1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.1
12 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
13 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
14 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
15 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
16 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
20 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
21 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
26 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
27 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
31 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
36 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
39 * Multi-program debugging.
41 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
42 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
43 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
44 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
45 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
46 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
47 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
48 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
50 * New tracing features
52 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
54 ** Trace state variables
56 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
57 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
58 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
59 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
60 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
61 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
62 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
63 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
64 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
65 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
69 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
70 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
71 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
72 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
73 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
74 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
75 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
76 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
77 the regular trace command.
79 ** Disconnected tracing
81 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
82 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
83 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
84 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
85 connection is lost unexpectedly.
89 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
90 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
91 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
92 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
93 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
94 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
100 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
101 the arguments to be comma-separated.
104 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
105 which only declare a variable are not shown.
108 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
109 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
112 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
113 "set script-extension" (see below).
115 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
117 record save [<FILENAME>]
118 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
119 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
121 record restore <FILENAME>
122 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
123 earlier time, for replay debugging.
125 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
128 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
129 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
135 maint info program-spaces
136 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
138 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
139 show remote interrupt-sequence
140 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
141 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
142 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
143 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
144 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
146 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
147 show remote interrupt-on-connect
148 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
149 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
152 set remotebreak [on | off]
154 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
156 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
157 Create or modify a trace state variable.
160 List trace state variables and their values.
162 delete tvariable $NAME ...
163 Delete one or more trace state variables.
166 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
167 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
169 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
170 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
172 * New expression syntax
174 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
175 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
179 set follow-exec-mode new|same
180 show follow-exec-mode
181 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
182 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
183 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
185 set default-collect EXPR, ...
187 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
188 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
189 such as registers or a critical global variable.
191 set disconnected-tracing
192 show disconnected-tracing
193 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
194 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
197 set script-extension off|soft|strict
198 show script-extension
199 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
200 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
201 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
202 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
204 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
206 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
207 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
208 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
209 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
210 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
211 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
212 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
215 * Python API Improvements
217 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
218 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
219 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
221 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
222 `is_base_class' attribute.
224 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
226 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
227 evaluate an expression.
232 Define a trace state variable.
235 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
238 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
241 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
245 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
247 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
248 much more reliable. In particular:
249 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
250 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
251 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
252 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
253 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
254 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
255 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
256 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
257 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
258 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
259 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
260 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
261 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
262 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
263 non-threaded programs.
265 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
266 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
267 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
270 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
272 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
273 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
274 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
275 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
276 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
278 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
279 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
280 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
281 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
282 for tracepoint actions.
284 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
285 in hex as well as in symbolic form.
287 * Process record and replay
289 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
290 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
291 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
294 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
295 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
296 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
299 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
300 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
303 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
304 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
305 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
306 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
307 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
308 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
309 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
310 the installation instructions for more information.
312 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
313 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
314 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
315 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
317 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
318 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
320 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
321 now complete on file names.
323 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
324 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
325 For instance, consider:
327 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
328 # struct example variable;
331 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
332 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
334 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
335 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
337 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
338 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
341 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
342 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
343 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
345 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
346 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
347 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
348 and simulator targets may also provide them.
353 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
356 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
357 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
358 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
361 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
362 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
365 Obtains additional operating system information
369 Read or write additional signal information.
371 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
373 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
374 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
375 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
377 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
380 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
381 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
383 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
384 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
385 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
387 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
388 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
390 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
392 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
394 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
395 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
397 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
398 list of section offsets.
400 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
401 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
402 have also been fixed.
404 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
405 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
406 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
408 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
411 template<typename T> class C { };
414 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
416 ptype C<char const *>
418 ptype C<const char *>
421 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
423 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
424 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
426 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
427 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
428 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
430 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
431 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
433 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
436 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
437 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
439 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
440 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
445 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
446 available is determined at configure time.
448 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
450 * Ada tasking support
452 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
456 Print the list of Ada tasks.
458 Print detailed information about task number N.
460 Print the task number of the current task.
462 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
464 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
465 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
467 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
469 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
470 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
471 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
472 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
473 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
474 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
477 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
478 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
481 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
482 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
483 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
484 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
487 * Multi-architecture debugging.
