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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.1
5
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6* Windows Thread Information Block access.
7
8 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
9 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
10 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
11 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
12 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
13 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
14
15* New remote packets
16
17qGetTIBAddr
18
19 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
20
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21qRelocInsn
22
23 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
24 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
25 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
26 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
27 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
28 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
29
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30* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
31 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
32 a directory.
33
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34* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
35
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36 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints).
37 The feature is currently supported by the i386-linux and
38 amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support in gdbserver"
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39 section in the manual for more information. GDBserver JIT
40 compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent expression bytecode
41 into native code whenever possible for low overhead dynamic
42 tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints, an expression
43 that examines program state is evaluated when the tracepoint is
44 reached, in order to determine whether to capture trace data. If
45 the condition is simple and false, processing the tracepoint
46 finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
d337e9f0 47
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48 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
49
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50* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
51 it understands register description.
52
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53* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
54
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55* X86 general purpose registers
56
57 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
58 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
59 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
60 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
61 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
62
95a42b64 63* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
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64 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
65 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
66 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
67 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
68 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 69
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70* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
71 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
72 in the specified file.
73
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74* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
75 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
76 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
77 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
78 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
79 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
80 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
81 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
82 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
83 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
84
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85* New commands
86
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87set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
88show target-file-system-kind
89 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
90 names.
91
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92save breakpoints <filename>
93 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
94 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
95 definitions, use the `source' command.
96
97`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
98is now deprecated.
99
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100* Python scripting
101
adc36818 102** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
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103 tables, program spaces, and frame's code blocks. Additionally, GDB
104 Parameters can now be created from the API, and manipulated via
105 set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 106
fa33c3cd 107** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
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108 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
109
110** New exception gdb.GdbError.
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111
112** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 113
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114** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
115
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116** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
117 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
118 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
119
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120* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
121there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
122tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
123regular breakpoints.
124
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125* New targets
126
127ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
128
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129* D language support.
130 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
131 language.
132
bfbf3774 133*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 134
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135* C++ Improvements
136
137 ** Namespace Support
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138
139 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
140 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
141 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
142 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
143 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
144
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145 ** Bug Fixes
146
147 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
148 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
149 qualified name.
150
151 ** Cast Operators
152
153 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
154 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
155
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156* New targets
157
158Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 159Renesas RX rx-*-elf
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160
161* New Simulators
162
163Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 164Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 165
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166* Multi-program debugging.
167
168 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
169 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
170 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
171 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
172 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
173 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
174 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
175 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
176
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177* New tracing features
178
179 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
180
181 ** Trace state variables
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182
183 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
184 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
185 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
186 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
187 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
188 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
189 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
190 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
191 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
192 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 193
d5551862 194 ** Fast tracepoints
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195
196 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
197 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
198 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
199 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
200 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
201 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
202 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
203 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
204 the regular trace command.
205
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206 ** Disconnected tracing
207
208 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
209 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
210 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
211 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
212 connection is lost unexpectedly.
213
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214 ** Trace files
215
216 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
217 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
218 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
219 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
220 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
221 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
222 <name>".
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223
224 ** Circular trace buffer
225
226 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
227 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
228 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
229 not be available for all target agents.
230
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231* Changed commands
232
233disassemble
234 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
235 the arguments to be comma-separated.
236
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237info variables
238 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
239 which only declare a variable are not shown.
240
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241source
242 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
243 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
244 support.
245
246 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
247 "set script-extension" (see below).
248
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249* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
250
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251record save [<FILENAME>]
252 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
253 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
254
255record restore <FILENAME>
256 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
257 earlier time, for replay debugging.
258
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259add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
260 Add a new inferior.
261
262clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
263 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
264 inferior has loaded.
265
266remove-inferior ID
267 Remove an inferior.
268
269maint info program-spaces
270 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
271
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272set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
273show remote interrupt-sequence
274 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
275 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
276 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
277 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
278 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
279
280set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
281show remote interrupt-on-connect
282 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
283 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
284 Linux kernel.
285
286set remotebreak [on | off]
287show remotebreak
288Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
289
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290tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
291 Create or modify a trace state variable.
292
293info tvariables
294 List trace state variables and their values.
295
296delete tvariable $NAME ...
297 Delete one or more trace state variables.
298
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299teval EXPR, ...
300 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
301 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
302
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303ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
304 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
305
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306* New expression syntax
307
308 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
309 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
310
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311* New options
312
313set follow-exec-mode new|same
314show follow-exec-mode
315 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
316 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
317 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
318
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319set default-collect EXPR, ...
320show default-collect
321 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
322 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
323 such as registers or a critical global variable.
324
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325set disconnected-tracing
326show disconnected-tracing
327 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
328 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
329 upon disconnection.
330
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331set circular-trace-buffer
332show circular-trace-buffer
333 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
334 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
335 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
336 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
337
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338set script-extension off|soft|strict
339show script-extension
340 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
341 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
342 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
343 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
344 evaluation failed.
345 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
346
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347set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
348show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
349 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
350 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
351 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
352 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
353 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
354 is on.
355
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356* Python API Improvements
357
358 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
359 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
360 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
361
362 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
363 `is_base_class' attribute.
364
365 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
366
367 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
368 evaluate an expression.
369
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370* New remote packets
371
372QTDV
373 Define a trace state variable.
374
375qTV
376 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
377
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378QTDisconnected
379 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
380
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381QTBuffer:circular
382 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
383
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384qTfP, qTsP
385 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
386
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387* Bug fixes
388
389Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
390
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391Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
392much more reliable. In particular:
393 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
394 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
395 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
396 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
397 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
398 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
399 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
400 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
401 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
402 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
403 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
404 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
405 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
406 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
407 non-threaded programs.
408
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409PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
410This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
411libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
412executable program.
413
abc7453d 414*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 415
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416* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
417dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
418them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
419for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
420"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
421
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422* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
423breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
424or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
425the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
426for tracepoint actions.
427
e6158f16 428* "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
7280022e 429in hex as well as in symbolic form.
e6158f16 430
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431* Process record and replay
432
433 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
434 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
435 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
436 execute commands.
437
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438* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
439step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
440set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
441reverse execution.
442
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443* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
444feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4452.6.28 or later.
446
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447* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
448target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
449char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
450literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
451U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
452`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
453system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
454the installation instructions for more information.
455
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456* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
457remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
458with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
459the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
460
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461* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
462and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
463
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464* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
465now complete on file names.
466
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467* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
468completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
469For instance, consider:
470
471 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
472 # struct example variable;
473 (gdb) p variable.
474
475If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
476completions will be "f1" and "f2".
477
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478* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
479the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
480
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481* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
482operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
483macros.
484
47a3467a 485* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
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486the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
487implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
488
489* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
490registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
491can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
492and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 493
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494* New remote packets
495
496qSearch:memory:
497 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
498
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499QStartNoAckMode
500 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
501 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
502 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
503
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504vKill
505 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
506 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
507
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508qXfer:osdata:read
509 Obtains additional operating system information
510
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511qXfer:siginfo:read
512qXfer:siginfo:write
513 Read or write additional signal information.
514
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515* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
516
517 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
518 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
519 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
520
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521* The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
522source+assembly.
