to GCC 4.5.
1314
1315 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1316 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1317 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1318 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1319 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1320 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1321
1322 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1323 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1324 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1325 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1326 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1327
1328 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1329 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1330 execution to a label.
1331
1332 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1333 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1334 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1335 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1336
1337 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
1338 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
1339 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1340 of scope.
1341
1342 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1343
1344 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1345 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1346 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1347 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1348 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1349 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1350
1351 (gdb) info threads
1352 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1353
1354 While now you see this:
1355
1356 (gdb) info threads
1357 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1358
1359 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1360 dumps.
1361
1362 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1363 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1364 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1365 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1366
1367 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1368 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1369 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1370 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1371 section in the user manual for more details.
1372
1373 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1374
1375 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1376 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
1377
1378 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1379
1380 * New native configurations
1381
1382 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1383
1384 * New targets:
1385
1386 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1387
1388 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1389 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1390 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1391 in the GDB user manual.
1392
1393 * Guile support was removed.
1394
1395 * New features in the GNU simulator
1396
1397 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1398
1399 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1400
1401 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
1402
1403 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
1404
1405 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1406 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1407 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1408 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1409 was always disabled for such configurations.
1410
1411 * C++ Improvements:
1412
1413 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1414
1415 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1416 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1417 For example:
1418 namespace A
1419 {
1420 class B { };
1421 void foo (B) { }
1422 }
1423 ...
1424 A::B b
1425 foo(b)
1426 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1427 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1428 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1429
1430 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1431
1432 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1433 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1434 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1435 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1436 entry.
1437 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1438 mentioned flavors of operators.
1439
1440 ** static const class members
1441
1442 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1443 class definition has been fixed.
1444
1445 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
1446
1447 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1448 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1449 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1450 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1451 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1452 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1453
1454 * Static tracepoints
1455
1456 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1457 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1458 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1459 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1460 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1461 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1462 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1463 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1464 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1465 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1466 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1467 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1468 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1469 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1470 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1471 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1472 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1473 the "New remote packets" section below.
1474
1475 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1476
1477 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1478 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1479 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1480 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1481
1482 * Observer mode
1483
1484 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1485 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1486 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1487 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1488 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1489 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1490 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1491
1492 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1493 current thread.
1494
1495 * New remote packets
1496
1497 qGetTIBAddr
1498
1499 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1500
1501 qRelocInsn
1502
1503 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1504 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1505 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1506 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1507 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1508 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1509
1510 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1511
1512 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1513
1514 qTSTMat
1515
1516 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1517 program.
1518
1519 qXfer:statictrace:read
1520
1521 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1522 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1523 to gdb's qSupported query.
1524
1525 QAllow
1526
1527 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1528
1529 QTDPsrc
1530
1531 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1532 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1533
1534 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1535 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1536 a directory.
1537
1538 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1539
1540 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1541 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1542 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1543 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1544
1545 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1546 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1547 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1548 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1549 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1550 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1551 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1552
1553 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1554 for static tracepoints support.
1555
1556 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1557
1558 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1559 it understands register description.
1560
1561 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1562
1563 * X86 general purpose registers
1564
1565 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1566 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1567 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1568 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1569 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1570
1571 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
1572 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1573 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1574 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1575 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1576 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
1577
1578 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1579 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1580 in the specified file.
1581
1582 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1583 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1584 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1585 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1586 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1587 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1588 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1589 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1590 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1591 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1592
1593 * New commands
1594
1595 eval template, expressions...
1596 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1597 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1598
1599 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1600 show target-file-system-kind
1601 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1602 names.
1603
1604 save breakpoints <filename>
1605 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1606 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1607 definitions, use the `source' command.
1608
1609 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1610 is now deprecated.
1611
1612 info static-tracepoint-markers
1613 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1614
1615 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1616 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1617 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1618
1619 set observer on|off
1620 show observer
1621 Enable and disable observer mode.
1622
1623 set may-write-registers on|off
1624 set may-write-memory on|off
1625 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1626 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1627 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1628 set may-interrupt on|off
1629 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1630 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1631 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1632 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1633 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1634 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1635 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1636
1637 set record memory-query on|off
1638 show record memory-query
1639 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1640 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1641
1642 * Changed commands
1643
1644 disassemble
1645 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1646
1647 * Python scripting
1648
1649 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1650 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1651 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1652 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1653 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1654
1655 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
1656 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1657 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1658 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
1659
1660 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
1661 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1662
1663 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
1664
1665 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
1666
1667 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1668
1669 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1670 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1671 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1672
1673 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1674 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1675 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1676 regular breakpoints.
1677
1678 * New targets
1679
1680 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1681
1682 * D language support.
1683 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1684 language.
1685
1686 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1687 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1688 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1689 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1690 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1691
1692 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1693 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1694 conditions of the form:
1695
1696 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1697
1698 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1699 interface mentioned above.
1700
1701 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
1702
1703 * C++ Improvements
1704
1705 ** Namespace Support
1706
1707 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1708 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1709 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1710 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1711 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1712
1713 ** Bug Fixes
1714
1715 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1716 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1717 qualified name.
1718
1719 ** Cast Operators
1720
1721 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1722 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1723
1724 * New targets
1725
1726 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
1727 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
1728
1729 * New Simulators
1730
1731 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
1732 Renesas RX rx
1733
1734 * Multi-program debugging.
1735
1736 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1737 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1738 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1739 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1740 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1741 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1742 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1743 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1744
1745 * New tracing features
1746
1747 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1748
1749 ** Trace state variables
1750
1751 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1752 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1753 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1754 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1755 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1756 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1757 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1758 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1759 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1760 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
1761
1762 ** Fast tracepoints
1763
1764 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1765 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1766 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1767 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1768 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1769 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1770 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1771 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1772 the regular trace command.
1773
1774 ** Disconnected tracing
1775
1776 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1777 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1778 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1779 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1780 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1781
1782 ** Trace files
1783
1784 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1785 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1786 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1787 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1788 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1789 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1790 <name>".
1791
1792 ** Circular trace buffer
1793
1794 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1795 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1796 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1797 not be available for all target agents.
1798
1799 * Changed commands
1800
1801 disassemble
1802 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1803 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1804
1805 info variables
1806 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1807 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1808
1809 source
1810 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1811 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1812 support.
1813
1814 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1815 "set script-extension" (see below).
1816
1817 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1818
1819 record save [<FILENAME>]
1820 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1821 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1822
1823 record restore <FILENAME>
1824 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1825 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1826
1827 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1828 Add a new inferior.
1829
1830 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1831 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1832 inferior has loaded.
1833
1834 remove-inferior ID
1835 Remove an inferior.
1836
1837 maint info program-spaces
1838 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1839
1840 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1841 show remote interrupt-sequence
1842 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1843 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1844 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1845 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1846 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1847
1848 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1849 show remote interrupt-on-connect
1850 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1851 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1852 Linux kernel.
1853
1854 set remotebreak [on | off]
1855 show remotebreak
1856 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1857
1858 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1859 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1860
1861 info tvariables
1862 List trace state variables and their values.
1863
1864 delete tvariable $NAME ...