489 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
490 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
491 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
492 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
493 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
495 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
496 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
497 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
498 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
499 --enable-targets configure option.
501 * Non-stop mode debugging.
503 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
504 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
505 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
506 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
507 section in the user manual for more information.
509 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
510 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
511 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
512 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
513 extensions on linux targets.
515 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
517 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
518 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
519 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
520 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
521 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
522 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
523 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
524 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
525 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
527 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
529 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
531 maint set python print-stack
532 maint show python print-stack
533 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
536 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
541 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
545 Show operating system information about processes.
548 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
551 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
554 Detach from inferior number NUM.
557 Kill inferior number NUM.
562 show spu stop-on-load
563 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
565 set spu auto-flush-cache
566 show spu auto-flush-cache
567 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
568 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
570 set sh calling-convention
571 show sh calling-convention
572 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
576 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
578 set disassemble-next-line
579 show disassemble-next-line
580 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
583 set remote noack-packet
584 show remote noack-packet
585 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
586 under "New remote packets."
588 set remote query-attached-packet
589 show remote query-attached-packet
590 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
592 set remote read-siginfo-object
593 show remote read-siginfo-object
594 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
597 set remote write-siginfo-object
598 show remote write-siginfo-object
599 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
602 set remote reverse-continue
603 show remote reverse-continue
604 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
606 set remote reverse-step
607 show remote reverse-step
608 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
610 set displaced-stepping
611 show displaced-stepping
612 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
613 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
614 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
618 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
620 maint set internal-error
621 maint show internal-error
622 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
624 maint set internal-warning
625 maint show internal-warning
626 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
631 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
633 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
634 show multiple-symbols
635 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
636 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
637 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
639 set breakpoint always-inserted
640 show breakpoint always-inserted
641 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
642 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
643 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
645 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
646 show arm fallback-mode
647 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
649 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
650 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
651 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
652 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
654 set disable-randomization
655 show disable-randomization
656 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
657 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
658 multiple debugging sessions.
662 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
667 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
668 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
669 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
670 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
672 set target-wide-charset
673 show target-wide-charset
674 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
675 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
677 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
679 set tcp connect-timeout
680 show tcp connect-timeout
681 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
682 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
683 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
685 set libthread-db-search-path
686 show libthread-db-search-path
687 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
690 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
691 show schedule-multiple
692 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
697 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
698 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
699 affecting correctness.
701 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
702 show interactive-mode
703 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
704 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
705 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
706 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
707 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
712 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
713 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
714 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
718 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
719 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
720 alias for the `fork' command.
723 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
724 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
725 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
728 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
729 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
730 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
734 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
735 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
736 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
739 * New native configurations
741 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
743 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
747 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
748 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
749 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
752 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
753 (mingw32ce) debugging.
759 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
761 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
763 * New native configurations
765 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
766 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
770 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
771 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
773 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
775 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
776 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
777 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
778 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
780 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
781 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
783 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
786 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
787 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
788 and in inlined functions.
790 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
791 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
792 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
794 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
796 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
797 registers on PowerPC targets.
799 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
800 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
802 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
803 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
805 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
806 extended-remote mode.
808 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
809 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
810 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
811 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
813 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
814 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
815 target architectures.
817 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
818 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
819 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
820 stored in two consecutive float registers.
822 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
825 * Improved support for debugging Ada
826 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
828 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
829 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
830 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
831 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
833 - Improved command completion in Ada
836 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
841 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
842 show print frame-arguments
843 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
844 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
849 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
856 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
865 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
868 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
872 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
874 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
876 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
877 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
878 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
880 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
881 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
882 -Bsymbolic linker option.
884 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
885 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
888 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
889 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
891 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
892 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
894 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
896 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
897 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
898 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
900 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
901 automatically displayed as character or string data.
903 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
904 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
907 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
908 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
909 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
911 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
914 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
915 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
916 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
918 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
920 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
922 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
923 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
924 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
926 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
927 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
929 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
930 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
931 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
932 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
933 Windows and SymbianOS).
935 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
936 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
938 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
939 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
945 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
946 when debugging using remote targets.