523
c055b101 524* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 525DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
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526
527* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
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528and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
529`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 530
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531* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
532with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
533
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534* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
535
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536* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
537
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538* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
539which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
540
1fddbabb 541* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 542list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 543
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544* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
545conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
546have also been fixed.
547
bfb8797a 548* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
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549From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
550are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 551
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552* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
553example, given:
554
555 template<typename T> class C { };
556 C<char const *> c;
557
558GDB will now correctly handle all of:
559
560 ptype C<char const *>
561 ptype C<char const*>
562 ptype C<const char *>
563 ptype C<const char*>
564
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565* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
566
567 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
568 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
569
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570 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
571 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
572 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
573
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574 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
575 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
576
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577 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
578 gdbserver.
579
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580 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
581 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
582
583 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
584 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
585 as appropriate.
586
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587* Python scripting
588
589 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
590 available is determined at configure time.
591
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592 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
593
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594* Ada tasking support
595
596 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
597 been introduced:
598
599 info tasks
600 Print the list of Ada tasks.
601 info task N
602 Print detailed information about task number N.
603 task
604 Print the task number of the current task.
605 task N
606 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
607
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608* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
609add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
610
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611* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
612
613 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
614 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
615 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
616 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
617 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
618 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
619 below.
620
08d16641
PA
621* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
622"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
623information.
624
e35359c5
UW
625* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
626to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
627architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
628See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
629more information.
630
85e747d2
UW
631* Multi-architecture debugging.
632
633 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
634 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
635 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
636 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
637 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
638
639* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
640use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
641Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
642powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
643--enable-targets configure option.
644
11ade57a
PA
645* Non-stop mode debugging.
646
647 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
648 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
649 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
650 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
651 section in the user manual for more information.
652
653 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
654 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
655 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
656 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
657 extensions on linux targets.
658
d7713ae0 659* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 660
a96d9b2e
SDJ
661catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
662 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
663 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
664 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
665 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
666 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
667 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
668 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
669 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
670
08388c79
DE
671find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
672 val1 [, val2, ...]
673 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
674
d57a3c85
TJB
675maint set python print-stack
676maint show python print-stack
677 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
678
679python [CODE]
680 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
681
d7713ae0
EZ
682macro define
683macro list
684macro undef
685 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
686 interactively.
687
688info os processes
689 Show operating system information about processes.
690
2277426b
PA
691info inferiors
692 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
693
694inferior NUM
695 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
696
697detach inferior NUM
698 Detach from inferior number NUM.
699
700kill inferior NUM
701 Kill inferior number NUM.
702
d7713ae0
EZ
703* New options
704
3285f3fe
UW
705set spu stop-on-load
706show spu stop-on-load
707 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
708
ff1a52c6
UW
709set spu auto-flush-cache
710show spu auto-flush-cache
711 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
712 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
713
d7713ae0
EZ
714set sh calling-convention
715show sh calling-convention
716 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
717
e0a3ce09 718set debug timestamp
75feb17d 719show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
720 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
721
722set disassemble-next-line
723show disassemble-next-line
724 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
725 the debuggee stops.
726
727set remote noack-packet
728show remote noack-packet
729 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
730 under "New remote packets."
731
732set remote query-attached-packet
733show remote query-attached-packet
734 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
735
736set remote read-siginfo-object
737show remote read-siginfo-object
738 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
739 packet.
740
741set remote write-siginfo-object
742show remote write-siginfo-object
743 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
744 packet.
745
40ab02ce
MS
746set remote reverse-continue
747show remote reverse-continue
748 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
749
750set remote reverse-step
751show remote reverse-step
752 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
753
d7713ae0
EZ
754set displaced-stepping
755show displaced-stepping
756 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
757 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
758 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
759
760set debug displaced
761show debug displaced
762 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
763
764maint set internal-error
765maint show internal-error
766 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
767
768maint set internal-warning
769maint show internal-warning
770 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 771
ccd213ac
DJ
772set exec-wrapper
773show exec-wrapper
774unset exec-wrapper
775 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 776
aad4b048
JB
777set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
778show multiple-symbols
779 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
780 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
781 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
782
74960c60
VP
783set breakpoint always-inserted
784show breakpoint always-inserted
785 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
786 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
787 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
788
0428b8f5
DJ
789set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
790show arm fallback-mode
791set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
792show arm force-mode
793 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
794 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
795 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
796 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
797
10568435
JK
798set disable-randomization
799show disable-randomization
800 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
801 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
802 multiple debugging sessions.
803
d7713ae0
EZ
804set non-stop
805show non-stop
806 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
807 a breakpoint.
808
b3eb342c 809set target-async
d7713ae0 810show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
811 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
812 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
813 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
814 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
815
6c7a06a3
TT
816set target-wide-charset
817show target-wide-charset
818 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
819 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
820
84603566
SL
821set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
822show tcp auto-retry
823set tcp connect-timeout
824show tcp connect-timeout
825 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
826 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
827 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
828
17a37d48
PP
829set libthread-db-search-path
830show libthread-db-search-path
831 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
832 libthread_db.
833
d4db2f36
PA
834set schedule-multiple (on|off)
835show schedule-multiple
836 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
837 the current process.
838
4e5d721f
DE
839set stack-cache
840show stack-cache
841 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
842 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
843 affecting correctness.
844
910c5da8
JB
845set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
846show interactive-mode
847 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
848 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
849 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
850 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
851 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
852
2277426b
PA
853* Removed commands
854
855info forks
856 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
857 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
858 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
859 command.
860
861fork NUM
862 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
863 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
864 alias for the `fork' command.
865
866process PID
867 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
868 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
869 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
870
871delete fork NUM
872 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
873 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
874 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
875 fork' command.
876
877detach fork NUM
878 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
879 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
880 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
881 fork' command.
882
a80b95ba
TG
883* New native configurations
884
885x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
886
b8bfd3ed
JB
887x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
888
75a2d5e7
TT
889* New targets
890
c28c63d8 891Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 892x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 893x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 894S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 895
6de3146c
PA
896* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
897 (mingw32ce) debugging.
898
d5cbbe6e
JB
899* Removed commands
900
901catch load
902catch unload
903 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
904
75feb17d 905*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 906
af5ca30d
NH
907* New native configurations
908
909NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 910Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
911
912* New targets
913
914NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 915Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 916
7a404eba
PA
917* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
918
919 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
920 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
921 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
922 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
923
430ebac9
PA
924* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
925(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
926
fe6fbf8b 927* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 928is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
929
930* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
931including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
932and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 933
10665d76
JB
934* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
935accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
936more than one contiguous range of addresses.
937
7cc46491
DJ
938* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
939
d71340b8
DJ
940* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
941registers on PowerPC targets.
942
523c4513
DJ
943* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
944targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
945
a6b151f1
DJ
946* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
947commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
948
2d717e4f
DJ
949* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
950extended-remote mode.
951
24a836bd 952* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
953The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
954error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
955The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 956
d0c678e6
UW
957* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
958building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
959target architectures.
960
d64a946d
TJB
961* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
962Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
963now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
964stored in two consecutive float registers.
965
ee163bf5
VP
966* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
967breakpoints now.
