What has changed in GDB?
(Organized release by release)
-*** Changes since GDB 7.7
+*** Changes since GDB 7.10
+
+* Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
+
+* The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
+ when using the Intel(R) Processor Trace recording format.
+
+* New commands
+
+maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
+maint show target-non-stop
+ Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
+ "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
+ mode is enabled if supported by the target.
+
+*** Changes in GDB 7.10
+
+* Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
+ targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
+ including advance SIMD instructions.
+
+* Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
+
+* GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
+ (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
+ to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
+ corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
+ "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
+ on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
+ /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
+
+* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
+ cpu information :
+ "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
+
+* GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
+ "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
+ remote serial I/O.
+
+* The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
+ present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
+ and may include things like its command line arguments.
+
+* The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
+ is now available on all platforms.
+
+* Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
+ prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
+ the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
+ "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
+ "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
+ backward compatibility.
+
+* The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
+ filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
+ the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
+ attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
+
+* GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
+ files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
+ using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
+ (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
+ packets" below.
+
+* The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
+
+* GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
+
+* On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
+ and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
+ attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
+ the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
+ containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
+ See "New remote packets" below.
+
+* The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
+ available register groups, including target specific groups.
+
+* The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
+ the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
+ GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
+ disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
+ are ignored.
+
+* Guile Scripting
+
+ ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
+
+* Python Scripting
+
+ ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
+ which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
+ without, for example, resolving symlinks.
+ ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
+ ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
+ returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
+ ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
+ "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
+ "const" version of the value respectively.
+
+* New commands
+
+maint print symbol-cache
+ Print the contents of the symbol cache.
+
+maint print symbol-cache-statistics
+ Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
+
+maint flush-symbol-cache
+ Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
+
+maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
+maint show target-non-stop
+ Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
+ "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
+ mode is enabled if supported by the target.
+
+record btrace bts
+record bts
+ Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
+
+compile print
+ Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
+
+tui enable
+tui disable
+ Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
+
+show mpx bound
+set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
+ Support for bound table investigation on Intel(R) MPX enabled applications.
+
+record btrace pt
+record pt
+ Start branch trace recording using Intel(R) Processor Trace format.
+
+maint info btrace
+ Print information about branch tracing internals.
+
+maint btrace packet-history
+ Print the raw branch tracing data.
+
+maint btrace clear-packet-history
+ Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
+
+maint btrace clear
+ Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
+ anew by the next "record" command.
+
+* New options
+
+set debug dwarf-die
+ Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
+show debug dwarf-die
+ Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
+
+set debug dwarf-read
+ Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
+show debug dwarf-read
+ Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
+
+maint set dwarf always-disassemble
+ Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
+maint show dwarf always-disassemble
+ Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
+
+maint set dwarf max-cache-age
+ Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
+maint show dwarf max-cache-age
+ Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
+
+set debug dwarf-line
+show debug dwarf-line
+ Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
+
+set max-completions
+show max-completions
+ Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
+ completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
+ to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
+ which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
+
+set history remove-duplicates
+show history remove-duplicates
+ Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
+
+maint set symbol-cache-size
+maint show symbol-cache-size
+ Control the size of the symbol cache.
+
+set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
+ Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
+ BTS format.
+ The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
+ record" to see the obtained buffer size.
+
+set debug linux-namespaces
+show debug linux-namespaces
+ Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
+
+set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
+ Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
+ Intel(R) Processor Trace format.
+ The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
+ record" to see the obtained buffer size.
+
+maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
+ Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
+ packet history.
+
+* The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
+ to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
+
+* Python/Guile scripting
+
+ ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
+ special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
+
+* New remote packets
+
+qXfer:btrace-conf:read
+ Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
+
+Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
+ Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
+
+Qbtrace:pt
+ Enable Intel(R) Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
+ process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
+ qSupported query.
+
+Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
+ Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel(R) Processor
+ Trace format.
+
+swbreak stop reason
+ Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
+ of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
+ is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
+ mode operation.
+
+hwbreak stop reason
+ Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
+ required for correct non-stop mode operation.
+
+vFile:fstat:
+ Return information about files on the remote system.
+
+qXfer:exec-file:read
+ Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
+ create a process running on the remote system.
+
+vFile:setfs:
+ Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
+ arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
+ access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
+ share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
+
+fork stop reason
+ Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
+
+vfork stop reason
+ Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
+
+vforkdone stop reason
+ Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
+ an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
+
+fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
+ The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
+ vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
+ and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
+ 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
+ whether these features are enabled.
+
+* Extended-remote fork events
+
+ ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
+ targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
+ enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
+ vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
+
+* The info record command now shows the recording format and the
+ branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
+ the btrace record target.