948 set mem inaccessible-by-default
949 show mem inaccessible-by-default
950 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
951 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
952 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
953 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
954 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
956 set breakpoint auto-hw
957 show breakpoint auto-hw
958 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
959 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
960 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
961 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
962 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
963 including "next" and "finish".
966 catch exception unhandled
967 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
970 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
974 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
975 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
976 an alias to "set sysroot".
979 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
980 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
983 * New native configurations
985 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
990 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
991 not query the target for its built-in description.
995 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
996 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
997 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1002 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1003 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1005 qXfer:features:read:
1006 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1011 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1012 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1014 qXfer:libraries:read:
1015 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1016 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1017 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1018 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1022 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1030 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1031 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1032 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1033 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1035 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1038 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1039 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1048 * Other removed features
1055 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1062 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1067 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1068 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1073 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1074 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1076 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1078 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1079 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1080 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1081 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1083 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1085 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1086 in debugging information.
1090 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1091 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1093 set mips stack-arg-size
1094 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1096 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1098 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1103 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1105 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1106 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1107 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1109 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1110 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1113 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1114 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1116 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1117 stub provides the required support.
1119 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1120 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1125 unset substitute-path
1126 show substitute-path
1127 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1128 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1129 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1130 between compilation and debugging.
1134 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1135 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1136 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1140 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1142 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1143 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1145 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1147 * New remote packets
1150 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1151 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1152 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1153 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1157 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1158 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1160 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1161 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1162 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1167 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1169 * Removed remote packets
1172 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1173 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1175 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1179 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1181 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1185 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1186 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1188 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1190 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1192 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1193 previously saved state.
1195 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1197 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1199 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1200 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1202 info forks List forks of the user program that
1203 are available to be debugged.
1205 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1206 forks of the user program that are
1207 available to be debugged.
1209 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1210 that are available to be debugged (and
1211 kill the forked process).
1213 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1214 that are available to be debugged (and
1215 allow the process to continue).
1219 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1221 * Improved Windows host support
1223 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1224 native console support, and remote communications using either
1225 network sockets or serial ports.
1227 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1229 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1230 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1231 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1232 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1233 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1234 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1238 The ARM rdi-share module.
1240 The Netware NLM debug server.
1242 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1244 * New native configurations
1246 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1247 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1251 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1253 * New command line options
1255 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1256 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1257 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1258 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1259 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1260 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1261 with the --command (-x) option.
1263 * Deprecated commands removed
1265 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1269 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1270 othernames set arm disassembler
1271 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1272 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1273 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1276 * New BSD user-level threads support
1278 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1279 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1282 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1283 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1284 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1286 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1287 are not yet supported.
1289 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1290 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1292 * REMOVED configurations and files
1294 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1295 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1296 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1298 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1300 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1301 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1304 * VAX floating point support
1306 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1308 * User-defined command support
1310 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1311 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1312 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1314 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1316 * New command line option
1318 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1321 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1323 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1324 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1325 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1326 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1327 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1329 * Internationalization
1331 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1332 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1333 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1337 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1338 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1339 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1341 * New native configurations
1343 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1347 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1348 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1350 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1352 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1353 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1354 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1357 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1358 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1359 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1369 powerpc bdm protocol
1371 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1372 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1374 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1376 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1377 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1378 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1379 permanently REMOVED.
1388 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1390 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1392 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1393 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1396 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1398 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1399 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1400 IRIX long double values).
1404 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1405 command. This problem has been fixed.
1407 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1409 * Fix for ``many threads''
1411 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1412 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1415 ptrace: No such process.
1416 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1418 This problem has been fixed.
1420 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1422 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1425 * New ``start'' command.
1427 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1429 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1431 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1432 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1433 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1435 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1436 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1437 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1438 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1439 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1440 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1441 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1442 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1443 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1445 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1447 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1448 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1449 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1450 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1451 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1453 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1454 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1455 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1457 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1459 * New native configurations
1461 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1462 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1463 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1464 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1465 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1466 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1467 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1469 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1471 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1472 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1473 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1474 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1475 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1476 work, was also included.