1865 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1866
1867 teval EXPR, ...
1868 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1869 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1870
1871 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1872 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1873
1874 * New expression syntax
1875
1876 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1877 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1878
1879 * New options
1880
1881 set follow-exec-mode new|same
1882 show follow-exec-mode
1883 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1884 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1885 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1886
1887 set default-collect EXPR, ...
1888 show default-collect
1889 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1890 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1891 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1892
1893 set disconnected-tracing
1894 show disconnected-tracing
1895 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1896 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1897 upon disconnection.
1898
1899 set circular-trace-buffer
1900 show circular-trace-buffer
1901 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1902 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1903 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1904 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1905
1906 set script-extension off|soft|strict
1907 show script-extension
1908 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1909 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1910 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1911 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1912 evaluation failed.
1913 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1914
1915 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1916 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1917 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1918 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1919 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1920 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1921 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1922 is on.
1923
1924 * Python API Improvements
1925
1926 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1927 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1928 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1929
1930 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1931 `is_base_class' attribute.
1932
1933 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1934
1935 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1936 evaluate an expression.
1937
1938 * New remote packets
1939
1940 QTDV
1941 Define a trace state variable.
1942
1943 qTV
1944 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1945
1946 QTDisconnected
1947 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1948
1949 QTBuffer:circular
1950 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1951
1952 qTfP, qTsP
1953 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1954
1955 * Bug fixes
1956
1957 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1958
1959 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1960 much more reliable. In particular:
1961 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1962 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1963 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1964 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1965 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1966 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1967 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1968 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1969 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1970 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1971 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1972 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1973 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1974 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1975 non-threaded programs.
1976
1977 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1978 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1979 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1980 executable program.
1981
1982 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
1983
1984 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1985 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1986 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1987 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1988 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1989
1990 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1991 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1992 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1993 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1994 for tracepoint actions.
1995
1996 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1997 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1998 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
1999
2000 * Process record and replay
2001
2002 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2003 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2004 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2005 execute commands.
2006
2007 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2008 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2009 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2010 reverse execution.
2011
2012 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2013 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
2014 2.6.28 or later.
2015
2016 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2017 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2018 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2019 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2020 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2021 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2022 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2023 the installation instructions for more information.
2024
2025 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2026 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2027 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2028 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2029
2030 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2031 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2032
2033 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2034 now complete on file names.
2035
2036 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2037 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2038 For instance, consider:
2039
2040 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2041 # struct example variable;
2042 (gdb) p variable.
2043
2044 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2045 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2046
2047 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2048 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2049
2050 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2051 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2052 macros.
2053
2054 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
2055 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2056 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2057
2058 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2059 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2060 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2061 and simulator targets may also provide them.
2062
2063 * New remote packets
2064
2065 qSearch:memory:
2066 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2067
2068 QStartNoAckMode
2069 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2070 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2071 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2072
2073 vKill
2074 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2075 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2076
2077 qXfer:osdata:read
2078 Obtains additional operating system information
2079
2080 qXfer:siginfo:read
2081 qXfer:siginfo:write
2082 Read or write additional signal information.
2083
2084 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2085
2086 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2087 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2088 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2089
2090 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
2091 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
2092
2093 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
2094 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2095 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
2096
2097 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2098 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2099
2100 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2101
2102 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2103
2104 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2105 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2106
2107 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
2108 list of section offsets.
2109
2110 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2111 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2112 have also been fixed.
2113
2114 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
2115 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2116 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
2117
2118 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2119 example, given:
2120
2121 template<typename T> class C { };
2122 C<char const *> c;
2123
2124 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2125
2126 ptype C<char const *>
2127 ptype C<char const*>
2128 ptype C<const char *>
2129 ptype C<const char*>
2130
2131 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2132
2133 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2134 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2135
2136 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2137 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2138 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2139
2140 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2141 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2142
2143 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2144 gdbserver.
2145
2146 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2147 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2148
2149 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2150 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2151 as appropriate.
2152
2153 * Python scripting
2154
2155 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2156 available is determined at configure time.
2157
2158 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2159
2160 * Ada tasking support
2161
2162 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2163 been introduced:
2164
2165 info tasks
2166 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2167 info task N
2168 Print detailed information about task number N.
2169 task
2170 Print the task number of the current task.
2171 task N
2172 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2173
2174 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2175 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2176
2177 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2178
2179 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2180 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2181 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2182 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2183 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2184 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2185 below.
2186
2187 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2188 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2189 information.
2190
2191 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2192 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2193 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2194 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2195 more information.
2196
2197 * Multi-architecture debugging.
2198
2199 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2200 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2201 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2202 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2203 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2204
2205 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2206 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2207 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2208 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2209 --enable-targets configure option.
2210
2211 * Non-stop mode debugging.
2212
2213 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2214 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2215 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2216 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2217 section in the user manual for more information.
2218
2219 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2220 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2221 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2222 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2223 extensions on linux targets.
2224
2225 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2226
2227 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2228 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2229 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2230 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2231 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2232 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2233 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2234 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2235 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2236
2237 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2238 val1 [, val2, ...]
2239 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2240
2241 maint set python print-stack
2242 maint show python print-stack
2243 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2244
2245 python [CODE]
2246 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2247
2248 macro define
2249 macro list
2250 macro undef
2251 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2252 interactively.
2253
2254 info os processes
2255 Show operating system information about processes.
2256
2257 info inferiors
2258 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2259
2260 inferior NUM
2261 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2262
2263 detach inferior NUM
2264 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2265
2266 kill inferior NUM
2267 Kill inferior number NUM.
2268
2269 * New options
2270
2271 set spu stop-on-load
2272 show spu stop-on-load
2273 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2274
2275 set spu auto-flush-cache
2276 show spu auto-flush-cache
2277 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2278 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2279
2280 set sh calling-convention
2281 show sh calling-convention
2282 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2283
2284 set debug timestamp
2285 show debug timestamp
2286 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2287
2288 set disassemble-next-line
2289 show disassemble-next-line
2290 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2291 the debuggee stops.
2292
2293 set remote noack-packet
2294 show remote noack-packet
2295 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2296 under "New remote packets."
2297
2298 set remote query-attached-packet
2299 show remote query-attached-packet
2300 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2301
2302 set remote read-siginfo-object
2303 show remote read-siginfo-object
2304 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2305 packet.
2306
2307 set remote write-siginfo-object
2308 show remote write-siginfo-object
2309 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2310 packet.
2311
2312 set remote reverse-continue
2313 show remote reverse-continue
2314 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2315
2316 set remote reverse-step
2317 show remote reverse-step
2318 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2319
2320 set displaced-stepping
2321 show displaced-stepping
2322 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2323 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2324 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2325
2326 set debug displaced
2327 show debug displaced
2328 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2329
2330 maint set internal-error
2331 maint show internal-error
2332 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2333
2334 maint set internal-warning
2335 maint show internal-warning
2336 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
2337
2338 set exec-wrapper
2339 show exec-wrapper
2340 unset exec-wrapper
2341 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2342
2343 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2344 show multiple-symbols
2345 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2346 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2347 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2348
2349 set breakpoint always-inserted
2350 show breakpoint always-inserted
2351 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2352 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2353 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2354
2355 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2356 show arm fallback-mode
2357 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2358 show arm force-mode
2359 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2360 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2361 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2362 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2363
2364 set disable-randomization
2365 show disable-randomization
2366 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2367 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2368 multiple debugging sessions.
2369
2370 set non-stop
2371 show non-stop
2372 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2373 a breakpoint.
2374
2375 set target-async
2376 show target-async
2377 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2378 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2379 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2380 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2381
2382 set target-wide-charset
2383 show target-wide-charset
2384 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2385 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2386
2387 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2388 show tcp auto-retry
2389 set tcp connect-timeout
2390 show tcp connect-timeout
2391 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2392 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2393 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2394
2395 set libthread-db-search-path
2396 show libthread-db-search-path
2397 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2398 libthread_db.
2399
2400 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2401 show schedule-multiple
2402 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2403 the current process.
2404
2405 set stack-cache
2406 show stack-cache
2407 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2408 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2409 affecting correctness.
2410
2411 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2412 show interactive-mode
2413 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2414 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2415 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2416 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2417 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2418
2419 * Removed commands
2420
2421 info forks
2422 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2423 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2424 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2425 command.
2426
2427 fork NUM
2428 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2429 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2430 alias for the `fork' command.
2431
2432 process PID
2433 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2434 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2435 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2436
2437 delete fork NUM
2438 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2439 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2440 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2441 fork' command.
2442
2443 detach fork NUM
2444 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2445 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2446 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2447 fork' command.
2448
2449 * New native configurations
2450
2451 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2452
2453 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2454
2455 * New targets
2456
2457 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
2458 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
2459 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
2460 S+core 3 score-*-*
2461
2462 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2463 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2464
2465 * Removed commands
2466
2467 catch load
2468 catch unload
2469 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2470
2471 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
2472
2473 * New native configurations
2474
2475 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
2476 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
2477
2478 * New targets
2479
2480 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
2481 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
2482
2483 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2484
2485 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2486 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2487 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2488 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2489
2490 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2491 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2492
2493 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
2494 is resolved.
2495
2496 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
2497 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2498 and in inlined functions.
2499
2500 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2501 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2502 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2503
2504 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2505
2506 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2507 registers on PowerPC targets.
2508
2509 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2510 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2511
2512 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2513 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2514
2515 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2516 extended-remote mode.
2517
2518 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
2519 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2520 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2521 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
2522
2523 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2524 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2525 target architectures.
2526
2527 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2528 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2529 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2530 stored in two consecutive float registers.
2531
2532 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2533 breakpoints now.
2534
2535 * Improved support for debugging Ada
2536 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2537 include:
2538 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2539 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2540 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2541 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2542 of an assignment
2543 - Improved command completion in Ada
2544 - Several bug fixes
2545
2546 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2547 process.
2548
2549 * New commands
2550
2551 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2552 show print frame-arguments
2553 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2554 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2555
2556 remote put
2557 remote get
2558 remote delete
2559 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2560
2561 * New MI commands
2562
2563 -target-file-put
2564 -target-file-get
2565 -target-file-delete
2566 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2567
2568 * New remote packets
2569
2570 vFile:open:
2571 vFile:close:
2572 vFile:pread:
2573 vFile:pwrite:
2574 vFile:unlink:
2575 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
2576
2577 vAttach
2578 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2579 mode.
2580
2581 vRun
2582 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2583
2584 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
2585
2586 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2587 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2588 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2589
2590 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2591 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2592 -Bsymbolic linker option.
2593
2594 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2595 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2596 is not supported.
2597
2598 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2599 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2600
2601 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
2602 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
2603
2604 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2605
2606 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2607 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2608 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2609
2610 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2611 automatically displayed as character or string data.
2612
2613 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2614 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2615 as strings.
2616
2617 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2618 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
2619 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
2620
2621 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2622 iWMMXt coprocessor.
2623
2624 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2625 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2626 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2627
2628 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2629
2630 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2631
2632 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2633 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2634 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2635
2636 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2637 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2638
2639 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2640 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2641 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2642 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2643 Windows and SymbianOS).
2644
2645 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2646 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
2647
2648 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2649 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
2650
2651 * New commands
2652
2653 set remoteflow
2654 show remoteflow
2655 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2656 when debugging using remote targets.
2657
2658 set mem inaccessible-by-default
2659 show mem inaccessible-by-default
2660 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2661 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2662 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2663 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2664 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2665
2666 set breakpoint auto-hw
2667 show breakpoint auto-hw
2668 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2669 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2670 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2671 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2672 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2673 including "next" and "finish".
2674
2675 catch exception
2676 catch exception unhandled
2677 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2678
2679 catch assert
2680 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2681
2682 set sysroot
2683 show sysroot
2684 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2685 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2686 an alias to "set sysroot".
2687
2688 info spu
2689 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2690 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2691 architecture.
2692
2693 * New native configurations
2694
2695 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2696
2697 set tdesc filename
2698 unset tdesc filename
2699 show tdesc filename
2700 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2701 not query the target for its built-in description.
2702
2703 * New targets
2704
2705 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
2706 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
2707 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
2708
2709 * New remote packets
2710
2711 QPassSignals:
2712 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2713 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2714
2715 qXfer:features:read:
2716 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2717 features.
2718
2719 qXfer:spu:read:
2720 qXfer:spu:write:
2721 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2722 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2723
2724 qXfer:libraries:read:
2725 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2726 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2727 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2728 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2729
2730 * Removed targets
2731
2732 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2733
2734 alpha*-*-osf1*
2735 alpha*-*-osf2*
2736 d10v-*-*
2737 hppa*-*-hiux*
2738 i[34567]86-ncr-*
2739 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2740 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2741 i[34567]86-*-netware*
2742 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2743 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2744 i[34567]86-*-sco*
2745 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2746 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2747 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2748 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2749 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2750 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2751 i[34567]86-*-isc*
2752 m68*-cisco*-*
2753 m68*-tandem-*
2754 mips*-*-pe
2755 rs6000-*-lynxos*
2756 sh*-*-pe
2757
2758 * Other removed features
2759
2760 target abug
2761 target cpu32bug
2762 target est
2763 target rom68k
2764
2765 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2766
2767 target hms
2768 target e7000
2769 target sh3
2770 target sh3e
2771
2772 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2773 H8/300.
2774
2775 target ocd
2776
2777 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2778 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2779 interfaces.
2780
2781 DWARF 1 support
2782
2783 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2784 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2785
2786 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2787
2788 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2789 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2790 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2791 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2792
2793 MIPS ".pdr" sections
2794
2795 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2796 in debugging information.
2797
2798 Scheme support
2799
2800 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2801 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2802
2803 set mips stack-arg-size
2804 set mips saved-gpreg-size
2805
2806 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2807
2808 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
2809
2810 * New targets
2811
2812 Xtensa xtensa-elf
2813 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
2814
2815 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2816 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2817 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2818
2819 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2820 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2821 supported.
2822
2823 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2824 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2825
2826 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2827 stub provides the required support.
