1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
7 now complete on file names.
9 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
10 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
11 For instance, consider:
13 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
14 # struct example variable;
17 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
18 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
23 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
26 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
27 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
28 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
30 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
32 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
33 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
34 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
36 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
39 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
40 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
42 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
43 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
44 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
46 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
47 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
49 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
51 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
52 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
54 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
55 list of section offsets.
57 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
58 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
61 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
63 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
65 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
66 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
68 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
69 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
70 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
72 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
73 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
77 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
78 available is determined at configure time.
82 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
84 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
86 maint set python print-stack
87 maint show python print-stack
88 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
91 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
93 set print symbol-loading
94 show print symbol-loading
95 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
99 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
104 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
106 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
107 show multiple-symbols
108 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
109 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
110 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
112 set breakpoint always-inserted
113 show breakpoint always-inserted
114 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
115 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
116 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
118 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
119 show arm fallback-mode
120 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
122 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
123 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
124 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
125 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
127 set disable-randomization
128 show disable-randomization
129 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
130 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
131 multiple debugging sessions.
135 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
140 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
143 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
145 * New native configurations
147 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
148 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
152 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
153 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
155 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
157 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
158 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
159 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
160 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
162 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
163 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
165 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
168 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
169 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
170 and in inlined functions.
172 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
173 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
174 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
176 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
178 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
179 registers on PowerPC targets.
181 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
182 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
184 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
185 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
187 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
188 extended-remote mode.
190 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
191 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
192 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
193 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
195 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
196 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
197 target architectures.
199 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
200 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
201 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
202 stored in two consecutive float registers.
204 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
207 * Improved support for debugging Ada
208 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
210 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
211 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
212 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
213 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
215 - Improved command completion in Ada
218 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
223 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
224 show print frame-arguments
225 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
226 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
231 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
238 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
247 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
250 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
254 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
256 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
258 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
259 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
260 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
262 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
263 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
264 -Bsymbolic linker option.
266 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
267 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
270 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
271 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
273 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
274 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
276 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
278 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
279 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
280 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
282 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
283 automatically displayed as character or string data.
285 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
286 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
289 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
290 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
291 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
293 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
296 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
297 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
298 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
300 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
302 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
304 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
305 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
306 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
308 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
309 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
311 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
312 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
313 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
314 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
315 Windows and SymbianOS).
317 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
318 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
320 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
321 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
327 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
328 when debugging using remote targets.
330 set mem inaccessible-by-default
331 show mem inaccessible-by-default
332 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
333 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
334 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
335 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
336 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
338 set breakpoint auto-hw
339 show breakpoint auto-hw
340 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
341 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
342 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
343 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
344 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
345 including "next" and "finish".
348 catch exception unhandled
349 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
352 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
356 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
357 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
358 an alias to "set sysroot".
361 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
362 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
365 * New native configurations
367 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
372 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
373 not query the target for its built-in description.
377 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
378 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
379 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
384 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
385 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
388 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
393 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
394 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
396 qXfer:libraries:read:
397 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
398 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
399 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
400 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
404 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
413 i[34567]86-*-netware*
414 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
415 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
417 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
420 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
421 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
430 * Other removed features
437 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
444 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
449 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
450 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
455 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
456 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
458 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
460 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
461 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
462 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
463 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
467 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
468 in debugging information.
472 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
473 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
475 set mips stack-arg-size
476 set mips saved-gpreg-size
478 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
480 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
485 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
487 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
488 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
489 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
491 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
492 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
495 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
496 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
498 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
499 stub provides the required support.
501 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
502 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
507 unset substitute-path
509 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
510 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
511 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
512 between compilation and debugging.
516 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
517 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
518 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
522 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
524 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
525 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
527 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
532 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
533 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
534 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
535 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
539 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
540 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
542 qXfer:memory-map:read:
543 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
544 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
549 Erase and program a flash memory device.
551 * Removed remote packets
554 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
555 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
557 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
561 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
563 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
567 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
568 only if it doesn't already have a value.
570 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
572 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
574 restart <n> Return the program state to a
575 previously saved state.
577 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
579 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
581 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
582 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
584 info forks List forks of the user program that
585 are available to be debugged.
587 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
588 forks of the user program that are
589 available to be debugged.
591 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
592 that are available to be debugged (and
593 kill the forked process).
595 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
596 that are available to be debugged (and
597 allow the process to continue).
601 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
603 * Improved Windows host support
605 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
606 native console support, and remote communications using either
607 network sockets or serial ports.