1478 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1479 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1489 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1490 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1492 * REMOVED configurations and files
1494 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1495 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1496 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1497 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1498 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1499 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1500 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1501 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1502 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1503 sonymips mips-sony-*
1504 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1506 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1508 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1510 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1511 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1512 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1513 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1516 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1518 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1519 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1520 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1521 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1522 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1523 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1526 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1528 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1530 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1531 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1532 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1534 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1536 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1537 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1539 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1541 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1542 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1543 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1545 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1547 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1548 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1550 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1552 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1553 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1554 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1556 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1558 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1559 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1560 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1562 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1564 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1566 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1567 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1569 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1571 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1572 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1573 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1574 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1576 * Revised SPARC target
1578 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1579 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1580 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1581 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1582 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1586 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1587 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1588 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1591 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1593 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1594 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1597 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1599 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1600 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1601 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1602 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1603 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1604 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1605 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1606 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1607 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1609 * New native configurations
1611 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1612 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1613 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1614 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1615 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1617 * New debugging protocols
1619 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1621 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1623 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1624 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1625 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1627 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1629 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1630 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1631 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1632 permanently REMOVED.
1634 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1635 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1636 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1637 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1638 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1639 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1640 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1641 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1642 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1643 sonymips mips-sony-*
1644 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1646 * REMOVED configurations and files
1648 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1649 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1650 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1651 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1652 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1653 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1654 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1655 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1656 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1657 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1658 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1659 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1660 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1661 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1662 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1663 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1664 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1666 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1670 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1671 integrated into GDB.
1673 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1675 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1676 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1677 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1680 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1681 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1682 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1686 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1687 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1688 remote protocol documentation for details.
1690 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1692 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1693 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1694 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1697 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1699 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1700 per-thread variables.
1702 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1704 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1705 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1707 * Separate debug info.
1709 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1710 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1711 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1712 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1713 and optional debug files.
1715 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1717 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1718 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1721 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1722 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1726 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1727 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1728 considered "useable".
1730 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1732 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1733 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1736 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1738 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1739 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1741 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1743 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1744 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1747 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1749 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1750 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1754 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1755 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1756 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1757 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1758 data, for more informative profiling results.
1760 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1762 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1763 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1764 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1766 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1769 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1770 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1771 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1772 in a subsequent -var-update.
1774 * New native configurations.
1776 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1778 * Multi-arched targets.
1780 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1781 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1783 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1785 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1786 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1787 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1788 permanently REMOVED.
1790 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1791 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1792 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1793 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1794 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1795 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1796 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1797 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1798 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1799 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1800 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1801 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1803 * REMOVED configurations and files
1806 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1807 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1808 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1809 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1810 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1811 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1813 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1814 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1815 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1816 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1817 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1818 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1820 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1822 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1823 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1824 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1825 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1826 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1828 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1830 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1832 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1833 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1834 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1835 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1836 shared libs like mad''.
1838 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1840 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1841 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1842 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1843 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1845 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1847 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1848 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1851 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1852 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1854 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1855 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1857 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1858 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1859 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1860 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1862 * Multi-arched targets.
1864 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1865 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1867 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1868 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1869 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1873 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1876 * New native configurations
1878 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1879 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1880 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1881 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1883 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1885 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1886 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1887 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1888 permanently REMOVED.
1890 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1891 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1892 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1893 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1894 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1895 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1896 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1897 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1898 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1899 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1901 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1902 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1904 * OBSOLETE languages
1906 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1908 * REMOVED configurations and files
1910 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1911 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1912 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1913 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1914 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1916 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1918 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1920 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1921 commands. The default is 1024.
1923 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1925 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1927 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1929 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1930 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1931 from a file into memory (restore).
1933 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1935 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1936 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1937 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1939 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1947 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1948 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1949 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1951 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1952 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1953 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1955 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1956 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1957 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1959 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1960 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1961 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1963 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1965 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1967 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1968 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1969 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1970 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1971 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1972 (notably embedded) targets.