968
b93b6ca7 969* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
970Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
971include:
b93b6ca7
JB
972 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
973 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
974 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
975 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
976 of an assignment
977 - Improved command completion in Ada
978 - Several bug fixes
979
d001be7a
DJ
980* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
981process.
982
a6b151f1
DJ
983* New commands
984
6d53d0af
JB
985set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
986show print frame-arguments
987 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
988 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
989
a6b151f1
DJ
990remote put
991remote get
992remote delete
993 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
994
995* New MI commands
996
997-target-file-put
998-target-file-get
999-target-file-delete
1000 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1001
1002* New remote packets
1003
1004vFile:open:
1005vFile:close:
1006vFile:pread:
1007vFile:pwrite:
1008vFile:unlink:
1009 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 1010
2d717e4f
DJ
1011vAttach
1012 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1013 mode.
1014
1015vRun
1016 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1017
8d5f9c6f 1018*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 1019
19d378fc
MS
1020* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1021bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1022Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1023
3a40aaa0
UW
1024* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1025symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1026-Bsymbolic linker option.
1027
a6ec25f2
BW
1028* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1029recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1030is not supported.
1031
6dd09645
JB
1032* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1033frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1034
c9bb8148
DJ
1035* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
103632-bit or 64-bit register values.
1037
0d5de010
DJ
1038* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1039
23181151
DJ
1040* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1041target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1042a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1043
ea37ba09
DJ
1044* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1045automatically displayed as character or string data.
1046
1047* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1048arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1049as strings.
e1f48ead 1050
123dc839
DJ
1051* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1052for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1053only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1054
05a4558a
DJ
1055* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1056iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1057
7c963485
PA
1058* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1059ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1060has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1061
b18be20d
DJ
1062* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1063
0ca420ce
UW
1064* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1065
31d99776
DJ
1066* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1067layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1068segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1069
a4642986
MR
1070* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1071immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1072
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1073* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1074"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1075packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1076where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1077Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1078
1079* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1080(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1081
1082* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1083according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1084
c9bb8148
DJ
1085* New commands
1086
23776285
MR
1087set remoteflow
1088show remoteflow
1089 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1090 when debugging using remote targets.
1091
c9bb8148
DJ
1092set mem inaccessible-by-default
1093show mem inaccessible-by-default
1094 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1095 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1096 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1097 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1098 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1099
1100set breakpoint auto-hw
1101show breakpoint auto-hw
1102 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1103 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1104 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1105 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1106 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1107 including "next" and "finish".
1108
0e420bd8
JB
1109catch exception
1110catch exception unhandled
1111 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1112
1113catch assert
1114 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1115
f822c95b
DJ
1116set sysroot
1117show sysroot
1118 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1119 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1120 an alias to "set sysroot".
1121
83cc5c53
UW
1122info spu
1123 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1124 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1125 architecture.
1126
bd372731
MK
1127* New native configurations
1128
1129OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1130
23181151
DJ
1131set tdesc filename
1132unset tdesc filename
1133show tdesc filename
1134 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1135 not query the target for its built-in description.
1136
c9bb8148
DJ
1137* New targets
1138
54fe9172 1139OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1140MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1141Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1142
6dd09645
JB
1143* New remote packets
1144
1145QPassSignals:
1146 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1147 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1148
23181151
DJ
1149qXfer:features:read:
1150 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1151 features.
6dd09645 1152
83cc5c53
UW
1153qXfer:spu:read:
1154qXfer:spu:write:
1155 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1156 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1157
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1158qXfer:libraries:read:
1159 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1160 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1161 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1162 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1163
483367ee
DJ
1164* Removed targets
1165
1166Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1167
d08950c4
UW
1168alpha*-*-osf1*
1169alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1170d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1171hppa*-*-hiux*
1172i[34567]86-ncr-*
1173i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1174i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1175i[34567]86-*-netware*
1176i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1177i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1178i[34567]86-*-sco*
1179i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1180i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1181i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1182i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1183i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1184i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1185i[34567]86-*-isc*
1186m68*-cisco*-*
1187m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1188mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1189rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1190sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1191
7ce59000
DJ
1192* Other removed features
1193
1194target abug
1195target cpu32bug
1196target est
1197target rom68k
1198
1199 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1200
ea35711c
DJ
1201target hms
1202target e7000
1203target sh3
1204target sh3e
1205
1206 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1207 H8/300.
1208
1209target ocd
1210
1211 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1212 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1213 interfaces.
1214
7ce59000
DJ
1215DWARF 1 support
1216
1217 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1218 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1219
54d61198
DJ
1220Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1221
1222 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1223 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1224 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1225 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1226
ea35711c
DJ
1227MIPS ".pdr" sections
1228
1229 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1230 in debugging information.
1231
1232Scheme support
1233
1234 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1235 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1236
1a69e1e4
DJ
1237set mips stack-arg-size
1238set mips saved-gpreg-size
1239
1240 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1241
6dd09645 1242*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 1243
ca3bf3bd
DJ
1244* New targets
1245
1246Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 1247Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 1248
6aec2e11
DJ
1249* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1250(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1251running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1252
1253* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1254Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1255supported.
1256
17218d91
DJ
1257* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1258broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1259
9ebce043
DJ
1260* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1261stub provides the required support.
1262
7d3d3ece
DJ
1263* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1264longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1265
4f8253f3
JB
1266* New commands
1267
1268set substitute-path
1269unset substitute-path
1270show substitute-path
1271 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1272 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1273 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1274 between compilation and debugging.
1275
9fa66fd7
AS
1276set trace-commands
1277show trace-commands
1278 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1279 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1280 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1281
1f5befc1
DJ
1282* REMOVED features
1283
1284The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1285
2ec3381a
DJ
1286Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1287an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1288
3d00d119
DJ
1289The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1290
be2a5f71
DJ
1291* New remote packets
1292
1293qSupported:
1294 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1295 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1296 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1297 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1298 target.
1299
0876f84a
DJ
1300qXfer:auxv:read:
1301 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1302 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1303
9ebce043
DJ
1304qXfer:memory-map:read:
1305 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1306 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1307
1308vFlashErase:
1309vFlashWrite:
1310vFlashDone:
1311 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1312
0876f84a
DJ
1313* Removed remote packets
1314
1315qPart:auxv:read:
1316 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1317 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1318
e374b601 1319*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 1320
96309189
MS
1321* New targets
1322
1323Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1324
1325Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1326
53e5f3cf
AS
1327* New commands
1328
1329init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1330 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1331
ac264b3b
MS
1332The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1333
1334checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1335
1336restart <n> Return the program state to a
1337 previously saved state.
1338
1339info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1340
1341delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1342
1343set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1344 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1345
1346info forks List forks of the user program that
1347 are available to be debugged.
1348
1349fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1350 forks of the user program that are
1351 available to be debugged.
1352
1353delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1354 that are available to be debugged (and
1355 kill the forked process).
1356
1357detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1358 that are available to be debugged (and
1359 allow the process to continue).
1360
3950dc3f
NS
1361* New architecture
1362
1363Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1364
0ea3f30e
DJ
1365* Improved Windows host support
1366
1367GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1368native console support, and remote communications using either
1369network sockets or serial ports.