609 * Improved Modula-2 language support
611 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
612 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
613 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
614 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
615 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
616 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
620 The ARM rdi-share module.
622 The Netware NLM debug server.
624 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
626 * New native configurations
628 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
629 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
633 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
635 * New command line options
637 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
638 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
639 the child (debugged) program exited with.
640 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
641 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
642 specified multiple times and in conjunction
643 with the --command (-x) option.
645 * Deprecated commands removed
647 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
651 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
652 othernames set arm disassembler
653 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
654 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
655 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
658 * New BSD user-level threads support
660 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
661 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
664 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
665 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
666 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
668 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
669 are not yet supported.
671 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
672 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
674 * REMOVED configurations and files
676 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
677 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
678 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
680 * New "set print array-indexes" command
682 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
683 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
686 * VAX floating point support
688 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
690 * User-defined command support
692 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
693 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
694 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
696 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
698 * New command line option
700 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
703 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
705 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
706 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
707 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
708 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
709 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
711 * Internationalization
713 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
714 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
715 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
719 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
720 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
721 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
723 * New native configurations
725 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
729 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
730 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
732 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
734 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
735 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
736 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
739 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
740 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
741 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
753 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
754 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
756 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
758 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
759 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
760 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
770 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
772 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
774 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
775 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
778 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
780 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
781 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
782 IRIX long double values).
786 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
787 command. This problem has been fixed.
789 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
791 * Fix for ``many threads''
793 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
794 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
797 ptrace: No such process.
798 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
800 This problem has been fixed.
802 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
804 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
807 * New ``start'' command.
809 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
811 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
813 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
814 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
815 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
817 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
818 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
819 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
820 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
821 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
822 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
823 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
824 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
825 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
827 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
829 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
830 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
831 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
832 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
833 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
835 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
836 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
837 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
839 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
841 * New native configurations
843 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
844 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
845 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
846 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
847 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
848 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
849 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
851 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
853 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
854 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
855 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
856 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
857 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
858 work, was also included.
860 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
861 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
871 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
872 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
874 * REMOVED configurations and files
876 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
877 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
878 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
879 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
880 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
881 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
882 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
883 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
884 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
886 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
888 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
890 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
892 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
893 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
894 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
895 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
898 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
900 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
901 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
902 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
903 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
904 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
905 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
908 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
910 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
912 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
913 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
914 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
916 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
918 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
919 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
921 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
923 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
924 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
925 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
927 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
929 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
930 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
932 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
934 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
935 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
936 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
938 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
940 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
941 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
942 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
944 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
946 * Removed --with-mmalloc
948 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
949 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
951 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
953 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
954 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
955 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
956 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
958 * Revised SPARC target
960 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
961 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
962 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
963 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
964 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
968 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
969 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
970 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
973 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
975 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
976 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
979 * C++ nested types and namespaces
981 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
982 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
983 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
984 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
985 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
986 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
987 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
988 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
989 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
991 * New native configurations
993 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
994 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
995 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
996 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
997 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
999 * New debugging protocols
1001 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1003 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1005 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1006 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1007 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1009 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1011 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1012 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1013 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1014 permanently REMOVED.
1016 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1017 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1018 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1019 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1020 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1021 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1022 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1023 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1024 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1025 sonymips mips-sony-*
1026 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1028 * REMOVED configurations and files
1030 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1031 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1032 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1033 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1034 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1035 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1036 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1037 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1038 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1039 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1040 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1041 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1042 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1043 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1044 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1045 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1046 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1048 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1052 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1053 integrated into GDB.
1055 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1057 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1058 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1059 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1062 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1063 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1064 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1068 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1069 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1070 remote protocol documentation for details.
1072 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1074 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1075 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1076 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1079 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1081 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1082 per-thread variables.
1084 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1086 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1087 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1089 * Separate debug info.
1091 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1092 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1093 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1094 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1095 and optional debug files.
1097 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1099 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1100 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1103 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1104 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1108 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1109 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1110 considered "useable".
1112 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1114 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1115 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1118 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1120 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1121 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1123 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1125 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1126 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1129 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1131 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1132 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1136 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1137 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1138 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1139 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1140 data, for more informative profiling results.
1142 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1144 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1145 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1146 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1148 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1151 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1152 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1153 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1154 in a subsequent -var-update.
1156 * New native configurations.
1158 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1160 * Multi-arched targets.
1162 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1163 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1165 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1167 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1168 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1169 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1170 permanently REMOVED.