1974 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1976 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1977 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1978 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1979 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1981 * New command line option
1983 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1985 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1987 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1988 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1989 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1990 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1991 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1992 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1993 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1994 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1995 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1996 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1998 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2000 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2001 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2003 * New native configurations
2005 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2006 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2007 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2008 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2012 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2014 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2016 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2017 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2018 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2019 permanently REMOVED.
2021 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2022 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2023 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2024 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2025 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2027 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2029 * REMOVED configurations and files
2031 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2033 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2034 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2035 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2036 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2037 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2038 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2039 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2040 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2041 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2042 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2043 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2045 * Changes to command line processing
2047 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2048 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2050 * Changes to key bindings
2052 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2054 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2056 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2058 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2061 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2063 Numerous documentation fixes.
2065 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2067 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2069 * New native configurations
2071 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2072 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2073 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2074 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2075 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2076 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2080 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2082 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2084 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2086 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2087 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2088 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2089 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2090 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2092 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2093 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2094 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2095 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2096 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2097 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2098 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2099 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2101 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2102 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2104 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2105 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2106 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2107 permanently REMOVED.
2109 * REMOVED configurations and files
2111 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2112 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2114 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2118 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2120 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2121 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2126 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2128 * The MI enabled by default.
2130 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2131 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2132 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2133 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2134 which is now deprecated.
2136 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2138 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2139 main features are supported:
2141 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2143 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2146 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2148 - a Pascal expression parser.
2150 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2152 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2154 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2156 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2157 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2159 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2161 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2163 * Changes in completion.
2165 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2166 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2167 users expect at the shell prompt.
2169 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2170 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2171 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2172 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2173 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2174 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2175 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2177 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2179 * New platform-independent commands:
2181 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2182 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2183 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2185 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2187 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2188 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2189 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2191 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2193 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2194 multi-threaded programs though.
2196 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2198 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2200 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2201 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2204 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2206 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2207 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2208 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2209 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2210 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2213 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2214 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2215 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2217 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2219 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2220 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2222 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2223 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2226 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2227 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2228 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2229 a given linear address.
2231 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2232 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2233 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2235 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2237 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2239 * Changes in documentation.
2241 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2242 Documentation License.
2244 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2247 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2249 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2252 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2253 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2254 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2256 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2258 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2259 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2260 contents of this file.
2264 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2266 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2268 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2270 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2271 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2272 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2273 greater level of detail.
2275 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2277 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2278 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2279 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2282 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2284 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2285 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2286 machines ``out of the box''.
2288 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2289 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2290 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2291 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2292 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2294 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2295 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2296 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2297 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2298 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2300 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2301 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2304 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2307 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2308 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2309 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2310 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2312 * New native configurations
2314 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2315 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2319 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2320 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2321 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2322 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2324 * OBSOLETE configurations
2326 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2327 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2329 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2332 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2333 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2334 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2335 be permanently REMOVED.
2337 * Gould support removed
2339 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2341 * New features for SVR4
2343 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2344 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2345 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2347 * Many C++ enhancements
2349 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2350 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2352 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2354 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2355 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2356 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2357 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2359 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2360 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2362 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2364 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2365 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2366 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2368 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2369 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2371 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2373 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2374 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2375 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2377 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2379 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2380 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2381 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2383 * ``apropos'' command added.
2385 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2386 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2387 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2391 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2392 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2393 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2394 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2395 enabled by configuring with:
2397 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2399 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2401 * New native configurations
2403 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2404 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2405 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2409 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2410 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2411 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2413 * OBSOLETE configurations
2415 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2417 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2418 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2419 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2420 be permanently REMOVED.
2424 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2425 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2426 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2427 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2428 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2429 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2430 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2435 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2437 * set extension-language
2439 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2440 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2441 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2442 set extension-language .c c++
2443 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2444 and their associated languages.
2446 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2448 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2449 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2450 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2454 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2455 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2457 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2458 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2460 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2461 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2462 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2463 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2464 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2465 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2466 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2467 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2469 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2470 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2471 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2472 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2476 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2477 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2478 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2479 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2480 for xdb and dbx commands.