+ For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
+
+* GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
+ Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
+
+* GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
+ targets.
+
+* Removed command line options
+
+-xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
+
+* Removed targets and native configurations
+
+HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
+Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
+
+* New configure options
+
+--with-intel-pt
+ This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
+ Intel(R) Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
+
+--with-libipt-prefix=PATH
+ Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
+ $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
+ $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
+
+*** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
+
+* Python Scripting
+
+ ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
+
+*** Changes in GDB 7.9
+
+* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
+
+* Python Scripting
+
+ ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
+ ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
+ ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
+ which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
+ ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
+ ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
+ which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
+ ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
+ ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
+ selecting a new file to debug.
+ ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
+ ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
+
+ New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
+ inferior.
+
+ ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
+ ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
+ ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
+ ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
+
+* New Python-based convenience functions:
+
+ ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
+ ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
+ ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
+ ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
+
+* GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
+ the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
+ to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
+ and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
+ Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
+ interface with this new feature are:
+
+ compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
+ compile file [-raw|-r] filename
+
+* New commands
+
+demangle [-l language] [--] name
+ Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
+ if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
+ The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
+ as "maint demangler-warning".
+
+queue-signal signal-name-or-number
+ Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
+
+add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
+ Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
+ scripts.
+
+maint print user-registers
+ List all currently available "user" registers.
+
+compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
+ Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
+ code produced by compiling the provided source code.
+
+compile file [-r|-raw] filename
+ Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
+ produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
+ provided.
+
+* On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
+ for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
+ threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
+ always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
+ at resume time.
+
+* Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
+ requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
+ confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
+ switched threads meanwhile.
+
+* "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
+
+ Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
+ won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
+ even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
+ is now the default mode.
+
+* New options
+
+set debug symbol-lookup
+show debug symbol-lookup
+ Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
+
+* MI changes
+
+ ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
+ inferiors that have exited.
+
+* New targets
+
+MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
+
+* Removed targets
+
+Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
+
+Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
+SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
+SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
+VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
+VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
+
+* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
+ and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
+ its alias "share", instead.
+
+*** Changes in GDB 7.8
+
+* New command line options
+
+-D data-directory
+ This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
+
+* GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
+ as specified in ISO C99.
+
+* The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
+ with or without disassembly.
+
+* Guile scripting
+
+ GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
+ available is determined at configure time.
+ Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
+ Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
+
+* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
+
+guile [code]
+gu [code]
+ Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
+
+guile-repl
+gr
+ Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
+
+info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
+ Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
+
+* The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
+ This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
+
+* New options
+
+set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
+show print symbol-loading
+ Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
+ information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
+ programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
+ becomes less useful.
+
+set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
+show guile print-stack
+ Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
+
+set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
+show auto-load guile-scripts
+ Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
+
+maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
+maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
+ Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
+ programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
+ the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
+ usage of this option.
+
+set auto-connect-native-target
+
+ Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
+ native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
+ to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
+
+set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
+show record btrace replay-memory-access
+ Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
+
+maint set target-async (on|off)
+maint show target-async
+ This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
+ asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
+ available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
+ occurring only in synchronous mode.
+
+set mi-async (on|off)
+show mi-async
+ Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
+ "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
+
+* "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
+ for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
+
+* Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
+ possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
+ the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
+ "set target-async on" command.
+
+* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
+
+ ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
+ additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
+ are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
+ Timestamps can also be turned on with the
+ "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
* The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
based on the information stored in the execution trace.
+* The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
+ The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
+ memory or registers.
+
+* The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
+
+* The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
+ remote. It now works with all targets.
+
+* All native targets are now consistently called "native".
+ Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
+ "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
+ commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
+ leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
+ consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
+ as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
+ no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
+ commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
+ target-stack".
+
+* The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
+ can be used to launch native programs even when "set
+ auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
+
+* GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
+
+* Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
+ Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers
+ $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
+
+* New remote packets
+
+qXfer:btrace:read's annex
+ The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
+ branch trace incrementally.
+
+* Python Scripting
+
+ ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
+ structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
+ available.
+ ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
+ additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
+ class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
+ defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
+ the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
+
+* New targets
+PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
+
+* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
+ and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
+ its alias "share", instead.
+
+* The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
+ supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
+ instead.
+
+* MI changes
+
+ ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
+ target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
+ former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
+ CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
+ default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
+ preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
+ Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
+ commands and CLI execution commands.
+
*** Changes in GDB 7.7
* Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
where the program that you are debugging will run.
-
- * GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blobdiff