1172 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1173 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1174 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1175 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1176 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1177 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1178 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1179 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1180 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1181 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1182 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1183 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1185 * REMOVED configurations and files
1188 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1189 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1190 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1191 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1192 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1193 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1195 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1196 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1197 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1198 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1199 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1200 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1202 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1204 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1205 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1206 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1207 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1208 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1210 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1212 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1214 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1215 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1216 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1217 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1218 shared libs like mad''.
1220 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1222 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1223 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1224 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1225 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1227 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1229 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1230 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1233 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1234 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1236 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1237 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1239 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1240 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1241 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1242 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1244 * Multi-arched targets.
1246 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1247 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1249 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1250 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1251 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1255 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1258 * New native configurations
1260 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1261 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1262 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1263 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1265 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1267 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1268 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1269 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1270 permanently REMOVED.
1272 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1273 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1274 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1275 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1276 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1277 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1278 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1279 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1280 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1281 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1283 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1284 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1286 * OBSOLETE languages
1288 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1290 * REMOVED configurations and files
1292 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1293 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1294 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1295 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1296 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1298 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1300 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1302 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1303 commands. The default is 1024.
1305 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1307 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1309 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1311 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1312 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1313 from a file into memory (restore).
1315 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1317 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1318 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1319 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1321 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1329 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1330 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1331 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1333 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1334 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1335 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1337 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1338 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1339 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1341 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1342 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1343 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1345 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1347 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1349 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1350 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1351 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1352 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1353 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1354 (notably embedded) targets.
1356 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1358 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1359 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1360 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1361 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1363 * New command line option
1365 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1367 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1369 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1370 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1371 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1372 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1373 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1374 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1375 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1376 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1377 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1378 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1380 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1382 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1383 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1385 * New native configurations
1387 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1388 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1389 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1390 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1394 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1396 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1398 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1399 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1400 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1401 permanently REMOVED.
1403 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1404 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1405 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1406 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1407 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1409 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1411 * REMOVED configurations and files
1413 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1415 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1416 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1417 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1418 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1419 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1420 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1421 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1422 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1423 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1424 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1425 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1427 * Changes to command line processing
1429 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1430 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1432 * Changes to key bindings
1434 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1436 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1438 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1440 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1443 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1445 Numerous documentation fixes.
1447 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1449 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1451 * New native configurations
1453 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1454 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1455 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1456 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1457 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1458 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1462 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1464 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1466 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1468 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1469 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1470 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1471 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1472 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1474 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1475 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1476 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1477 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1478 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1479 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1480 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1481 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1483 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1484 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1486 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1487 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1488 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1489 permanently REMOVED.
1491 * REMOVED configurations and files
1493 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1494 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1496 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1500 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1502 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1503 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1508 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1510 * The MI enabled by default.
1512 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1513 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1514 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1515 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1516 which is now deprecated.
1518 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1520 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1521 main features are supported:
1523 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1525 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1528 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1530 - a Pascal expression parser.
1532 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1534 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1536 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1538 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1539 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1541 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1543 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1545 * Changes in completion.
1547 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1548 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1549 users expect at the shell prompt.
1551 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1552 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1553 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1554 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1555 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1556 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1557 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1559 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1561 * New platform-independent commands:
1563 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1564 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1565 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1567 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1569 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1570 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1571 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1573 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1575 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1576 multi-threaded programs though.
1578 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1580 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1582 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1583 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1586 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1588 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1589 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1590 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1591 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1592 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1595 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1596 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1597 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1599 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1601 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1602 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1604 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1605 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1608 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1609 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1610 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1611 a given linear address.
1613 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1614 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1615 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1617 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1619 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1621 * Changes in documentation.
1623 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1624 Documentation License.
1626 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1629 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1631 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1634 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1635 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1636 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1638 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1640 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1641 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1642 contents of this file.
1646 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1648 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1650 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1652 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1653 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1654 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1655 greater level of detail.
1657 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1659 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1660 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1661 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1664 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1666 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1667 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1668 machines ``out of the box''.
1670 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1671 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1672 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1673 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1674 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1676 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1677 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1678 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1679 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1680 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1682 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1683 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1686 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1689 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1690 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1691 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1692 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1694 * New native configurations
1696 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1697 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1701 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1702 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1703 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1704 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1706 * OBSOLETE configurations
1708 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1709 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1711 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1714 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1715 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1716 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1717 be permanently REMOVED.