2484 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2485 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2486 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2488 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2489 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2490 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2492 * Debugging across forks
2494 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2499 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2500 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2501 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2503 * GDB remote protocol additions
2505 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2506 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2507 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2508 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2510 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2511 full 64-bit address. The command
2513 set remoteaddresssize 32
2515 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2516 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2519 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2520 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2522 maint packet heythere
2524 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2525 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2528 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2529 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2530 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2532 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2534 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2535 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2536 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2538 * mask-address variable for Mips
2540 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2541 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2542 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2544 * Higher serial baud rates
2546 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2547 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2548 to achieve all of these rates.)
2552 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2553 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2556 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2558 * New native configurations
2560 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2561 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2562 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2563 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2564 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2565 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2566 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2570 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2571 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2572 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2573 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2574 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2575 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2576 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2577 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2578 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2579 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2580 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2582 * New debugging protocols
2584 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2585 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2586 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2587 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2588 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2589 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2593 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2594 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2599 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2600 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2602 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2604 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2605 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2606 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2608 * Live range splitting
2610 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2611 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2612 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2616 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2617 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2621 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2622 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2623 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2628 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2633 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2634 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2635 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2636 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2637 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2638 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2642 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2643 the symbol at the specified address.
2647 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2648 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2649 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2650 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2651 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2655 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2656 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2657 of most MIPS variants.
2661 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2662 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2663 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2667 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2668 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2669 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2670 the possible architectures.
2672 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2674 * New native configurations
2676 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2677 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2678 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2679 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2680 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2681 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2685 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2686 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2687 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2688 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2689 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2691 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2695 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2696 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2697 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2698 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2699 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2703 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2705 * Windows 95/NT native
2707 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2708 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2709 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2710 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2711 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2713 * dont-repeat command
2715 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2716 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2717 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2718 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2720 * Send break instead of ^C
2722 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2723 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2724 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2726 * Remote protocol timeout
2728 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2729 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2730 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2732 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2734 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2735 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2736 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2737 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2738 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2740 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2741 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2742 automatically on hpux10.
2744 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2746 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2748 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2750 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2751 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2752 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2753 every character. The default value is 1050.
2755 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2757 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2758 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2759 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2760 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2761 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2762 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2764 * Speedups for remote debugging
2766 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2767 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2768 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2770 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2772 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2773 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2775 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2777 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2779 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2780 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2782 * Remote targets use caching
2784 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2785 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2786 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2787 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2788 off' turns the the data cache off.
2790 * Remote targets may have threads
2792 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2793 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2794 gdb/remote.c for details.
2798 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2799 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2800 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2801 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2802 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2803 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2804 sequence is something like
2806 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2808 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2812 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2813 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2814 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2815 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2816 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2817 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2818 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2819 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2823 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2824 but does simplify configuration and building.
2828 GDB now supports hpux10.
2830 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2832 * New native configurations
2834 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2835 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2836 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2837 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2841 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2842 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2843 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2844 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2847 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2849 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2850 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2851 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2852 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2853 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2855 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2857 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2858 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2861 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2863 To execute the command use:
2866 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2867 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2868 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2870 * New `if' and `while' commands
2872 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2873 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2874 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2875 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2876 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2877 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2878 if the expression is zero.
2880 * Fortran source language mode
2882 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2883 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2884 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2885 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2888 * Better HPUX support
2890 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2891 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2892 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2893 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2894 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2900 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2901 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2907 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2908 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2911 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2912 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2914 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2916 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2917 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2918 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2919 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2920 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2921 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2923 * New DOS host serial code
2925 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2926 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2929 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2931 * New "complete" command
2933 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2934 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2936 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2938 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2939 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2941 * Breakpoint hit counts
2943 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2944 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2945 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2946 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2947 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2950 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2952 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2953 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2954 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2956 * Shared library breakpoints
2958 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2959 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2961 * Hardware watchpoints
2963 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2964 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2966 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2970 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2971 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2973 * Improved Irix 5 support
2975 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2977 * Improved HPPA support
2979 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2981 * New native configurations
2983 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2984 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2985 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2986 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2990 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2991 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2994 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2996 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2997 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3001 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3002 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3004 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3006 * Irix 5 is now supported
3010 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3011 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3012 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3013 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3014 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3017 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3019 * User visible changes:
3023 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3024 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3025 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3026 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3027 debugging info for the mips target).
3029 * DEC Alpha native support
3031 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3032 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3033 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3034 Alpha-specific notes.
3036 * Preliminary thread implementation
3038 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3040 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3042 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3043 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3046 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3048 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3049 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3050 call methods, ...etc.
3052 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3054 * User visible changes:
3056 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3057 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3058 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3059 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3061 Filename completion now works.
3063 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3064 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3065 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3067 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3068 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3069 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3070 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3071 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3075 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3076 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3079 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3083 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3084 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3085 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3089 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3090 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3091 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3092 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3093 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3097 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3098 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3099 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3101 * New targets supported
3103 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3104 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3105 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3106 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3107 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3109 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3110 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3111 GO32 memory extender.
3113 * New remote protocols
3115 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3117 * New source languages supported
3119 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3120 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3121 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3124 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3126 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3128 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3129 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3130 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3131 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3132 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3133 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3135 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3137 * Faster and better demangling
3139 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3140 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3141 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3142 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3143 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3144 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3147 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3148 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3149 compiler does not actually implement.
3151 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3153 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3154 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3155 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3156 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3157 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3158 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3161 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3162 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3164 * Improved configure script
3166 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3167 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3168 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3169 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3171 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3172 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3173 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3174 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3175 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3176 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3178 * Documentation improvements
3180 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3181 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3182 before submitting changes.
3184 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3185 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3186 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3187 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3188 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3190 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3191 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3192 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3193 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3194 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3195 around this problem.
3199 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3200 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3201 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3204 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3205 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3207 * New native hosts supported
3209 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3210 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3212 * New targets supported
3214 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3216 * New file formats supported
3218 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3219 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3223 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3225 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3226 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3228 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3229 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3230 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3232 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3233 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3235 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3236 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3237 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3240 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3241 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3242 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3243 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3244 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3246 * Internal improvements
3248 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3249 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3251 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3252 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3253 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3254 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3255 shared code that handles any of them.
3257 * New command line options
3259 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3263 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3264 General Public License.
3266 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3268 * Host/native/target split
3270 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3271 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3272 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3273 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3274 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3276 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3277 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3278 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3279 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3280 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3281 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3282 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3284 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3285 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3286 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3288 * New hosts supported
3290 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3291 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3292 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3294 * New targets supported
3296 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3297 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3299 * New native hosts supported
3301 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3302 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3303 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3305 * New file formats supported
3307 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3308 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3309 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3313 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3314 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3315 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3317 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3319 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3320 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3321 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3322 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3326 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3327 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3328 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3330 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3334 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3335 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3338 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3339 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3341 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3342 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3343 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3344 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3345 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3346 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3348 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3349 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3350 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3351 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3355 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3356 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3357 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3358 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3359 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3361 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3362 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3363 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3364 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3368 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3369 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3370 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3371 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3372 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3373 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3374 each instruction being stepped through.
3376 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3377 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3379 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3380 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3381 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3382 processor with a serial port.
3386 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3387 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3388 supported, and what files each one uses.
3392 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3393 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3394 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3395 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3397 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3398 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3399 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3400 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3404 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3405 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3406 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3407 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3408 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3409 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3411 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3414 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3416 * Better support for C++ function names
3418 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3419 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3420 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3421 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3422 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3424 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3425 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3426 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3427 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3428 for the list of formats.
3430 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3432 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3433 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3434 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3435 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3436 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3437 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3440 * New 'maintenance' command
3442 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3443 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3444 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3446 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3447 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3448 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3449 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3450 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3451 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3453 The following commands are new:
3455 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3456 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3457 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3459 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3461 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3462 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3463 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3464 read after argv processing.
3466 * New hosts supported
3468 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3470 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3472 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3473 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3474 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3475 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3476 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3479 * New targets supported
3481 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3483 * More smarts about finding #include files
3485 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3486 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3487 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3488 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3489 the one that contains your sources.
3491 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3492 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3493 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3495 * Interesting infernals change
3497 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3498 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3499 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3500 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3502 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3504 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3505 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3506 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3508 See the ChangeLog for details.
3510 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3512 * New machines supported (host and target)
3514 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3516 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3518 * New malloc package
3520 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3521 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3522 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3523 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3524 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3525 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3529 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3530 'help info proc' for details.
3532 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3534 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3535 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3538 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3540 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3541 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3542 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3543 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3544 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3545 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3547 * Cross byte order fixes
3549 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3550 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3552 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3554 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3555 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3556 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3557 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3558 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3559 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3560 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3561 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3562 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3563 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3565 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3566 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3567 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3568 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3570 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3571 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3572 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3575 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3577 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3578 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3579 shared across multiple host platforms.
3581 * longjmp() handling
3583 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3584 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3585 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3586 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3590 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3591 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3596 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3597 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3598 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3600 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3602 * New machines supported (host and target)
3604 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3606 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3607 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3609 * New machines supported (target)
3611 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3615 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3616 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3617 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3619 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3620 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3621 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3622 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3623 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3626 * New features for SVR4
3628 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3629 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3630 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3632 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3633 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3634 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3636 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3637 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3639 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3641 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3642 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3643 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3644 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3645 same code linked statically.
3649 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3650 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3651 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3652 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3653 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3654 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3658 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3659 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3660 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3663 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3665 * New machines supported (host and target)
3667 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3668 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3669 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3671 * Almost SCO Unix support
3673 We had hoped to support:
3674 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3675 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3676 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3677 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3679 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3681 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3682 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3683 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3684 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3689 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3690 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3691 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3695 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3696 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3697 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3699 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3701 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3702 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3703 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3705 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3706 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3707 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3708 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3711 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3712 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3713 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3714 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3717 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3718 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3721 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3722 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3723 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3726 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3728 * Improved configuration
3730 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3731 Porting BFD is simpler.
3735 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3736 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3737 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3738 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3742 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3744 * New host supported (not target)
3746 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3749 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3751 * Multiple source language support
3753 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3754 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3755 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3756 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3757 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3758 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3762 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3763 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3764 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3765 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3767 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3768 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3769 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3771 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3772 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3776 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3777 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3778 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3779 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3782 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3784 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3785 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3786 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3787 examining core files.
3791 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3794 * New machines supported (host and target)
3796 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3797 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3798 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3800 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3802 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3804 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3806 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3807 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3808 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3810 * New remote interfaces
3816 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3820 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3822 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3823 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3824 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3825 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3826 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3827 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3828 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3829 stub on the target system.
3831 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3833 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3834 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3835 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3837 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3838 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3841 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3843 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3844 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3846 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3847 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3848 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3850 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3851 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3852 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3853 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3855 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3856 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3857 it is already running. Default is ON.
3859 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3860 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3861 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3862 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3865 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3866 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3867 or the value of the environment variable
3870 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3871 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3874 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3875 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3876 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3878 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3879 history expansion will be performed on
3880 command line input. The default is OFF.
3882 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3883 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3884 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3886 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3887 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3888 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3891 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3892 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3893 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3896 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3897 ``set width'' instead.
3899 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3900 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3901 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3902 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3904 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3907 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3910 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3913 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3916 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3918 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3919 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3920 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3924 * Support for Shared Libraries
3926 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3927 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3928 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3929 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3930 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3931 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3932 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3933 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3935 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3936 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3937 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3939 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3944 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3945 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3946 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3947 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3948 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3949 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3951 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3953 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3955 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3956 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3957 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3960 * C++ multiple inheritance
3962 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3965 * C++ exception handling
3967 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3968 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3969 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3972 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3973 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3974 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3976 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3977 current stack frame.
3980 * Minor command changes
3982 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3983 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3984 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3986 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3987 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3988 frames without printing.
3990 * New directory command
3992 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3993 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3994 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3995 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3996 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3998 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4000 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4003 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4004 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4005 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4006 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob