What has changed in GDB?
(Organized release by release)
-*** Changes since GDB 7.0
+*** Changes since GDB 7.1
+
+* Windows Thread Information Block access.
+
+ On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
+ Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
+ by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
+ dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
+ thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
+ when remote debugging using GDBserver.
+
+* New remote packets
+
+qGetTIBAddr
+
+ Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
+
+* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
+ script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
+ a directory.
+
+* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
+
+ - GDBserver now support tracepoints. The feature is currently
+ supported by the i386-linux and amd64-linux builds.
+
+ - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
+
+* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
+ it understands register description.
+
+* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
+
+* X86 general purpose registers
+
+ GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
+ general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
+ $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
+ 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
+ register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
+
+* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
+ A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
+ breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
+ applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
+ single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
+ breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
+
+* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
+ its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
+ in the specified file.
+
+* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
+ from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
+ understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
+ system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
+ use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
+ possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
+ solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
+ target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
+ target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
+ specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
+
+* New commands
+
+set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
+show target-file-system-kind
+ Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
+ names.
+
+save breakpoints <filename>
+ Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
+ in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
+ definitions, use the `source' command.
+
+`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
+is now deprecated.
+
+* Python scripting
+
+** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
+ tables, program spaces, and frame's code blocks. Additionally, GDB
+ Parameters can now be created from the API, and manipulated via
+ set/show in the CLI.
+
+** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
+ gdb.progspaces, and gdb.current_progspace.
+
+** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
+
+** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
+ special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
+ for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
+
+* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
+there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
+tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
+regular breakpoints.
+
+* New targets
+
+ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
+
+* D language support.
+ GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
+ language.
+
+*** Changes in GDB 7.1
* C++ Improvements
tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
<name>".
-
+
+ ** Circular trace buffer
+
+ You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
+ circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
+ newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
+ not be available for all target agents.
+
* Changed commands
disassemble
loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
upon disconnection.
+set circular-trace-buffer
+show circular-trace-buffer
+ If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
+ and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
+ to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
+ fills up. Some targets may not support this.
+
set script-extension off|soft|strict
show script-extension
If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
is on.
+* Python API Improvements
+
+ ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
+ some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
+ provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
+
+ ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
+ `is_base_class' attribute.
+
+ ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
+
+ ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
+ evaluate an expression.
+
* New remote packets
QTDV
QTDisconnected
Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
+QTBuffer:circular
+ Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
+
qTfP, qTsP
Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.