1719 * Gould support removed
1721 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1723 * New features for SVR4
1725 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1726 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1727 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1729 * Many C++ enhancements
1731 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1732 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1734 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1736 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1737 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1738 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1739 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1741 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1742 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1744 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1746 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1747 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1748 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1750 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1751 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1753 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1755 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1756 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1757 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1759 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1761 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1762 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1763 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1765 * ``apropos'' command added.
1767 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1768 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1769 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1773 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1774 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1775 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1776 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1777 enabled by configuring with:
1779 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1781 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1783 * New native configurations
1785 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1786 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1787 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1791 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1792 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1793 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1795 * OBSOLETE configurations
1797 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1799 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1800 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1801 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1802 be permanently REMOVED.
1806 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1807 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1808 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1809 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1810 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1811 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1812 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1817 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1819 * set extension-language
1821 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1822 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1823 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1824 set extension-language .c c++
1825 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1826 and their associated languages.
1828 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1830 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1831 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1832 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1836 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1837 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1839 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1840 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1842 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1843 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1844 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1845 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1846 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1847 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1848 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1849 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1851 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1852 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1853 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1854 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1858 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1859 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1860 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1861 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1862 for xdb and dbx commands.
1866 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1867 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1868 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1870 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1871 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1872 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1874 * Debugging across forks
1876 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1881 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1882 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1883 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1885 * GDB remote protocol additions
1887 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1888 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1889 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1890 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1892 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1893 full 64-bit address. The command
1895 set remoteaddresssize 32
1897 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1898 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1901 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1902 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1904 maint packet heythere
1906 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1907 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1910 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1911 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1912 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1914 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1916 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1917 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1918 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1920 * mask-address variable for Mips
1922 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1923 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1924 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1926 * Higher serial baud rates
1928 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1929 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1930 to achieve all of these rates.)
1934 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1935 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1938 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1940 * New native configurations
1942 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1943 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1944 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1945 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1946 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1947 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1948 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1952 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1953 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1954 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1955 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1956 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1957 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1958 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1959 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1960 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1961 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1962 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1964 * New debugging protocols
1966 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1967 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1968 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1969 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1970 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1971 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1975 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1976 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1981 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1982 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1984 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1986 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1987 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1988 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1990 * Live range splitting
1992 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1993 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1994 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1998 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1999 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2003 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2004 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2005 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2010 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2015 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2016 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2017 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2018 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2019 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2020 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2024 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2025 the symbol at the specified address.
2029 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2030 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2031 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2032 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2033 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2037 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2038 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2039 of most MIPS variants.
2043 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2044 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2045 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2049 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2050 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2051 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2052 the possible architectures.
2054 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2056 * New native configurations
2058 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2059 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2060 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2061 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2062 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2063 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2067 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2068 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2069 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2070 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2071 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2073 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2077 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2078 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2079 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2080 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2081 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2085 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2087 * Windows 95/NT native
2089 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2090 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2091 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2092 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2093 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2095 * dont-repeat command
2097 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2098 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2099 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2100 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2102 * Send break instead of ^C
2104 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2105 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2106 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2108 * Remote protocol timeout
2110 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2111 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2112 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2114 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2116 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2117 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2118 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2119 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2120 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2122 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2123 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2124 automatically on hpux10.
2126 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2128 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2130 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2132 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2133 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2134 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2135 every character. The default value is 1050.
2137 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2139 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2140 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2141 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2142 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2143 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2144 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2146 * Speedups for remote debugging
2148 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2149 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2150 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2152 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2154 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2155 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2157 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2159 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2161 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2162 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2164 * Remote targets use caching
2166 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2167 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2168 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2169 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2170 off' turns the the data cache off.
2172 * Remote targets may have threads
2174 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2175 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2176 gdb/remote.c for details.
2180 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2181 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2182 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2183 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2184 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2185 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2186 sequence is something like
2188 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2190 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2194 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2195 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2196 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2197 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2198 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2199 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2200 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2201 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2205 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2206 but does simplify configuration and building.
2210 GDB now supports hpux10.
2212 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2214 * New native configurations
2216 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2217 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2218 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2219 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2223 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2224 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2225 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2226 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2229 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2231 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2232 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2233 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2234 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2235 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2237 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2239 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2240 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2243 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2245 To execute the command use:
2248 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2249 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2250 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2252 * New `if' and `while' commands
2254 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2255 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2256 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2257 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2258 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2259 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2260 if the expression is zero.
