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