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