2262 * Fortran source language mode
2264 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2265 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2266 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2267 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2270 * Better HPUX support
2272 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2273 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2274 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2275 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2276 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2282 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2283 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2289 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2290 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2293 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2294 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2296 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2298 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2299 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2300 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2301 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2302 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2303 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2305 * New DOS host serial code
2307 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2308 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2311 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2313 * New "complete" command
2315 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2316 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2318 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2320 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2321 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2323 * Breakpoint hit counts
2325 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2326 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2327 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2328 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2329 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2332 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2334 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2335 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2336 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2338 * Shared library breakpoints
2340 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2341 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2343 * Hardware watchpoints
2345 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2346 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2348 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2352 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2353 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2355 * Improved Irix 5 support
2357 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2359 * Improved HPPA support
2361 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2363 * New native configurations
2365 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2366 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2367 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2368 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2372 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2373 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2376 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2378 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2379 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2383 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2384 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2386 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2388 * Irix 5 is now supported
2392 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2393 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2394 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2395 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2396 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2399 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2401 * User visible changes:
2405 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2406 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2407 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2408 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2409 debugging info for the mips target).
2411 * DEC Alpha native support
2413 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2414 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2415 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2416 Alpha-specific notes.
2418 * Preliminary thread implementation
2420 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2422 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2424 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2425 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2428 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2430 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2431 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2432 call methods, ...etc.
2434 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2436 * User visible changes:
2438 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2439 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2440 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2441 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2443 Filename completion now works.
2445 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2446 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2447 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2449 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2450 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2451 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2452 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2453 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2457 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2458 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2461 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2465 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2466 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2467 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2471 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2472 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2473 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2474 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2475 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2479 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2480 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2481 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2483 * New targets supported
2485 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2486 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2487 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2488 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2489 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2491 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2492 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2493 GO32 memory extender.
2495 * New remote protocols
2497 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2499 * New source languages supported
2501 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2502 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2503 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2506 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2508 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2510 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2511 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2512 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2513 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2514 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2515 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2517 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2519 * Faster and better demangling
2521 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2522 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2523 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2524 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2525 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2526 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2529 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2530 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2531 compiler does not actually implement.
2533 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2535 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2536 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2537 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2538 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2539 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2540 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2543 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2544 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2546 * Improved configure script
2548 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2549 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2550 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2551 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2553 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2554 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2555 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2556 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2557 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2558 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2560 * Documentation improvements
2562 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2563 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2564 before submitting changes.
2566 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2567 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2568 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2569 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2570 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2572 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2573 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2574 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2575 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2576 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2577 around this problem.
2581 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2582 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2583 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2586 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2587 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2589 * New native hosts supported
2591 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2592 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2594 * New targets supported
2596 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2598 * New file formats supported
2600 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2601 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2605 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2607 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2608 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2610 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2611 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2612 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2614 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2615 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2617 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2618 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2619 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2622 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2623 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2624 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2625 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2626 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2628 * Internal improvements
2630 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2631 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2633 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2634 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2635 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2636 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2637 shared code that handles any of them.
2639 * New command line options
2641 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2645 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2646 General Public License.
2648 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2650 * Host/native/target split
2652 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2653 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2654 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2655 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2656 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2658 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2659 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2660 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2661 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2662 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2663 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2664 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2666 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2667 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2668 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2670 * New hosts supported
2672 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2673 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2674 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2676 * New targets supported
2678 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2679 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2681 * New native hosts supported
2683 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2684 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2685 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2687 * New file formats supported
2689 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2690 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2691 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2695 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2696 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2697 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2699 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2701 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2702 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2703 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2704 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2708 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2709 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2710 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2712 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2716 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2717 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2720 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2721 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2723 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2724 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2725 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2726 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2727 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2728 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2730 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2731 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2732 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2733 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2737 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2738 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2739 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2740 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2741 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2743 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2744 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2745 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2746 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2750 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2751 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2752 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2753 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2754 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2755 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2756 each instruction being stepped through.
2758 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2759 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2761 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2762 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2763 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2764 processor with a serial port.
2768 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2769 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2770 supported, and what files each one uses.
2774 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2775 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2776 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2777 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2779 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2780 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2781 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2782 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2786 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2787 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2788 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2789 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2790 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2791 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2793 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2796 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2798 * Better support for C++ function names
2800 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2801 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2802 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2803 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2804 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2806 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2807 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2808 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2809 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2810 for the list of formats.