2828
2829 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2830 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2831
2832 * New commands
2833
2834 set substitute-path
2835 unset substitute-path
2836 show substitute-path
2837 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2838 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2839 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2840 between compilation and debugging.
2841
2842 set trace-commands
2843 show trace-commands
2844 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2845 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2846 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2847
2848 * REMOVED features
2849
2850 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2851
2852 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2853 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2854
2855 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2856
2857 * New remote packets
2858
2859 qSupported:
2860 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2861 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2862 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2863 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2864 target.
2865
2866 qXfer:auxv:read:
2867 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2868 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2869
2870 qXfer:memory-map:read:
2871 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2872 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2873
2874 vFlashErase:
2875 vFlashWrite:
2876 vFlashDone:
2877 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2878
2879 * Removed remote packets
2880
2881 qPart:auxv:read:
2882 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2883 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2884
2885 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
2886
2887 * New targets
2888
2889 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2890
2891 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2892
2893 * New commands
2894
2895 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2896 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2897
2898 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2899
2900 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2901
2902 restart <n> Return the program state to a
2903 previously saved state.
2904
2905 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2906
2907 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2908
2909 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2910 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2911
2912 info forks List forks of the user program that
2913 are available to be debugged.
2914
2915 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2916 forks of the user program that are
2917 available to be debugged.
2918
2919 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2920 that are available to be debugged (and
2921 kill the forked process).
2922
2923 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2924 that are available to be debugged (and
2925 allow the process to continue).
2926
2927 * New architecture
2928
2929 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2930
2931 * Improved Windows host support
2932
2933 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2934 native console support, and remote communications using either
2935 network sockets or serial ports.
2936
2937 * Improved Modula-2 language support
2938
2939 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2940 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2941 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2942 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2943 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2944 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2945
2946 * REMOVED features
2947
2948 The ARM rdi-share module.
2949
2950 The Netware NLM debug server.
2951
2952 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
2953
2954 * New native configurations
2955
2956 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
2957 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2958
2959 * New targets
2960
2961 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2962
2963 * New command line options
2964
2965 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2966 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2967 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2968 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2969 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2970 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2971 with the --command (-x) option.
2972
2973 * Deprecated commands removed
2974
2975 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2976 removed:
2977
2978 Command Replacement
2979 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2980 othernames set arm disassembler
2981 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2982 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2983 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2984 regs info registers
2985
2986 * New BSD user-level threads support
2987
2988 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2989 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2990 configurations are:
2991
2992 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2993 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2994 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2995
2996 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2997 are not yet supported.
2998
2999 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3000 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3001
3002 * REMOVED configurations and files
3003
3004 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
3005 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3006 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
3007
3008 * New "set print array-indexes" command
3009
3010 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3011 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3012 behavior.
3013
3014 * VAX floating point support
3015
3016 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3017
3018 * User-defined command support
3019
3020 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3021 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3022 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3023
3024 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3025
3026 * New command line option
3027
3028 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3029 debugging.
3030
3031 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3032
3033 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3034 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3035 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3036 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3037 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
3038
3039 * Internationalization
3040
3041 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3042 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3043 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3044
3045 * Ada
3046
3047 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3048 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3049 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3050
3051 * New native configurations
3052
3053 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3054
3055 * Remote 'p' packet
3056
3057 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3058 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3059
3060 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3061
3062 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3063 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3064 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3065 i386 application).
3066
3067 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3068 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3069 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3070 configurations:
3071
3072 hppa-*-hpux
3073 ia64-*-aix
3074 mips-*-irix*
3075 *-*-lynx
3076 mips-*-linux-gnu
3077 sds protocol
3078 xdr protocol
3079 powerpc bdm protocol
3080
3081 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3082 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3083
3084 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3085
3086 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3087 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3088 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3089 permanently REMOVED.
3090
3091 h8300-*-*
3092 mcore-*-*
3093 mn10300-*-*
3094 ns32k-*-*
3095 sh64-*-*
3096 v850-*-*
3097
3098 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3099
3100 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3101
3102 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3103 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3104 been fixed.
3105
3106 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3107
3108 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3109 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3110 IRIX long double values).
3111
3112 * VAX and "next"
3113
3114 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3115 command. This problem has been fixed.
3116
3117 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
3118
3119 * Fix for ``many threads''
3120
3121 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3122 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3123 error message:
3124
3125 ptrace: No such process.
3126 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3127
3128 This problem has been fixed.
3129
3130 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3131
3132 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3133 GDB to dump core).
3134
3135 * New ``start'' command.
3136
3137 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3138
3139 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3140
3141 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3142 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3143 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3144
3145 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3146 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3147 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3148 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3149 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3150 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3151 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3152 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3153 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3154
3155 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
3156
3157 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3158 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3159 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3160 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3161 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3162
3163 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3164 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3165 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3166
3167 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3168
3169 * New native configurations
3170
3171 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
3172 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
3173 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3174 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
3175 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
3176 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
3177 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
3178
3179 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3180
3181 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3182 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3183 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3184 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3185 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3186 work, was also included.
3187
3188 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3189 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3190
3191 h8300-*-*
3192 mcore-*-*
3193 mn10300-*-*
3194 ns32k-*-*
3195 sh64-*-*
3196 v850-*-*
3197 xstormy16-*-*
3198
3199 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3200 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3201
3202 * REMOVED configurations and files
3203
3204 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3205 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3206 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3207 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3208 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3209 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3210 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3211 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3212 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3213 sonymips mips-sony-*
3214 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3215
3216 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3217
3218 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3219
3220 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3221 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3222 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3223 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3224 with GDB".
3225
3226 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3227
3228 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3229 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3230 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3231 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3232 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3233 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3234 are created.
3235
3236 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3237
3238 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
3239
3240 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3241 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3242 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3243
3244 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3245
3246 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3247 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3248
3249 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3250
3251 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3252 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3253 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3254
3255 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3256
3257 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3258 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3259
3260 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3261
3262 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3263 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3264 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3265
3266 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3267
3268 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3269 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3270 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3271
3272 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
3273
3274 * Removed --with-mmalloc
3275
3276 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3277 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3278
3279 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
3280
3281 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3282 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3283 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3284 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3285
3286 * Revised SPARC target
3287
3288 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3289 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
3290 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3291 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3292 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
3293
3294 * New C++ demangler
3295
3296 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3297 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3298 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3299 programs.
3300
3301 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3302
3303 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3304 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3305 encountered these.
3306
3307 * C++ nested types and namespaces
3308
3309 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3310 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3311 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3312 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3313 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3314 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3315 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3316 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3317 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3318
3319 * New native configurations
3320
3321 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
3322 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3323 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
3324 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3325 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
3326
3327 * New debugging protocols
3328
3329 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3330
3331 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3332
3333 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3334 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3335 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3336
3337 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3338
3339 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3340 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3341 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3342 permanently REMOVED.
3343
3344 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3345 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3346 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3347 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3348 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3349 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3350 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3351 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3352 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3353 sonymips mips-sony-*
3354 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3355
3356 * REMOVED configurations and files
3357
3358 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3359 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3360 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3361 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3362 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3363 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3364 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3365 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3366 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3367 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
3368 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3369 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3370 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3371 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3372 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
3373 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3374 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3375
3376 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3377
3378 * Objective-C
3379
3380 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3381 integrated into GDB.
3382
3383 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3384
3385 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3386 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3387 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3388 backtraces.
3389
3390 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3391 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3392 DWARF 2 CFI support.
3393
3394 * Hosted file I/O.
3395
3396 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3397 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3398 remote protocol documentation for details.
3399
3400 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
3401
3402 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3403 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3404 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3405 ppc32 on ppc64).
3406
3407 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3408
3409 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3410 per-thread variables.
3411
3412 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3413
3414 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3415 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3416
3417 * Separate debug info.
3418
3419 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3420 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3421 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3422 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3423 and optional debug files.
3424
3425 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3426
3427 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3428 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3429 debugger.
3430
3431 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3432 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3433
3434 * Java
3435
3436 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3437 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3438 considered "useable".
3439
3440 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3441
3442 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3443 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3444 kernel.
3445
3446 * GDB supports logging output to a file
3447
3448 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3449 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
3450
3451 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3452
3453 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3454 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3455 command.
3456
3457 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
3458
3459 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3460 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3461
3462 * Profiling support
3463
3464 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3465 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3466 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3467 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3468 data, for more informative profiling results.
3469
3470 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3471
3472 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3473 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
3474 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
3475
3476 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3477 removed.
3478
3479 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3480 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3481 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3482 in a subsequent -var-update.
3483
3484 * New native configurations.
3485
3486 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3487
3488 * Multi-arched targets.
3489
3490 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
3491 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3492
3493 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3494
3495 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3496 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3497 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3498 permanently REMOVED.
3499
3500 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3501 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3502 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3503 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3504 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3505 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3506 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3507 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3508 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3509 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3510 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3511 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3512
3513 * REMOVED configurations and files
3514
3515 V850EA ISA
3516 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3517 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3518 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3519 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3520 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3521 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3522 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3523 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3524 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3525 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3526 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3527 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3528 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3529
3530 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
3531
3532 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3533 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3534 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3535 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3536 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3537
3538 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
3539
3540 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3541
3542 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3543 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3544 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3545 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3546 shared libs like mad''.
3547
3548 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
3549
3550 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3551 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3552 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3553 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
3554
3555 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3556
3557 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3558 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3559 they expand.
3560
3561 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3562 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3563
3564 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3565 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3566
3567 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3568 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3569 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3570 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3571
3572 * Multi-arched targets.
3573
3574 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3575 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
3576 NEC V850 v850-*-*
3577 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
3578 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3579 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3580
3581 * New targets.
3582
3583 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3584
3585
3586 * New native configurations
3587
3588 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
3589 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
3590 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
3591 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
3592
3593 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3594
3595 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3596 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3597 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3598 permanently REMOVED.
3599
3600 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3601 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3602 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3603 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3604 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3605 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3606 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3607 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3608 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3609 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3610 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3611 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3612 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3613
3614 * OBSOLETE languages
3615
3616 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3617
3618 * REMOVED configurations and files
3619
3620 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3621 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3622 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3623 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3624 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3625
3626 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3627
3628 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3629
3630 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3631 commands. The default is 1024.
3632
3633 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3634
3635 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3636
3637 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3638
3639 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3640 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3641 from a file into memory (restore).
3642
3643 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3644
3645 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3646 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3647 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3648
3649 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3650
3651 * New targets.
3652
3653 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3654
3655 * Bug fixes
3656
3657 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3658 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3659 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3660
3661 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3662 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3663 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3664
3665 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3666 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3667 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3668
3669 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3670 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3671 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3672
3673 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
3674
3675 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3676
3677 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3678 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3679 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3680 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3681 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3682 (notably embedded) targets.
3683
3684 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3685
3686 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3687 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3688 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3689 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
3690
3691 * New command line option
3692
3693 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3694
3695 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3696
3697 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3698 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3699 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3700 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3701 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3702 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3703 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3704 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3705 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3706 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3707
3708 * Changes in ARM configurations.
3709
3710 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3711 configuration is fully multi-arch.
3712
3713 * New native configurations
3714
3715 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
3716 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
3717 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
3718 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
3719
3720 * New targets
3721
3722 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3723
3724 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3725
3726 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3727 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3728 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3729 permanently REMOVED.
3730
3731 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3732 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3733 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3734 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3735 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3736
3737 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3738
3739 * REMOVED configurations and files
3740
3741 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3742 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3743 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3744 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3745 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3746 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3747 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3748 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3749 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3750 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3751 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3752 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3753 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
3754
3755 * Changes to command line processing
3756
3757 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3758 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3759
3760 * Changes to key bindings
3761
3762 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3763
3764 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3765
3766 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3767
3768 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3769 corrupted.
3770
3771 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3772
3773 Numerous documentation fixes.
3774
3775 Numerous testsuite fixes.
3776
3777 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
3778
3779 * New native configurations
3780
3781 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3782 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
3783 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
3784 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3785 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
3786 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
3787
3788 * New targets
3789
3790 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
3791 CRIS cris-axis
3792 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
3793
3794 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3795
3796 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
3797 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3798 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3799 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3800 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3801 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3802 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3803 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3804 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3805 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3806 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3807 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3808 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3809 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
3810
3811 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3812 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3813
3814 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3815 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3816 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3817 permanently REMOVED.
3818
3819 * REMOVED configurations and files
3820
3821 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3822 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3823 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3824 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3825 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3826 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
3827
3828 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
3829
3830 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
3831 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3832 present.
3833
3834 * Other news:
3835
3836 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3837
3838 * The MI enabled by default.
3839
3840 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3841 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3842 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3843 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3844 which is now deprecated.
3845
3846 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3847
3848 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3849 main features are supported:
3850
3851 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3852
3853 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3854 extension;
3855
3856 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3857
3858 - a Pascal expression parser.
3859
3860 However, some important features are not yet supported.
3861
3862 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3863
3864 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3865
3866 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3867 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3868
3869 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3870
3871 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3872
3873 * Changes in completion.
3874
3875 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3876 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3877 users expect at the shell prompt.
3878
3879 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3880 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3881 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3882 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3883 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3884 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3885 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3886
3887 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3888
3889 * New platform-independent commands:
3890
3891 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3892 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3893 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3894
3895 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3896
3897 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3898 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3899 many threads as your system allows you to have.
3900
3901 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3902
3903 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3904 multi-threaded programs though.
3905
3906 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
3907
3908 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3909
3910 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3911 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3912 supported.)
3913
3914 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3915
3916 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3917 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3918 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3919 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3920 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3921 registers.
3922
3923 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3924 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3925 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3926
3927 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3928
3929 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3930 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3931
3932 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3933 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3934 IDT.
3935
3936 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3937 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3938 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3939 a given linear address.
3940
3941 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3942 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3943 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3944
3945 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3946
3947 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3948
3949 * Changes in documentation.
3950
3951 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3952 Documentation License.
3953
3954 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3955 manual.
3956
3957 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3958
3959 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3960 manual.
3961
3962 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3963 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3964 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3965
3966 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3967
3968 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3969 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3970 contents of this file.
3971
3972 * gdba.el deleted
3973
3974 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
3975
3976 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
3977
3978 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3979
3980 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3981 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3982 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3983 greater level of detail.
3984
3985 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3986
3987 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3988 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3989 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3990 written.
3991
3992 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3993
3994 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3995 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3996 machines ``out of the box''.
3997
3998 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3999 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4000 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4001 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4002 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4003
4004 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4005 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4006 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4007 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4008 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4009
4010 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4011 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4012 also works.
4013
4014 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4015 GDB.
4016
4017 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4018 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4019 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4020 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4021
4022 * New native configurations
4023
4024 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
4025 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4026
4027 * New targets
4028
4029 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
4030 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4031 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
4032 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4033
4034 * OBSOLETE configurations
4035
4036 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4037 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4038 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4039 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4040 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
4041
4042 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4043 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4044 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4045 be permanently REMOVED.
4046
4047 * Gould support removed
4048
4049 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4050
4051 * New features for SVR4
4052
4053 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4054 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4055 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4056
4057 * Many C++ enhancements
4058
4059 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4060 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4061
4062 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4063
4064 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4065 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4066 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4067 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4068
4069 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4070 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4071
4072 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
4073
4074 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4075 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4076 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4077
4078 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4079 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4080
4081 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4082
4083 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4084 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4085 include ``set remote P-packet''.
4086
4087 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4088
4089 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4090 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4091 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4092
4093 * ``apropos'' command added.
4094
4095 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4096 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4097 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4098
4099 * New MI interface
4100
4101 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4102 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
4103 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4104 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4105 enabled by configuring with:
4106
4107 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4108
4109 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4110
4111 * New native configurations
4112
4113 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4114 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
4115 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
4116
4117 * New targets
4118
4119 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4120 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4121 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4122
4123 * OBSOLETE configurations
4124
4125 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4126
4127 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4128 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4129 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4130 be permanently REMOVED.
4131
4132 * ANSI/ISO C
4133
4134 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4135 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4136 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4137 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4138 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4139 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4140 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4141 already.
4142
4143 * Readline 2.2
4144
4145 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4146
4147 * set extension-language
4148
4149 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4150 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4151 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4152 set extension-language .c c++
4153 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4154 and their associated languages.
4155
4156 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4157
4158 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4159 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4160 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4161
4162 set processor NAME
4163
4164 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4165 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4166
4167 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4168 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4169 403 IBM PowerPC 403
4170 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4171 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4172 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4173 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4174 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4175 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4176 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4177 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4178
4179 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4180 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4181 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4182 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4183
4184 * HP-UX support
4185
4186 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4187 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4188 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4189 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4190 for xdb and dbx commands.
4191
4192 * Catchpoints
4193
4194 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4195 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4196 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4197
4198 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4199 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4200 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4201
4202 * Debugging across forks
4203
4204 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4205 in the inferior.
4206
4207 * TUI
4208
4209 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4210 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4211 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4212
4213 * GDB remote protocol additions
4214
4215 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4216 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4217 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4218 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4219
4220 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4221 full 64-bit address. The command
4222
4223 set remoteaddresssize 32
4224
4225 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4226 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4227 will be discarded.
4228
4229 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4230 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4231
4232 maint packet heythere
4233
4234 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4235 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4236 time.
4237
4238 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4239 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4240 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4241
4242 * Tracing can collect general expressions
4243
4244 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4245 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4246 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4247
4248 * mask-address variable for Mips
4249
4250 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4251 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4252 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4253
4254 * Higher serial baud rates
4255
4256 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4257 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4258 to achieve all of these rates.)
4259
4260 * i960 simulator
4261
4262 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4263 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4264
4265
4266 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4267
4268 * New native configurations
4269
4270 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4271 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4272 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4273 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4274 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4275 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4276 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4277
4278 * New targets
4279
4280 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4281 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4282 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4283 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4284 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4285 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4286 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4287 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4288 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4289 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4290 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4291
4292 * New debugging protocols
4293
4294 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4295 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4296 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4297 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4298 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4299 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4300
4301 * DWARF 2
4302
4303 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4304 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4305 information.
4306
4307 * Java frontend
4308
4309 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4310 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4311
4312 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4313
4314 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4315 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4316 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4317
4318 * Live range splitting
4319
4320 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4321 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4322 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4323
4324 * Hurd support
4325
4326 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4327 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4328
4329 * ARM Thumb support
4330
4331 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4332 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4333 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4334 accordingly.
4335
4336 * MIPS16 support
4337
4338 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4339 instruction set.
4340
4341 * Overlay support
4342
4343 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4344 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4345 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4346 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4347 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4348 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4349
4350 * info symbol
4351
4352 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4353 the symbol at the specified address.
4354
4355 * Trace support
4356
4357 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4358 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4359 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4360 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4361 file tracepoint.c for more details.
4362
4363 * MIPS simulator
4364
4365 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4366 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4367 of most MIPS variants.
4368
4369 * Sparc simulator
4370
4371 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4372 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4373 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4374
4375 * set architecture
4376
4377 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4378 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4379 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4380 the possible architectures.
4381
4382 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4383
4384 * New native configurations
4385
4386 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4387 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4388 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4389 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4390 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4391 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4392
4393 * New targets
4394
4395 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4396 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4397 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4398 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4399 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4400 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4401 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4402
4403 * PowerPC simulator
4404
4405 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4406 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4407 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4408 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4409 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4410
4411 * Solaris 2.5
4412
4413 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4414
4415 * Windows 95/NT native
4416
4417 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4418 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4419 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4420 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4421 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4422
4423 * dont-repeat command
4424
4425 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4426 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4427 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4428 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4429
4430 * Send break instead of ^C
4431
4432 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4433 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4434 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4435
4436 * Remote protocol timeout
4437
4438 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4439 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4440 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4441
4442 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4443
4444 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4445 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4446 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4447 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4448 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4449
4450 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4451 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4452 automatically on hpux10.
4453
4454 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4455
4456 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4457
4458 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4459
4460 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4461 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4462 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4463 every character. The default value is 1050.
4464
4465 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4466
4467 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4468 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4469 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4470 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4471 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4472 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4473
4474 * Speedups for remote debugging
4475
4476 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4477 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4478 and more efficient S-record downloading.
4479
4480 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4481
4482 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4483 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4484
4485 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4486
4487 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
4488
4489 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4490 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4491
4492 * Remote targets use caching
4493
4494 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4495 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4496 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4497 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4498 off' turns the the data cache off.
4499
4500 * Remote targets may have threads
4501
4502 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4503 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4504 gdb/remote.c for details.
4505
4506 * NetROM support
4507
4508 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4509 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4510 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4511 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4512 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4513 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4514 sequence is something like
4515
4516 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4517 load <prog>
4518 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4519
4520 * Macintosh host
4521
4522 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4523 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4524 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4525 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4526 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4527 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4528 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4529 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4530
4531 * Autoconf
4532
4533 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4534 but does simplify configuration and building.
4535
4536 * hpux10
4537
4538 GDB now supports hpux10.
4539
4540 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4541
4542 * New native configurations
4543
4544 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4545 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4546 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4547 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4548
4549 * New targets
4550
4551 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4552 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4553 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4554 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4555 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4556
4557 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4558
4559 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4560 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4561 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4562 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4563 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4564
4565 * Arguments to user-defined commands
4566
4567 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4568 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4569 trivial example:
4570 define adder
4571 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4572
4573 To execute the command use:
4574 adder 1 2 3
4575
4576 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4577 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4578 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4579
4580 * New `if' and `while' commands
4581
4582 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4583 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4584 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4585 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4586 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4587 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4588 if the expression is zero.
4589
4590 * Fortran source language mode
4591
4592 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4593 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4594 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4595 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4596 Fortran compilers.
4597
4598 * Better HPUX support
4599
4600 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4601 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4602 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4603 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4604 that behavior do the following before running the program:
4605
4606 adb -w a.out
4607 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4608 control-d
4609
4610 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4611 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4612
4613 adb -w a.out
4614 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4615 control-d
4616
4617 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4618 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4619 external linkage.
4620
4621 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4622 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4623
4624 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4625
4626 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4627 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4628 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4629 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4630 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4631 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4632
4633 * New DOS host serial code
4634
4635 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4636 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4637 a PC's serial port.
4638
4639 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4640
4641 * New "complete" command
4642
4643 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4644 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4645
4646 * Trailing space optional in prompt
4647
4648 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4649 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4650
4651 * Breakpoint hit counts
4652
4653 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4654 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4655 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4656 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4657 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4658 that breakpoint.
4659
4660 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4661
4662 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4663 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4664 arrays actually contain only short strings.
4665
4666 * Shared library breakpoints
4667
4668 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4669 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4670
4671 * Hardware watchpoints
4672
4673 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4674 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4675
4676 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
4677
4678 * Annotations
4679
4680 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4681 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4682
4683 * Improved Irix 5 support
4684
4685 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4686
4687 * Improved HPPA support
4688
4689 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4690
4691 * New native configurations
4692
4693 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4694 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4695 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4696 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4697
4698 * New targets
4699
4700 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4701 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4702 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4703
4704 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4705
4706 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4707 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4708
4709 * Fixes
4710
4711 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4712 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4713
4714 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4715
4716 * Irix 5 is now supported
4717
4718 * HPPA support
4719
4720 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4721 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4722 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4723 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4724 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4725
4726
4727 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4728
4729 * User visible changes:
4730
4731 * Remote Debugging
4732
4733 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4734 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4735 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4736 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4737 debugging info for the mips target).
4738
4739 * DEC Alpha native support
4740
4741 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4742 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4743 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4744 Alpha-specific notes.
4745
4746 * Preliminary thread implementation
4747
4748 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4749
4750 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
4751
4752 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4753 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4754 for details).
4755
4756 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4757
4758 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4759 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4760 call methods, ...etc.
4761
4762 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4763
4764 * User visible changes:
4765
4766 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4767 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4768 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4769 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4770
4771 Filename completion now works.
4772
4773 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4774 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4775 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4776
4777 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4778 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4779 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4780 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4781 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4782
4783 * DEC alpha support
4784
4785 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4786 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4787
4788
4789 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4790
4791 * Testsuite
4792
4793 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4794 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4795 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4796
4797 * C++ demangling
4798
4799 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4800 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4801 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4802 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4803 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4804
4805 * Simulators
4806
4807 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4808 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4809 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4810
4811 * New targets supported
4812
4813 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4814 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4815 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4816 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4817 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4818
4819 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4820 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4821 GO32 memory extender.
4822
4823 * New remote protocols
4824
4825 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4826
4827 * New source languages supported
4828
4829 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4830 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4831 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4832
4833
4834 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4835
4836 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4837
4838 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4839 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4840 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4841 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4842 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4843 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4844
4845 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4846
4847 * Faster and better demangling
4848
4849 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4850 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4851 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4852 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4853 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4854 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4855 symbol lookups.
4856
4857 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4858 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4859 compiler does not actually implement.
4860
4861 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4862
4863 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4864 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4865 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4866 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4867 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4868 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4869 fix.
4870
4871 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4872 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4873
4874 * Improved configure script
4875
4876 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4877 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4878 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4879 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4880
4881 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4882 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4883 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4884 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4885 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4886 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4887
4888 * Documentation improvements
4889
4890 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4891 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4892 before submitting changes.
4893
4894 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4895 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4896 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4897 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4898 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4899
4900 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4901 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4902 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4903 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4904 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4905 around this problem.
4906
4907 * New features
4908
4909 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4910 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4911 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4912 the target program.
4913
4914 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4915 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4916
4917 * New native hosts supported
4918
4919 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4920 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4921
4922 * New targets supported
4923
4924 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4925
4926 * New file formats supported
4927
4928 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4929 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4930
4931 * Major bug fixes
4932
4933 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4934
4935 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4936 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4937
4938 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4939 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4940 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4941
4942 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4943 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4944
4945 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4946 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4947 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4948 libraries.
4949
4950 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4951 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4952 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4953 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4954 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4955
4956 * Internal improvements
4957
4958 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4959 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4960
4961 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4962 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4963 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4964 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4965 shared code that handles any of them.
4966
4967 * New command line options
4968
4969 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4970
4971 * Mmalloc licensing
4972
4973 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4974 General Public License.
4975
4976 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4977
4978 * Host/native/target split
4979
4980 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4981 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4982 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4983 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4984 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4985
4986 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4987 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4988 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4989 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4990 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4991 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4992 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4993
4994 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4995 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4996 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4997
4998 * New hosts supported
4999
5000 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5001 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5002 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5003
5004 * New targets supported
5005
5006 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5007 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5008
5009 * New native hosts supported
5010
5011 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5012 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5013 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5014
5015 * New file formats supported
5016
5017 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5018 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5019 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5020
5021 * New commands
5022
5023 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5024 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5025 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5026
5027 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5028
5029 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5030 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5031 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5032 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5033
5034 * C++ improvements
5035
5036 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5037 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5038 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5039
5040 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5041
5042 * Major bug fixes
5043
5044 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5045 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5046 by the compiler.
5047
5048 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5049 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5050
5051 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5052 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5053 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5054 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5055 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5056 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5057
5058 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5059 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5060 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5061 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5062
5063 * AMD 29k support
5064
5065 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5066 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5067 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5068 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5069 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5070
5071 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5072 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5073 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5074 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5075
5076 * Remote interfaces
5077
5078 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5079 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5080 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5081 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5082 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5083 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5084 each instruction being stepped through.
5085
5086 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5087 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5088
5089 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5090 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5091 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5092 processor with a serial port.
5093
5094 * Configuration
5095
5096 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5097 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5098 supported, and what files each one uses.
5099
5100 * Library changes
5101
5102 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5103 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5104 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5105 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5106
5107 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5108 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5109 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5110 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5111
5112 * Documentation
5113
5114 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5115 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5116 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5117 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5118 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5119 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5120
5121 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5122
5123
5124 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5125
5126 * Better support for C++ function names
5127
5128 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5129 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5130 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5131 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5132 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5133
5134 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5135 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5136 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5137 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5138 for the list of formats.
5139
5140 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5141
5142 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5143 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5144 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5145 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5146 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5147 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5148 this problem.)
5149
5150 * New 'maintenance' command
5151
5152 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5153 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5154 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5155
5156 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5157 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5158 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5159 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5160 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5161 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5162
5163 The following commands are new:
5164
5165 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5166 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5167 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5168
5169 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5170
5171 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5172 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5173 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5174 read after argv processing.
5175
5176 * New hosts supported
5177
5178 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5179
5180 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
5181
5182 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5183 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5184 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5185 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5186 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5187 It costs extra.
5188
5189 * New targets supported
5190
5191 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5192
5193 * More smarts about finding #include files
5194
5195 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5196 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5197 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5198 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5199 the one that contains your sources.
5200
5201 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5202 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5203 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5204
5205 * Interesting infernals change
5206
5207 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5208 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5209 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5210 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5211
5212 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5213
5214 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5215 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5216 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5217
5218 See the ChangeLog for details.
5219
5220 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5221
5222 * New machines supported (host and target)
5223
5224 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5225
5226 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5227
5228 * New malloc package
5229
5230 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5231 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5232 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5233 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5234 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5235 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5236
5237 * info proc
5238
5239 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5240 'help info proc' for details.
5241
5242 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5243
5244 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5245 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5246 possible.
5247
5248 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5249
5250 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5251 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5252 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5253 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5254 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5255 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5256
5257 * Cross byte order fixes
5258
5259 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5260 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5261
5262 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5263
5264 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5265 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5266 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5267 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5268 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5269 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5270 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5271 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5272 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5273 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5274
5275 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5276 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5277 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5278 slower, but makes future operations faster.
5279
5280 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5281 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5282 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5283 use is:
5284
5285 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5286
5287 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5288 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5289 shared across multiple host platforms.
5290
5291 * longjmp() handling
5292
5293 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5294 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5295 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5296 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5297
5298 * Solaris 2.0
5299
5300 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5301 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5302 reading symbols.
5303
5304 * Bug fixes
5305
5306 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5307 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5308 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5309
5310 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5311
5312 * New machines supported (host and target)
5313
5314 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5315 (except core files)
5316 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5317 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5318
5319 * New machines supported (target)
5320
5321 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5322
5323 * C++ support
5324
5325 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5326 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5327 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5328
5329 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5330 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5331 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5332 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5333 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5334 released.
5335
5336 * New features for SVR4
5337
5338 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5339 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5340 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5341
5342 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5343 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5344 it prints the address mappings of the process.
5345
5346 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5347 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5348
5349 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5350
5351 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5352 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5353 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5354 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5355 same code linked statically.
5356
5357 * New Getopt
5358
5359 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5360 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5361 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5362 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5363 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5364 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5365
5366 * Bugs fixed
5367
5368 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5369 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5370 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5371
5372
5373 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5374
5375 * New machines supported (host and target)
5376
5377 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5378 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5379 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5380
5381 * Almost SCO Unix support
5382
5383 We had hoped to support:
5384 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5385 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5386 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5387 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5388
5389 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5390
5391 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5392 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5393 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5394 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5395 reqired (if any).
5396
5397 * New Readline
5398
5399 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5400 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5401 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5402
5403 * Bugs fixed
5404
5405 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5406 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5407 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5408
5409 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5410
5411 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5412 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5413 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5414
5415 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5416 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5417 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5418 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5419 version 2.
5420
5421 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5422 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5423 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5424 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5425 situation somewhat.
5426
5427 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5428 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5429 methods.
5430
5431 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5432 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5433 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5434
5435
5436 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5437
5438 * Improved configuration
5439
5440 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5441 Porting BFD is simpler.
5442
5443 * Stepping improved
5444
5445 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5446 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5447 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5448 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5449
5450 * Bug fixing
5451
5452 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5453
5454 * New host supported (not target)
5455
5456 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5457
5458
5459 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5460
5461 * Multiple source language support
5462
5463 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5464 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5465 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5466 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5467 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5468 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5469
5470 * GDB and Modula-2
5471
5472 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5473 currently under development at the State University of New York at
5474 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5475 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5476
5477 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5478 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5479 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5480
5481 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5482 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5483
5484 * set write on/off
5485
5486 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5487 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5488 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5489 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5490 effect immediately.
5491
5492 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5493
5494 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5495 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5496 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5497 examining core files.
5498
5499 * set listsize
5500
5501 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5502 The default is 10.
5503
5504 * New machines supported (host and target)
5505
5506 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5507 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5508 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5509
5510 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5511
5512 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5513
5514 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5515
5516 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5517 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5518 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5519
5520 * New remote interfaces
5521
5522 AMD 29000 Adapt
5523 AMD 29000 Minimon
5524
5525
5526 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5527
5528 * New Facilities
5529
5530 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5531
5532 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5533 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5534 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5535 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5536 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5537 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5538 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5539 stub on the target system.
5540
5541 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5542
5543 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5544 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5545 object file types such as a.out and coff.
5546
5547 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5548 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5549
5550
5551 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5552
5553 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5554 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5555
5556 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5557 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5558 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5559
5560 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5561 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5562 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5563 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5564
5565 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5566 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5567 it is already running. Default is ON.
5568
5569 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5570 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5571 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5572 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5573 Default is ON.
5574
5575 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5576 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5577 or the value of the environment variable
5578 GDBHISTFILE.
5579
5580 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5581 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5582 HISTSIZE.
5583
5584 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5585 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5586 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5587
5588 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5589 history expansion will be performed on
5590 command line input. The default is OFF.
5591
5592 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5593 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5594 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5595
5596 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5597 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5598 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5599 variable TERM.
5600
5601 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5602 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5603 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5604 variable TERM.
5605
5606 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5607 ``set width'' instead.
5608
5609 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5610 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5611 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5612 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5613
5614 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5615 is OFF.
5616
5617 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5618 "raw" form if off.
5619
5620 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5621 like instructions.
5622
5623 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5624
5625
5626 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5627
5628 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5629 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5630 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5631 window.
5632
5633
5634 * Support for Shared Libraries
5635
5636 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5637 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5638 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5639 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5640 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5641 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5642 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5643 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5644
5645 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5646 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5647 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5648
5649 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5650
5651
5652 * Watchpoints
5653
5654 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5655 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5656 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5657 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5658 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5659 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5660
5661 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5662
5663 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5664
5665 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5666 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5667 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5668
5669
5670 * C++ multiple inheritance
5671
5672 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5673 for C++ programs.
5674
5675 * C++ exception handling
5676
5677 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5678 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5679 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5680 handler's context).
5681
5682 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5683 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5684 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5685
5686 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5687 current stack frame.
5688
5689
5690 * Minor command changes
5691
5692 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5693 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5694 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5695
5696 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5697 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5698 frames without printing.
5699
5700 * New directory command
5701
5702 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5703 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5704 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5705 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5706 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5707
5708 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5709
5710 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5711 for more details.
5712
5713 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5714 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5715 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5716 where the program that you are debugging will run.
5717
5718 * GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
5719
5720 * Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
5721
5722 Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers $zmm0 - $zmm31 and
5723 $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.