1370
f79daebb
GM
1371* Improved Modula-2 language support
1372
1373GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1374basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1375pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1376printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1377written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1378GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1379
acab6ab2
MM
1380* REMOVED features
1381
1382The ARM rdi-share module.
1383
f4267320
DJ
1384The Netware NLM debug server.
1385
53e5f3cf 1386*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 1387
e0ecbda1
MK
1388* New native configurations
1389
02a677ac 1390OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
1391OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1392
d64a6579
KB
1393* New targets
1394
1395Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1396
b33a6190
AS
1397* New command line options
1398
1399--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1400--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1401 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1402--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1403 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1404 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1405 with the --command (-x) option.
1406
11dced61
AC
1407* Deprecated commands removed
1408
1409The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1410removed:
1411
1412 Command Replacement
1413 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1414 othernames set arm disassembler
1415 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1416 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1417 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1418 regs info registers
1419
6fe85783
MK
1420* New BSD user-level threads support
1421
1422It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1423library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1424configurations are:
1425
1426FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1427FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1428OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1429
1430Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1431are not yet supported.
1432
5260ca71
MS
1433* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1434(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1435
e84ecc99
AC
1436* REMOVED configurations and files
1437
1438VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 1439Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 1440National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 1441
31e35378
JB
1442* New "set print array-indexes" command
1443
1444After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1445when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1446behavior.
1447
e85e5c83
MK
1448* VAX floating point support
1449
1450GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1451
d91e9901
AS
1452* User-defined command support
1453
1454In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1455to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1456section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1457
f2cb65ca
MC
1458*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1459
f47b1503
AS
1460* New command line option
1461
1462GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1463debugging.
1464
f2cb65ca
MC
1465* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1466
1467GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1468information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1469by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1470proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1471to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 1472
d08c0230
AC
1473* Internationalization
1474
1475When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1476internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1477continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1478
117ea3cf
PH
1479* Ada
1480
1481Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1482implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1483into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1484
d08c0230
AC
1485* New native configurations
1486
1487GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1488
1489* Remote 'p' packet
1490
1491GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1492packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1493
1494* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1495
1496GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1497The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1498features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1499i386 application).
1500
1501GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1502compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1503continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1504configurations:
1505
1506hppa-*-hpux
1507ia64-*-aix
1508mips-*-irix*
1509*-*-lynx
1510mips-*-linux-gnu
1511sds protocol
1512xdr protocol
1513powerpc bdm protocol
1514
1515Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1516made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1517
1518* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1519
1520Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1521been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1522configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1523permanently REMOVED.
1524
1525h8300-*-*
1526mcore-*-*
1527mn10300-*-*
1528ns32k-*-*
1529sh64-*-*
1530v850-*-*
1531
ebb7c577
AC
1532*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1533
1534* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1535
1536When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1537heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1538been fixed.
1539
1540* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1541
1542When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1543fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1544IRIX long double values).
1545
1546* VAX and "next"
1547
1548A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1549command. This problem has been fixed.
1550
860660cb 1551*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1552
0dea2468
AC
1553* Fix for ``many threads''
1554
1555On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1556rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1557error message:
1558
1559 ptrace: No such process.
1560 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1561
1562This problem has been fixed.
1563
2c07db7a
AC
1564* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1565
1566Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1567GDB to dump core).
1568
c23968a2
JB
1569* New ``start'' command.
1570
1571This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1572
71009278
MK
1573* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1574
1575Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1576live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1577platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1578
1579FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1580FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1581NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1582NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1583NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1584OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1585OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1586OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1587OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1588
3c0b7db2
AC
1589* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1590
1591Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1592These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1593of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1594call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1595signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1596
73cc75f3
AC
1597Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1598features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1599include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1600
7243600a
BF
1601* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1602
6f606e1c
MK
1603* New native configurations
1604
97dc871c 1605GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1606OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1607OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1608OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1609OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1610NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1611OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1612
a1b461bf
AC
1613* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1614
1615GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1616The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1617including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1618migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1619compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1620work, was also included.
1621
1622GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1623module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1624
1625h8300-*-*
1626mcore-*-*
1627mn10300-*-*
1628ns32k-*-*
1629sh64-*-*
1630v850-*-*
1631xstormy16-*-*
1632
1633Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1634made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1635
3c7012f5
AC
1636* REMOVED configurations and files
1637
1638Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1639Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1640Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1641Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1642Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1643AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1644Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1645decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1646riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1647sonymips mips-sony-*
1648sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1649
e5fe55f7
AC
1650*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1651
1652* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1653
1654The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1655GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1656command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1657program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1658with GDB".
1659
1660* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1661
1662Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1663libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1664cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1665GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1666shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1667the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1668are created.
1669
1670Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1671
1672* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1673
1674The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1675non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1676compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1677
1678* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1679
1680Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1681wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1682
1683* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1684
1685The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1686permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1687systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1688
1689* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1690
1691Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1692has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1693
1694* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1695
1696GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1697its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1698panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1699
1700* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1701
1702When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1703by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1704not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1705
faae5abe 1706*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1707
9175c9a3
MC
1708* Removed --with-mmalloc
1709
1710Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1711conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1712
3cc87ec0
MK
1713* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1714
1715The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1716the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1717and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1718you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1719
f0424ef6
MK
1720* Revised SPARC target
1721
1722The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1723FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1724support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1725from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1726(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1727
59659be2
ILT
1728* New C++ demangler
1729
1730GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1731names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1732with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1733programs.
1734
9e08b29b
DJ
1735* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1736
1737GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1738arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1739encountered these.
1740
8dfe8985
DC
1741* C++ nested types and namespaces
1742
1743GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1744improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1745is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1746Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1747namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1748"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1749frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1750if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1751GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1752
cced5e27
MK
1753* New native configurations
1754
1755NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1756OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1757OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1758OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1759OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1760
b4b4b794
KI
1761* New debugging protocols
1762
1763M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1764
7989c619
AC
1765* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1766
1767The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1768and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1769tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1770
5994185b
AC
1771* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1772
1773Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1774been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1775configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1776permanently REMOVED.
1777
1778Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1779Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1780Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1781Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1782Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1783AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1784Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
1785decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1786riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1787sonymips mips-sony-*
1788sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 1789
0ddabb4c
AC
1790* REMOVED configurations and files
1791
1792SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1793SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1794Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1795Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1796H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1797HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1798HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1799HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1800PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1801386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1802Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1803 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1804 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1805SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1806SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1807Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1808Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1809
c7f1390e
DJ
1810*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1811
1fe43d45
AC
1812* Objective-C
1813
1814Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1815integrated into GDB.
1816
e6beb428
AC
1817* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1818
1819DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1820information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1821By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1822backtraces.
1823
1824The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1825have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1826DWARF 2 CFI support.
1827
1828* Hosted file I/O.
1829
1830GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1831file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1832remote protocol documentation for details.
1833
1834* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1835
1836All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1837architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1838to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1839ppc32 on ppc64).
1840
1841* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1842
1843GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1844per-thread variables.
1845
1846* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1847
1848GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1849GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1850
1851* Separate debug info.
1852
1853GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1854automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1855of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1856system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1857and optional debug files.
1858
1859* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1860
1861DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1862describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1863debugger.
1864
1865GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1866for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1867
1868* Java
1869
1870A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1871Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1872considered "useable".
1873
85f8f974
DJ
1874* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1875
1876The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1877commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1878kernel.
1879
0fac0b41
DJ
1880* GDB supports logging output to a file
1881
1882There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1883used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 1884
6ad8ae5c
DJ
1885* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1886
1887The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1888disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1889command.
1890
e286caf2 1891* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
1892
1893The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1894registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1895
d28f9cdf
DJ
1896* Profiling support
1897
1898A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1899be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1900session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1901"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1902data, for more informative profiling results.
1903
da0f9dcd
AC
1904* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1905
1906The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1907option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 1908"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
1909
1910Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1911removed.
1912
fb9b6b35
JJ
1913Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1914Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1915Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1916 in a subsequent -var-update.
1917
954a4db8
MK
1918* New native configurations.
1919
1920FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1921
6760f9e6
JB
1922* Multi-arched targets.
1923
b4263afa 1924HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 1925Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 1926
1b831c93
AC
1927* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1928
1929Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1930been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1931configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1932permanently REMOVED.
1933
8b0e5691 1934Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 1935Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 1936H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
1937HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1938HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1939HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 1940PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
1941Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1942 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1943 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
1944Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1945Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 1946
5835abe7
NC
1947* REMOVED configurations and files
1948
1949V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
1950Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1951IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1952i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1953i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1954i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1955HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1956 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1957 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1958Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1959Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1960Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1961OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1962I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 1963
a094c6fb
AC
1964* MIPS $fp behavior changed
1965
1966The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1967the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1968context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1969address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1970The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1971
299ffc64 1972*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 1973
46248966
AC
1974* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1975
1976When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1977`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1978in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1979library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1980shared libs like mad''.
1981
b9d14705 1982* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 1983
b9d14705
DJ
1984Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1985the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1986arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1987powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 1988
e0e9281e
JB
1989* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1990
1991GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1992and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1993they expand.
1994
dd73b9bb
AC
1995The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1996invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1997
1998The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1999macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2000
e0e9281e
JB
2001Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2002information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2003your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2004information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2005
2250ee0c
CV
2006* Multi-arched targets.
2007
6e3ba3b8
JT
2008DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2009DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 2010NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 2011National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
2012Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2013Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 2014
cd9bfe15 2015* New targets.
e33ce519 2016
456f8b9d
DB
2017Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2018
e33ce519 2019
da8ca43d
JT
2020* New native configurations
2021
2022Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 2023SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 2024MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 2025UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 2026
cd9bfe15
AC
2027* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2028
2029Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2030been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2031configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2032permanently REMOVED.
2033
92eb23c5 2034Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 2035OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 2036IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 2037Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 2038Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 2039Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
2040i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2041i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2042i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
2043HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2044 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2045 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2046I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2047
db034ac5
AC
2048* OBSOLETE languages
2049
2050CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2051
cd9bfe15
AC
2052* REMOVED configurations and files
2053
2054AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2055A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2056AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2057AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2058AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2059
2060testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2061
20f01a46
DH
2062* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2063
2064This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2065commands. The default is 1024.
2066
a5941fbf
MK
2067* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2068
2069Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2070
89743e04
MS
2071* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2072
2073These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2074to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2075from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2076
9fb14e79
JB
2077* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2078
2079The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2080including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2081of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2082
2037aebb
AC
2083*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2084
2085* New targets.
2086
2087Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2088
2089* Bug fixes
2090
2091gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2092mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2093Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2094
2095gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2096dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2097Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2098
2099Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2100Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2101By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2102
2103i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2104avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2105By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2106
37057839 2107*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2108
1a703748
MS
2109* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2110
2111This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2112really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2113In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2114target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2115This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2116(notably embedded) targets.
2117
cefd4ef5
MS
2118* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2119
55241689
AC
2120This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2121process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2122GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2123hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2124
352ed7b4
MS
2125* New command line option
2126
2127GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2128
2129* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2130
2131There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2132command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2133a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2134be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2135open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2136issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2137a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2138it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2139GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2140is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2141
fe419ffc
RE
2142* Changes in ARM configurations.
2143
2144Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2145configuration is fully multi-arch.
2146
eb7cedd9
MK
2147* New native configurations
2148
fe419ffc 2149ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2150x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2151AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2152Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2153
c9f63e6b
CV
2154* New targets
2155
2156Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2157
9b4ff276
AC
2158* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2159
2160Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2161been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2162configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2163permanently REMOVED.
2164
2165AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2166A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2167AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2168AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2169AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2170
b4ceaee6 2171testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2172
e2caac18
AC
2173* REMOVED configurations and files
2174
2175TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2176WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2177PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2178PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2179PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2180Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2181Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2182 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2183SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2184Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2185Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2186ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2187Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2188
c2a727fa
TT
2189* Changes to command line processing
2190
2191The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2192for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2193
467d8519
TT
2194* Changes to key bindings
2195
2196There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2197
7072a954
AC
2198*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2199
2200Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2201
2202Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2203corrupted.
2204
2205Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2206
2207Numerous documentation fixes.
2208
2209Numerous testsuite fixes.
2210
34f47bc4 2211*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2212
2213* New native configurations
2214
2215Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2216x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2217MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2218MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2219ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2220s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2221
bf64bfd6
AC
2222* New targets
2223
def90278 2224Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2225CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2226UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2227
17e78a56 2228* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2229
2230x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2231Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2232Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2233 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2234TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2235WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2236Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2237PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2238PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2239PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2240SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
2241Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2242ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 2243Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 2244
17e78a56
AC
2245stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2246kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2247
7fcca85b
AC
2248Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2249been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2250configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2251permanently REMOVED.
2252
a196c81c 2253* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
2254
2255Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2256Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2257Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2258ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2259Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 2260ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 2261
6d6b80e5 2262* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 2263
6d6b80e5 2264GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
2265sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2266present.
2267
bf64bfd6
AC
2268* Other news:
2269
e23194cb
EZ
2270* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2271
2272* The MI enabled by default.
2273
2274The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2275revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2276engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2277using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2278which is now deprecated.
2279
2280* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2281
2282GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2283main features are supported:
2284
2285 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2286
2287 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2288 extension;
2289
2290 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2291
2292 - a Pascal expression parser.
2293
2294However, some important features are not yet supported.
2295
2296 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2297
2298 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2299
2300 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2301 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2302
2303 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2304
2305 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2306
2307* Changes in completion.
2308
2309Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2310to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2311users expect at the shell prompt.
2312
2313Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2314`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2315program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2316files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2317be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2318considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2319name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2320
2321`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2322
2323* New platform-independent commands:
2324
2325It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2326hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2327documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2328
2329* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2330
d7275149
MK
2331Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2332revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2333many threads as your system allows you to have.
2334
e23194cb
EZ
2335Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2336
d7275149
MK
2337Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2338multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
2339
2340* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
2341
2342Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2343
e23194cb
EZ
2344GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2345debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2346supported.)
2347
2348* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2349
2350Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2351breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2352implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2353put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2354and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2355registers.
2356
2357The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2358debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2359watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2360
2361* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2362
2363New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2364the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2365
2366New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2367display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2368IDT.
2369
2370New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2371from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2372New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2373a given linear address.
2374
2375GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2376program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2377which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2378
2379DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2380
6c56c069
EZ
2381It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2382
e23194cb
EZ
2383* Changes in documentation.
2384
2385All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2386Documentation License.
2387
2388Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2389manual.
2390
2391TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2392
2393Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2394manual.
2395
2396The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2397documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2398hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2399
5d6640b1
AC
2400* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2401
2402The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2403``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2404contents of this file.
2405
1a1d8446
AC
2406* gdba.el deleted
2407
2408GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 2409
9debab2f 2410*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 2411
c63ce875
EZ
2412* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2413
2414Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2415programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2416displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2417greater level of detail.
2418
2419* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2420
2421It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2422bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2423on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2424written.
2425
2426* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2427
2428The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2429necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2430machines ``out of the box''.
2431
2432The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2433possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2434signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2435would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2436interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2437
2438It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2439standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2440even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2441and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2442terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2443
2444The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2445enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2446also works.
2447
2448DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2449GDB.
2450
2451It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2452directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2453times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2454breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2455
ed9a39eb
JM
2456* New native configurations
2457
2458ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 2459PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 2460
7a292a7a
SS
2461* New targets
2462
96baa820 2463Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
2464x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2465PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
2466TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2467
085dd6e6
JM
2468* OBSOLETE configurations
2469
2470Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2471Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 2472Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 2473ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 2474Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 2475
9debab2f
AC
2476Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2477but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2478these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2479be permanently REMOVED.
2480
5330533d
SS
2481* Gould support removed
2482
2483Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2484
bc9e5bbf
AC
2485* New features for SVR4
2486
2487On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2488without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2489load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2490
2491* Many C++ enhancements
2492
2493C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2494in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2495
adf40b2e
JM
2496* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2497
2498A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2499sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2500with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2501``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2502
2503 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2504 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2505
43e526b9
JM
2506* MIPS 64 remote protocol
2507
2508A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2509expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2510instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2511
2512The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2513added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2514
96baa820
JM
2515* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2516
2517The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2518``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2519include ``set remote P-packet''.
2520
11cf8741
JM
2521* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2522
2523The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2524accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2525``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2526
7876dd43
DB
2527* ``apropos'' command added.
2528
2529The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2530documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2531try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2532
bc9e5bbf
AC
2533* New MI interface
2534
2535A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2536interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2537process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2538"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2539enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2540
2541 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2542
c906108c
SS
2543*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2544
2545* New native configurations
2546
2547HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2548HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2549M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2550
2551* New targets
2552
2553Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2554Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2555Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2556
2557* OBSOLETE configurations
2558
2559Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2560
2561Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2562but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2563these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2564be permanently REMOVED.
2565
2566* ANSI/ISO C
2567
2568As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2569buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2570containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2571use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2572available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2573configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2574information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2575already.
2576
2577* Readline 2.2
2578
2579GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2580
2581* set extension-language
2582
2583You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2584languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2585you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2586 set extension-language .c c++
2587The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2588and their associated languages.
2589
2590* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2591
2592When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2593you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2594PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2595
2596 set processor NAME
2597
2598sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2599following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2600
2601 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2602 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2603 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2604 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2605 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2606 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2607 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2608 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2609 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2610 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2611 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2612
2613At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2614special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2615registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2616only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2617
2618* HP-UX support
2619
2620Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2621more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2622library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2623support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2624for xdb and dbx commands.
2625
2626* Catchpoints
2627
2628HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2629generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2630to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2631
2632This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2633argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2634output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2635
2636* Debugging across forks
2637
2638On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2639in the inferior.
2640
2641* TUI
2642
2643HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2644it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2645configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2646
2647* GDB remote protocol additions
2648
2649A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2650Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2651fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2652allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2653
2654For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2655full 64-bit address. The command
2656
2657 set remoteaddresssize 32
2658
2659can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2660the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2661will be discarded.
2662
2663In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2664command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2665
2666 maint packet heythere
2667
2668sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2669disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2670time.
2671
2672The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2673target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2674downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2675
2676* Tracing can collect general expressions
2677
2678You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2679further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2680doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2681
2682* mask-address variable for Mips
2683
2684For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2685a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2686of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2687
2688* Higher serial baud rates
2689
2690GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2691230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2692to achieve all of these rates.)
2693
2694* i960 simulator
2695
2696The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2697builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2698
2699
2700*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2701
2702* New native configurations
2703
2704Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2705Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2706Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2707PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2708PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2709Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2710Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2711
2712* New targets
2713
2714Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2715Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2716Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2717Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2718MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2719MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2720MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2721Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2722Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2723Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2724NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2725
2726* New debugging protocols
2727
2728ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2729M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2730DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2731PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2732PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2733Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2734
2735* DWARF 2
2736
2737All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2738format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2739information.
2740
2741* Java frontend
2742
2743GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2744only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2745
2746* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2747
2748For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2749loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2750locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2751
2752* Live range splitting
2753
2754GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2755range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2756more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2757
2758* Hurd support
2759
2760GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2761updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2762
2763* ARM Thumb support
2764
2765GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2766instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2767instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2768accordingly.
2769
2770* MIPS16 support
2771
2772GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2773instruction set.
2774
2775* Overlay support
2776
2777GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2778linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2779will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2780control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2781additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2782in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2783
2784* info symbol
2785
2786The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2787the symbol at the specified address.
2788
2789* Trace support
2790
2791The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2792asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2793extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2794includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2795file tracepoint.c for more details.
2796
2797* MIPS simulator
2798
2799Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2800by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2801of most MIPS variants.
2802
2803* Sparc simulator
2804
2805Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2806by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2807Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2808
2809* set architecture
2810
2811For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2812basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2813architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2814the possible architectures.
2815
2816*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2817
2818* New native configurations
2819
2820Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2821M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2822PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2823PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2824PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2825RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2826
2827* New targets
2828
2829ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2830I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2831MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2832MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2833PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2834Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2835Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2836
2837* PowerPC simulator
2838
2839The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2840contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2841PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2842basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2843performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2844
2845* Solaris 2.5
2846
2847GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2848
2849* Windows 95/NT native
2850
2851GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2852To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2853which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2854Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2855ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2856
2857* dont-repeat command
2858
2859If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2860command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2861useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2862extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2863
2864* Send break instead of ^C
2865
2866The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2867rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2868GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2869
2870* Remote protocol timeout
2871
2872The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2873that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2874to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2875
2876* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2877
2878By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2879loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2880stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2881when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2882in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2883
2884Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2885/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2886automatically on hpux10.
2887
2888* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2889
2890Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2891
2892* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2893
2894When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2895may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2896the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2897every character. The default value is 1050.
2898
2899* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2900
2901If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2902a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2903replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2904details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2905remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2906to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2907
2908* Speedups for remote debugging
2909
2910GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2911the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2912and more efficient S-record downloading.
2913
2914* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2915
2916GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2917Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2918
2919*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2920
2921* Psymtabs for XCOFF
2922
2923The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2924can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2925
2926* Remote targets use caching
2927
2928Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2929remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2930it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2931debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2932off' turns the the data cache off.
2933
2934* Remote targets may have threads
2935
2936The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2937in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2938gdb/remote.c for details.
2939
2940* NetROM support
2941
2942If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2943support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2944acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2945write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2946support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2947another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2948sequence is something like
2949
2950 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2951 load <prog>
2952 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2953
2954* Macintosh host
2955
2956GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2957may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2958it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2959available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2960device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2961directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2962scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2963mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2964
2965* Autoconf
2966
2967GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2968but does simplify configuration and building.
2969
2970* hpux10
2971
2972GDB now supports hpux10.
2973
2974*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2975
2976* New native configurations
2977
2978x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2979x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2980NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2981Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2982
2983* New targets
2984
2985A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2986HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2987CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2988PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2989WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2990
2991* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2992
2993GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2994possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2995filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2996the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2997if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2998
2999* Arguments to user-defined commands
3000
3001User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3002Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3003trivial example:
3004define adder
3005 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3006
3007To execute the command use:
3008adder 1 2 3
3009
3010Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3011Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3012use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3013
3014* New `if' and `while' commands
3015
3016This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3017commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3018expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3019execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3020terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3021`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3022if the expression is zero.
3023
3024* Fortran source language mode
3025
3026GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3027Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3028variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3029with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3030Fortran compilers.
3031
3032* Better HPUX support
3033
3034Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3035running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3036processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3037for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3038that behavior do the following before running the program:
3039
3040 adb -w a.out
3041 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3042 control-d
3043
3044This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3045To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3046
3047 adb -w a.out
3048 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3049 control-d
3050
3051You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3052the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3053external linkage.
3054
3055GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3056HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3057
3058* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3059
3060You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3061commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3062current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3063"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3064associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3065configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3066
3067* New DOS host serial code
3068
3069This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3070no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3071a PC's serial port.
3072
3073*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3074
3075* New "complete" command
3076
3077This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3078were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3079
3080* Trailing space optional in prompt
3081
3082"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3083allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3084
3085* Breakpoint hit counts
3086
3087"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3088has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3089can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3090to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3091less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3092that breakpoint.
3093
3094* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3095
3096"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3097an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3098arrays actually contain only short strings.
3099
3100* Shared library breakpoints
3101
3102In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3103breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3104
3105* Hardware watchpoints
3106
3107There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3108targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3109
55241689 3110Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3111
3112* Annotations
3113
3114Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3115and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3116
3117* Improved Irix 5 support
3118
3119GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3120
3121* Improved HPPA support
3122
3123GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3124
3125* New native configurations
3126
3127Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3128HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3129Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3130RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3131
3132* New targets
3133
3134OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3135MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3136Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3137
3138* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3139
3140There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3141This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3142
3143* Fixes
3144
3145As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3146and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3147
3148*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3149
3150* Irix 5 is now supported
3151
3152* HPPA support
3153
3154GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3155to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3156GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3157of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3158can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3159
3160
3161*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3162
3163* User visible changes:
3164
3165* Remote Debugging
3166
3167The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3168target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3169debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3170integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3171debugging info for the mips target).
3172
3173* DEC Alpha native support
3174
3175GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3176debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3177work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3178Alpha-specific notes.
3179
3180* Preliminary thread implementation
3181
3182GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3183
3184* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3185
3186This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3187to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3188for details).
3189
3190* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3191
3192This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3193mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3194call methods, ...etc.
3195
3196*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3197
3198 * User visible changes:
3199
3200Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3201supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3202other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3203somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3204
3205Filename completion now works.
3206
3207When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3208arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3209addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3210
3211All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3212vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3213should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3214your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3215to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3216
3217 * DEC alpha support
3218
3219This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3220cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3221
3222
3223*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3224
3225 * Testsuite
3226
3227This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3228The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3229via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3230
3231 * C++ demangling
3232
3233'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3234emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3235Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3236disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3237use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3238
3239 * Simulators
3240
3241GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3242So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3243Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3244
3245 * New targets supported
3246
3247H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3248H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3249SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3250Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3251IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3252
3253Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3254version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3255GO32 memory extender.
3256
3257 * New remote protocols
3258
3259MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3260
3261 * New source languages supported
3262
3263This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3264used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3265into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3266
3267
3268*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3269
3270 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3271
3272GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3273version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3274University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3275compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3276format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3277(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3278
3279Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3280
3281 * Faster and better demangling
3282
3283We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3284demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3285character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3286only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3287This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3288increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3289symbol lookups.
3290
3291`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3292from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3293compiler does not actually implement.
3294
3295 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3296
3297In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3298inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3299recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3300very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3301The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3302circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3303fix.
3304
3305The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3306release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3307
3308 * Improved configure script
3309
3310The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3311you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3312host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3313done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3314
3315We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3316version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3317`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3318The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3319only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3320We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3321
3322 * Documentation improvements
3323
3324There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3325produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3326before submitting changes.
3327
3328The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3329M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3330`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3331you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3332a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3333
3334*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3335We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3336been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3337or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3338`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3339around this problem.
3340
3341 * New features
3342
3343GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3344the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3345`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3346the target program.
3347
3348The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3349how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3350
3351 * New native hosts supported
3352
3353HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3354386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3355
3356 * New targets supported
3357
3358AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3359
3360 * New file formats supported
3361
3362BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3363HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3364
3365 * Major bug fixes
3366
3367Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3368
3369We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3370printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3371
3372We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3373for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3374release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3375
3376You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3377will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3378
3379We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3380for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3381especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3382libraries.
3383
3384The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3385information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3386command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3387any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3388when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3389
3390 * Internal improvements
3391
3392GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3393debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3394
3395GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3396Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3397symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3398contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3399shared code that handles any of them.
3400
3401 * New command line options
3402
3403We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3404
3405 * Mmalloc licensing
3406
3407The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3408General Public License.
3409
3410*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3411
3412 * Host/native/target split
3413
3414GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3415hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3416target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3417local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3418ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3419
3420The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3421GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3422is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3423code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3424any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3425built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3426handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3427
3428GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3429It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3430plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3431
3432 * New hosts supported
3433
3434HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3435386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3436386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3437
3438 * New targets supported
3439
3440Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
344168030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3442
3443 * New native hosts supported
3444
3445386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3446 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3447386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3448
3449 * New file formats supported
3450
3451BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3452supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3453format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3454
3455 * New commands
3456
3457`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3458`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3459These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3460
3461`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3462
3463You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3464scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3465prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3466executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3467
3468 * C++ improvements
3469
3470We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3471info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3472symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3473
3474Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3475
3476 * Major bug fixes
3477
3478The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3479fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3480by the compiler.
3481
3482We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3483support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3484
3485John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3486slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3487that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3488purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3489the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3490mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3491
3492Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3493about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3494completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3495we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3496
3497 * AMD 29k support
3498
3499A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3500specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3501calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3502usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3503in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3504
3505We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3506Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3507of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3508resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3509
3510 * Remote interfaces
3511
3512We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3513with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3514message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3515This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3516needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3517breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3518each instruction being stepped through.
3519
3520The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3521registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3522
3523There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3524find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3525Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3526processor with a serial port.
3527
3528 * Configuration
3529
3530Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3531`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3532supported, and what files each one uses.
3533
3534 * Library changes
3535
3536There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3537disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3538Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3539disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3540
3541The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3542Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3543can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3544grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3545
3546 * Documentation
3547
3548The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3549reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3550as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3551encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3552system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3553bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3554
3555And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3556
3557
3558*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3559
3560 * Better support for C++ function names
3561
3562GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3563names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3564(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3565single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3566Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3567
3568GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3569the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3570You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3571lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3572for the list of formats.
3573
3574 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3575
3576Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3577C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3578directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3579can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3580usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3581about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3582this problem.)
3583
3584 * New 'maintenance' command
3585
3586All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3587the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3588can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3589
3590 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3591 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3592 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3593 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3594 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3595 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3596
3597The following commands are new:
3598
3599 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3600 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3601 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3602
3603 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3604
3605We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3606(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3607be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3608read after argv processing.
3609
3610 * New hosts supported
3611
3612Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3613
55241689 3614GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3615
3616We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3617is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3618for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3619masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3620fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3621It costs extra.
3622
3623 * New targets supported
3624
3625Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3626
3627 * More smarts about finding #include files
3628
3629GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3630all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3631greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3632especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3633the one that contains your sources.
3634
3635We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3636breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3637try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3638
3639 * Interesting infernals change
3640
3641GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3642section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3643target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3644stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3645
3646 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3647
3648There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3649 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3650 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3651
3652See the ChangeLog for details.
3653
3654*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3655
3656 * New machines supported (host and target)
3657
3658IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3659
3660SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3661
3662 * New malloc package
3663
3664GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3665Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3666capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3667This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3668pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3669more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3670
3671 * info proc
3672
3673The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3674'help info proc' for details.
3675
3676 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3677
3678The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3679Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3680possible.
3681
3682 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3683
3684Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3685support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3686conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3687environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3688that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3689in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3690
3691 * Cross byte order fixes
3692
3693Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3694targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3695
3696 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3697
3698If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3699system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3700`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3701program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3702called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3703Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3704and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3705the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3706option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3707starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3708
3709You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3710the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3711information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3712slower, but makes future operations faster.
3713
3714The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3715build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3716A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3717use is:
3718
3719 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3720
3721The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3722It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3723shared across multiple host platforms.
3724
3725 * longjmp() handling
3726
3727GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3728siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3729all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3730platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3731
3732 * Solaris 2.0
3733
3734Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3735this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3736reading symbols.
3737
3738 * Bug fixes
3739
3740As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3741People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3742crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3743
3744*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3745
3746 * New machines supported (host and target)
3747
3748SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3749 (except core files)
3750BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3751Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3752
3753 * New machines supported (target)
3754
3755AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3756
3757 * C++ support
3758
3759GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3760The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3761per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3762
3763GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3764`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3765extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3766good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3767will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3768released.
3769
3770 * New features for SVR4
3771
3772GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3773shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3774only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3775
3776The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3777on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3778it prints the address mappings of the process.
3779
3780If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3781bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3782
3783 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3784
3785Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3786now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3787skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3788make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3789same code linked statically.
3790
3791 * New Getopt
3792
3793GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3794version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3795continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3796Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3797added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3798future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3799
3800 * Bugs fixed
3801
3802The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3803Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3804See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3805
3806
3807*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3808
3809 * New machines supported (host and target)
3810
3811Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3812NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3813Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3814
3815 * Almost SCO Unix support
3816
3817We had hoped to support:
3818SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3819(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3820that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3821about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3822
3823 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3824
3825GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3826debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3827is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3828send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3829reqired (if any).
3830
3831 * New Readline
3832
3833GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3834is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3835required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3836
3837 * Bugs fixed
3838
3839The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3840Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3841See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3842
3843 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3844
3845GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3846supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3847symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3848
3849Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3850mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3851debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3852mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3853version 2.
3854
3855Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3856really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3857line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3858variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3859situation somewhat.
3860
3861When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3862However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3863methods.
3864
3865We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3866DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3867encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3868
3869
3870*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3871
3872 * Improved configuration
3873
3874Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3875Porting BFD is simpler.
3876
3877 * Stepping improved
3878
3879The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3880of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3881in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3882function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3883
3884 * Bug fixing
3885
3886Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3887
3888 * New host supported (not target)
3889
3890Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3891
3892
3893*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3894
3895 * Multiple source language support
3896
3897GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3898It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3899and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3900language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3901You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3902`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3903
3904 * GDB and Modula-2
3905
3906GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3907currently under development at the State University of New York at
3908Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3909continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3910
3911Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3912debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3913symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3914
3915There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3916in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3917
3918 * set write on/off
3919
3920GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3921a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3922the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3923by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3924effect immediately.
3925
3926 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3927
3928When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3929shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3930The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3931examining core files.
3932
3933 * set listsize
3934
3935You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3936The default is 10.
3937
3938 * New machines supported (host and target)
3939
3940SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3941Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3942Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3943
3944 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3945
3946IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3947
3948 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3949
3950AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3951AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3952Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3953
3954 * New remote interfaces
3955
3956AMD 29000 Adapt
3957AMD 29000 Minimon
3958
3959
3960*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3961
3962 * New Facilities
3963
3964Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3965
3966Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3967target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3968is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3969remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3970remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3971also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3972using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3973stub on the target system.
3974
3975New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3976
3977GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3978library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3979object file types such as a.out and coff.
3980
3981There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3982refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3983
3984
3985 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3986
3987All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3988by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3989
3990For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3991``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3992Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3993
3994What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3995print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3996will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3997all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3998
3999confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4000 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4001 it is already running. Default is ON.
4002
4003editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4004 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4005 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4006 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4007 Default is ON.
4008
4009history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4010 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4011 or the value of the environment variable
4012 GDBHISTFILE.
4013
4014history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4015 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4016 HISTSIZE.
4017
4018history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4019 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4020 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4021
4022history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4023 history expansion will be performed on
4024 command line input. The default is OFF.
4025
4026radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4027 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4028 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4029
4030height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4031 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4032 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4033 variable TERM.
4034
4035width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4036 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4037 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4038 variable TERM.
4039
4040Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4041``set width'' instead.
4042
4043print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4044 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4045 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4046 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4047
4048print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4049 is OFF.
4050
4051print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4052 "raw" form if off.
4053
4054print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4055 like instructions.
4056
4057print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4058
4059
4060 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4061
4062The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4063new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4064are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4065window.
4066
4067
4068 * Support for Shared Libraries
4069
4070GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4071Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4072before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4073happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4074At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4075from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4076shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4077It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4078
4079sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4080 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4081 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4082
4083info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4084
4085
4086 * Watchpoints
4087
4088A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4089expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4090tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4091quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4092problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4093more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4094
4095watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4096
4097info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4098
4099delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4100disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4101enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4102
4103
4104 * C++ multiple inheritance
4105
4106When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4107for C++ programs.
4108
4109 * C++ exception handling
4110
4111Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4112ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4113the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4114handler's context).
4115
4116catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4117 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4118 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4119
4120info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4121 current stack frame.
4122
4123
4124 * Minor command changes
4125
4126The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4127command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4128is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4129
4130The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4131at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4132frames without printing.
4133
4134 * New directory command
4135
4136'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4137The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4138about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4139with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4140find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4141
4142 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4143
4144For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4145for more details.
4146
4147GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4148two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4149Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4150where the program that you are debugging will run.