2812 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2814 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2815 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2816 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2817 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2818 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2819 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2822 * New 'maintenance' command
2824 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2825 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2826 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2828 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2829 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2830 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2831 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2832 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2833 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2835 The following commands are new:
2837 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2838 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2839 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2841 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2843 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2844 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2845 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2846 read after argv processing.
2848 * New hosts supported
2850 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2852 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2854 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2855 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2856 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2857 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2858 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2861 * New targets supported
2863 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2865 * More smarts about finding #include files
2867 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2868 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2869 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2870 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2871 the one that contains your sources.
2873 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2874 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2875 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2877 * Interesting infernals change
2879 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2880 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2881 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2882 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2884 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2886 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2887 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2888 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2890 See the ChangeLog for details.
2892 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2894 * New machines supported (host and target)
2896 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2898 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2900 * New malloc package
2902 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2903 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2904 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2905 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2906 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2907 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2911 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2912 'help info proc' for details.
2914 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2916 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2917 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2920 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2922 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2923 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2924 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2925 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2926 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2927 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2929 * Cross byte order fixes
2931 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2932 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2934 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2936 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2937 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2938 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2939 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2940 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2941 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2942 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2943 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2944 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2945 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2947 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2948 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2949 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2950 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2952 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2953 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2954 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2957 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2959 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2960 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2961 shared across multiple host platforms.
2963 * longjmp() handling
2965 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2966 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2967 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2968 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2972 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2973 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2978 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2979 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2980 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2982 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2984 * New machines supported (host and target)
2986 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2988 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2989 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2991 * New machines supported (target)
2993 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2997 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2998 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2999 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3001 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3002 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3003 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3004 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3005 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3008 * New features for SVR4
3010 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3011 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3012 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3014 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3015 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3016 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3018 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3019 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3021 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3023 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3024 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3025 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3026 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3027 same code linked statically.
3031 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3032 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3033 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3034 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3035 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3036 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3040 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3041 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3042 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3045 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3047 * New machines supported (host and target)
3049 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3050 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3051 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3053 * Almost SCO Unix support
3055 We had hoped to support:
3056 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3057 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3058 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3059 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3061 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3063 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3064 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3065 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3066 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3071 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3072 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3073 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3077 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3078 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3079 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3081 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3083 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3084 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3085 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3087 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3088 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3089 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3090 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3093 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3094 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3095 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3096 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3099 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3100 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3103 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3104 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3105 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3108 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3110 * Improved configuration
3112 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3113 Porting BFD is simpler.
3117 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3118 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3119 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3120 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3124 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3126 * New host supported (not target)
3128 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3131 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3133 * Multiple source language support
3135 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3136 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3137 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3138 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3139 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3140 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3144 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3145 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3146 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3147 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3149 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3150 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3151 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3153 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3154 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3158 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3159 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3160 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3161 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3164 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3166 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3167 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3168 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3169 examining core files.
3173 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3176 * New machines supported (host and target)
3178 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3179 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3180 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3182 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3184 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3186 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3188 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3189 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3190 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3192 * New remote interfaces
3198 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3202 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3204 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3205 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3206 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3207 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3208 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3209 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3210 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3211 stub on the target system.
3213 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3215 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3216 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3217 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3219 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3220 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3223 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3225 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3226 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3228 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3229 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3230 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3232 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3233 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3234 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3235 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3237 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3238 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3239 it is already running. Default is ON.
3241 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3242 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3243 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3244 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3247 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3248 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3249 or the value of the environment variable
3252 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3253 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3256 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3257 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3258 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3260 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3261 history expansion will be performed on
3262 command line input. The default is OFF.
3264 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3265 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3266 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3268 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3269 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3270 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3273 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3274 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3275 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3278 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3279 ``set width'' instead.
3281 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3282 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3283 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3284 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3286 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3289 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3292 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3295 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3298 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3300 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3301 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3302 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3306 * Support for Shared Libraries
3308 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3309 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3310 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3311 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3312 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3313 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3314 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3315 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3317 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3318 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3319 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3321 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3326 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3327 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3328 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3329 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3330 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3331 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3333 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3335 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3337 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3338 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3339 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3342 * C++ multiple inheritance
3344 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3347 * C++ exception handling
3349 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3350 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3351 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3354 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3355 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3356 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3358 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3359 current stack frame.
3362 * Minor command changes
3364 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3365 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3366 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3368 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3369 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3370 frames without printing.
3372 * New directory command
3374 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3375 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3376 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3377 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3378 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3380 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3382 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3385 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3386 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3387 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3388 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob