]> git.ipfire.org Git - thirdparty/binutils-gdb.git/blame - gdb/NEWS
Avoid undefined behavior in expression dumping
[thirdparty/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
c906108c
SS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4e5b2f89
JB
4*** Changes since GDB 8.2
5
078a0207
KS
6* GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
7 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
8 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
9 and operators.
10
11 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
12 (the C++ plug-in).
13
c7ab0aef
SDJ
14* GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
15 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
16 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
17
7d11235d
SM
18* DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
19 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
20
b0f492b9
GB
21* GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
22 executed failed.
23
f67ffa6a
AB
24* Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI
25 commands. These commands all now take a frame specification which
26 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
27 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
28 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
29 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
30 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
31
a14c4daa
PW
32* New commands
33
078a0207
KS
34set debug compile-cplus-types
35show debug compile-cplus-types
36 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
37 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
38 for other languages.
39
3e68067f
SM
40set debug skip
41show debug skip
42 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
43 displayed.
44
a14c4daa
PW
45frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
46 Apply a command to some frames.
47 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
48 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
49
50taas COMMAND
51 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
52 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
53
54faas COMMAND
55 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
56 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
57
58tfaas COMMAND
59 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
60 output).
61 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
62
3c3bb058
AB
63maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
64maint show dwarf unwinders
65 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
66
8b113111
JB
67info proc files
68 Display a list of open files for a process.
69
a14c4daa
PW
70* Changed commands
71
c1168a2f
JD
72target remote FILENAME
73target extended-remote FILENAME
74 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
75 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
76
a14c4daa
PW
77thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
78 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
79 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
80 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
81
26fb3983
JV
82* MI changes
83
84 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
85 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
86 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
87 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
88 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
89
6d52907e
JV
90 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
91 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
92
52a187f8
JW
93* New native configurations
94
95GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
96
97* New targets
98
99GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
416a69af
HAQ
100CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
101CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
52a187f8 102
a40bf0c2
SM
103* Python API
104
105 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
106 space associated to that inferior.
107
0ae1a321
SM
108 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
109 of objfiles associated to that program space.
110
4e5b2f89 111*** Changes in GDB 8.2
cd385f94 112
471b9d15
MR
113* The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
114 for the MIPS target.
115
d4d429d5
PT
116* The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
117 offset to all sections.
118
291f9a96
PT
119* Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
120 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
121 address of individual sections using '-s'.
122
ed6dfe51
PT
123* The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
124 (address of the text section).
125
4b2dfa9d
MR
126* The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
127 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
128 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
129 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
130 default.
131
eb6af809
TT
132* The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
133 for the rest of the current command.
134
b744723f
AA
135* The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
136 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
137
2d97a5d9
JB
138* 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
139 files created on FreeBSD systems.
140
007e1530
TT
141* C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
142 alignof.
143
1461bdac
AH
144* Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
145 the vector length while the process is running.
146
386a8676
JB
147* New commands
148
149set debug fbsd-nat
150show debug fbsd-nat
151 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
152
3fcded8f
JB
153set|show varsize-limit
154 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
155 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
156 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
157
4a4495d6
MM
158set|show record btrace cpu
159 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
160 branch trace decode.
161
5045b3d7
GB
162maint check libthread-db
163 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
164 library
165
166maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
167maint show check-libthread-db
168 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
169 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
170 perform such checks.
171
6d7bb824
TT
172* Python API
173
174 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
175
a913fffb
TT
176 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
177 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
178
56bcdbea
TT
179 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
180
7729052b
TT
181 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
182 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
183 of convenience variables.
184
984ee559
TT
185 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
186 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
187 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
188
dbbb1059
AB
189* New targets
190
191RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
192
a2a79012
PA
193* Removed targets and native configurations
194
195m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
8a3de5e1
PA
196SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
197SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
198SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
a2a79012 199
a3b60e45
JK
200* Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
201
202 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
203 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
204 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
205 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
206 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
207 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
208 reported.
209
056dec39 210* Configure changes
44cee4fd
TT
211
212--enable-codesign=CERT
213 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
214 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
215 gdb to work properly.
216
056dec39
TT
217--disable-gdbcli has been removed
218 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
219
cd385f94 220*** Changes in GDB 8.1
305d16a9 221
cef0f868
SH
222* GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
223 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
224 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
225
7c161838
SDJ
226* The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
227 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
228
97cbe998
SDJ
229* New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
230 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
231 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
232 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
233 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
234
2400729e
UW
235* GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
236 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
237 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
238 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
239
289e23aa
AA
240* GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
241 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
242
0a2dde4a
SDJ
243* On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
244 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
245 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
246
247 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
248 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
249 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
250
251 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
252 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
253 environment" command.
254
d044bac8
PA
255* Completion improvements
256
257 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
258 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
259 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
260 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
261 correctly:
262
263 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
264 (gdb) b function(int)
265
266 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
267 C++ anonymous namespaces:
268
269 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
270 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
271 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
272 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
273
274 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
275 completion support, that better understands what you're
276 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
277 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
278 setting a breakpoint.
279
280 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
281
282 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
283
c179febe
SL
284* New command line options (gcore)
285
286-a
287 Dump all memory mappings.
288
a20714ff
PA
289* Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
290
291 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
292 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
293 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
294
295 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
296
297 A::B::func()
298 B::func()
299
300 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
301 on both symbols.
302
303 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
304 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
305 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
306 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
b89641ba
SM
307 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
308 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
309 a breakpoint from Python.
a20714ff 310
bd69330d
PA
311* Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
312
313 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
314 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
315 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
316
317 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
318
319 function[abi:cxx11](int)
320 ^^^^^^^^^^^
321
322 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
323 no tag, like:
324
325 (gdb) b function(int)
326
327 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
328
329 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
330
331 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
332
7c96f8c1
TT
333* Python Scripting
334
335 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
336 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
337 description of these.
338
4e725347
JB
339 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
340 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
341 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
d8ae99a7 342
824cc835
PM
343 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
344 manual for a further description of this feature.
345
346
6d580b63
YQ
347* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
348
bc3b087d
SDJ
349 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
350 specified initial working directory.
351
352 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
353 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
354
6d580b63
YQ
355 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
356 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
357
358 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
359 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
360
361 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
362 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
363 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
364 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
365 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
aefd8b33 366
0a2dde4a
SDJ
367 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
368 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
369 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
370
e547c119
JB
371* When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
372 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
373 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
374 in the *stopped notification.
375
7403715e
TT
376* Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
377 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
378
aefd8b33
SDJ
379* New remote packets
380
0a2dde4a
SDJ
381QEnvironmentHexEncoded
382 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
383 the inferior when starting it.
384
385QEnvironmentUnset
386 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
387 before starting the remote inferior.
388
389QEnvironmentReset
390 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
391 user-set environment variables should be unset).
392
aefd8b33
SDJ
393QStartupWithShell
394 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
395
bc3b087d
SDJ
396QSetWorkingDir
397 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
398 working directory.
399
8e2141c6
YQ
400* The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
401 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
402
1526853e
SM
403* The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
404 filter the tests to be run.
405
d0fe4701
XR
406* The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
407 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
408
c4dcb155
SM
409* New commands
410
d092c5a2
SDJ
411set|show cwd
412 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
413
6e41ddec
JK
414set|show compile-gcc
415 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
416 with the 'compile' commands.
417
c4dcb155
SM
418set debug separate-debug-file
419show debug separate-debug-file
420 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
421
1e52e849
SL
422set dump-excluded-mappings
423show dump-excluded-mappings
424 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
425 dumped when generating a core file.
426
1526853e
SM
427maint info selftests
428 List the registered selftests.
429
4e5a4f58
JB
430starti
431 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
432
b282f0f2
SH
433set|show debug or1k
434 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
435
883fd55a
KS
436set|show print type nested-type-limit
437 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
438 type printer will show.
439
44d0fb3a
RK
440* TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
441 `o' for nexti.
442
d69cf9b2
PA
443* Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
444
445 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
446 'int'.
447
448 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
449 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
450 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
451 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
452
453 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
454 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
455 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
456 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
457 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
458 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
459
460 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
461 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
462 unless you tell it the variable's type:
463
464 (gdb) p var
465 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
466 (gdb) p (float) var
467 $3 = 3.14
468
351787dd
JB
469* New native configurations
470
471FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
4f9d9906 472FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
351787dd 473
c0f84956
JB
474* New targets
475
476FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
7176dfd2 477FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
b282f0f2 478OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
c0f84956 479
281c4447
RO
480* Removed targets and native configurations
481
482Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
483
305d16a9 484*** Changes in GDB 8.0
51547df6
MS
485
486* GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
487 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
488 available in future Intel CPUs.
751b375e 489
c0f55cc6
AV
490* GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
491
0a0faf9f
TW
492* Python Scripting
493
494 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
c0f55cc6 495 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
0a0faf9f 496
20b477a7
LM
497* GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
498 instructions.
499
e6485aaf 500* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
d2946923
PA
501
502 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
cf6de44d
PA
503
504 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
505 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
506 removed.
507
f2ff9acd
SM
508* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
509
510 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
511 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
512
8ba42bc5
EZ
513* Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
514
515 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
516 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
517 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
518 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
519 features.
520
24cdb46e
РИ
521* Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
522
523 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
524 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
525 debugger.
526
9c37b5ae
TT
527* Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
528
df3ee9ca
PA
529* User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
530 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
531
01770bbd
PA
532* The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
533
534 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
535
536 define mycommand
537 set $i = 0
538 while $i < $argc
539 eval "print $arg%d", $i
540 set $i = $i + 1
541 end
542 end
543
3f7b46f2
IR
544* Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
545
0ae60b63
JK
546* GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
547 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
548
b268007c
JB
549* New native configurations
550
551FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
552
ad0a504f
AK
553* New targets
554
555Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
387360da 556FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
ad0a504f 557
db6be0d5
SM
558* Removed targets and native configurations
559
560Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
561Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
562
78cbbba8
LM
563* New commands
564
565flash-erase
566 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
567
db6be0d5
SM
568maint print arc arc-instruction address
569 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
51457a05 570
db6be0d5 571* New options
65b48a81
PB
572
573set disassembler-options
574show disassembler-options
575 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
576 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
577 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
578 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
579 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
580
db6be0d5 581* New MI commands
eea78757 582
db6be0d5
SM
583-target-flash-erase
584 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
585 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1e1a8bef 586
db6be0d5
SM
587-file-list-shared-libraries
588 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
589 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1e1a8bef 590
bea298f9
XR
591-catch-handlers
592 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
593 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
594
751b375e 595*** Changes in GDB 7.12
1233c0ba 596
69ffd7f2
PA
597* GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
598
599 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
600 default. One must now explicitly configure with
601 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
602 option will be removed in a future release.
603
c0272db5
TW
604* GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
605 GDB connection.
606
bb556f1f
TK
607* GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
608 memory backward from the given address. For example:
609
610 (gdb) bt
611 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
612 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
613 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
614 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
615 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
616 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
617 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
618 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
619 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
620
9920b434
BH
621* Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
622 arrays of dynamic types.
623
34c41c68
DE
624* The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
625maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
626maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
627maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
628maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
629maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
630
81516450
DE
631* GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
632 descriptions.
633
f2f3ccb9
SM
634* New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
635 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
636 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
637
012b3a21
WT
638* Intel MPX bound violation handling.
639
640 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
641 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
642 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
643 signal received and code location.
644
645 For example:
646
647 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
648 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
649 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
650 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
651
0bdfa368
TT
652* Rust language support.
653 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
654 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
655 Rust.
656
86f78169
PA
657* Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
658
659 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
660 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
661 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
662 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
663 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
664 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
665 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
666 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
667 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
668 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
669 line.
670
e3487908
GKB
671* The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
672
673 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
674 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
675
d2dffb8d
DE
676* New commands
677
678skip -file file
679skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
680skip -function function
681skip -rfunction regular-expression
682 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
683 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
684 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
685
f2403c39
AB
686maint info line-table REGEXP
687 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
688
dcd1f979
TT
689maint selftest
690 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
691
86f78169
PA
692new-ui INTERP TTY
693 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
694 using the TTY file for input/output.
695
93daf339
TT
696* Python Scripting
697
698 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
699 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
8d2a0a14
TT
700 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
701 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
702 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
93daf339 703
463888ab
РИ
704signal-event EVENTID
705 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
706 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
707 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
708 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
709 signalling an event.
710
c37c0ba6
MK
711* Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
712 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
713 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
714
f7c38292
PA
715* Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
716 been removed:
717
718 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
719 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
720 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
721 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
722 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
723 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
724
22084c42
MK
725* Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
726 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
727 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
728 bytecode into native code.
729
38b022b4
SM
730* MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
731 recording. For example:
732
733 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
734
4034d0ff
AT
735* MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
736
737 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
738
a28d8e50
YTL
739* New targets
740
741Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
742
1233c0ba 743*** Changes in GDB 7.11
7c79d316 744
6e9567fe
JB
745* GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
746
5d5658a1
PA
747* Per-inferior thread numbers
748
749 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
750 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
751 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
752
753 (gdb) info threads
754 Id Target Id Frame
755 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
756 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
757 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
758 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
759
760 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
761 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
762 are no longer unique between inferiors.
763
764 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
765 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
663f6d42 766 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
5d5658a1
PA
767
768 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
769 IDs.
770
771* Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
772 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
773
774 (gdb) thread 2.1
775 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
776 (gdb)
777
71ef29a8
PA
778* In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
779 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
780 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
781 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
782 threads 2.*".
783
c84f6bbf
PA
784* You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
785 all threads.
786
663f6d42
PA
787* The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
788 the current thread.
789
e3940304
PA
790* The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
791 current inferior.
792
f303dbd6
PA
793* GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
794 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
795 example:
796
797 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
798 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
799
cbb55fa7
MM
800* Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
801
58d2eda5
PL
802* Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
803
da8c46d2 804* The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
bc504a31 805 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
da8c46d2 806
629500fa
KS
807* GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
808 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
809 clients.
810
02f024f9
YQ
811* Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
812 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
813 at the same time.
814
4d9d419e
PL
815* Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
816 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
817 into native code.
818
eda14cf2
YQ
819* GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
820
be81798b
PA
821* "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
822 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
823 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
824
3685b09f
PMR
825* In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
826 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
827
fbea99ea
PA
828* New commands
829
830maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
831maint show target-non-stop
832 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
833 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
834 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
835
18989b3c
AB
836maint set bfd-sharing
837maint show bfd-sharing
838 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
839
566f5e3b
AB
840set debug bfd-cache
841show debug bfd-cache
842 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
843
6e9567fe
JB
844set debug fbsd-lwp
845show debug fbsd-lwp
846 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
847
73b8c1fd
PA
848set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
849show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
850 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
851
65706a29
PA
852set remote thread-events
853show remote thread-events
854 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
855
3685b09f
PMR
856set ada print-signatures on|off
857show ada print-signatures"
858 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
859 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
860
5fdf6324
AB
861set max-value-size
862show max-value-size
863 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
864 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
865 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
866
6ff0ba5f
DE
867* The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
868 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
869 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
870 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
871 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
872 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
873
0c532a29
MM
874* The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
875 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
876
f2665db5
MM
877* The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
878 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
879
40e0b271
PA
880* Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
881
882 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
883 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
884 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
885 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
886 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
887 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
888
fd2ae5d6 889* Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
d63dd61e 890 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
fd2ae5d6 891
9f757bf7
XR
892catch handlers
893 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
894
b459a59b
DB
895* New remote packets
896
897exec stop reason
898 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
899
900exec-events feature in qSupported
901 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
902 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
903 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
904 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
905
de979965
PA
906vCtrlC
907 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
908 non-stop mode.
909
65706a29
PA
910thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
911 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
912
913thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
914 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
915
916QThreadEvents
917 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
918 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
919 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
920 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
921 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
922 stop for that same thread.
923
f2faf941 924N stop reply
f2faf941
PA
925 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
926 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
927 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
928
aab3c527
JK
929QCatchSyscalls
930 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
931 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
82075af2
JS
932
933syscall_entry stop reason
934 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
935
936syscall_return stop reason
937 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
938
b459a59b
DB
939* Extended-remote exec events
940
941 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
942 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
943 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
944
945set remote exec-event-feature-packet
946show remote exec-event-feature-packet
947 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
948
79efa585
SM
949 * Thread names in remote protocol
950
951 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
952 thread.
953
19d9d4ef
DB
954* Target remote mode fork and exec events
955
956 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
957 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
958 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
959 fork and exec catchpoints.
960
82075af2
JS
961* Remote syscall events
962
963 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
964 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
965
966set remote catch-syscall-packet
967show remote catch-syscall-packet
968 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
969
1c35a88f
LM
970* MI changes
971
972 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
973 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
974 left.
975
84654457
PA
976* Python Scripting
977
22a02324
PA
978 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
979 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
980 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
981 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
84654457
PA
982 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
983 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
984
7c79d316 985*** Changes in GDB 7.10
df8411da 986
c16a3f52
OJ
987* Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
988 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
989 including advance SIMD instructions.
990
18a94d75
DE
991* Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
992
df8411da
SDJ
993* GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
994 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
995 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
996 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
997 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
998 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
999 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
3b2f13ff 1000
d33279b3
AT
1001* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1002 cpu information :
1003 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1004
236af5e3
YG
1005* GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1006 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1007 remote serial I/O.
1008
b6577aab
DE
1009* The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1010 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1011 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1012
b30a0bc3
JB
1013* The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1014 is now available on all platforms.
1015
599bd15c
GB
1016* Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1017 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1018 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1019 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1020 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1021 backward compatibility.
1022
a9a5a3d1
GB
1023* The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1024 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1025 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1026 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1027
1b6e6f5c
GB
1028* GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1029 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1030 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1031 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1032 packets" below.
1033
cf75d6c3
AB
1034* The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1035
417c80f9
AA
1036* GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1037
51aad7cc
GB
1038* On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1039 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1040 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1041 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1042 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1043 See "New remote packets" below.
1044
51f0e40d
AB
1045* The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1046 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1047
b58c513b
PP
1048* The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1049 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
bc460514
PP
1050 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1051 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1052 are ignored.
b58c513b 1053
37442ce1
DE
1054* Guile Scripting
1055
1056 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1057
3a8b707a
DE
1058* Python Scripting
1059
1060 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1061 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1062 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
d11916aa 1063 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
59fb7612
SS
1064 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1065 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
4c082a81
SC
1066 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1067 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1068 "const" version of the value respectively.
3a8b707a 1069
f57d2163
DE
1070* New commands
1071
1072maint print symbol-cache
1073 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1074
1075maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1076 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1077
1078maint flush-symbol-cache
1079 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1080
f4abbc16
MM
1081record btrace bts
1082record bts
1083 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1084
36de76f9
JK
1085compile print
1086 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1087
a4ea0946
AB
1088tui enable
1089tui disable
1090 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1091
29c1c244
WT
1092show mpx bound
1093set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
bc504a31 1094 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
29c1c244 1095
b20a6524
MM
1096record btrace pt
1097record pt
bc504a31 1098 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
b20a6524 1099
b0627500
MM
1100maint info btrace
1101 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1102
1103maint btrace packet-history
1104 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1105
1106maint btrace clear-packet-history
1107 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1108
1109maint btrace clear
1110 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1111 anew by the next "record" command.
1112
253828f1
JK
1113* New options
1114
b4f54984
DE
1115set debug dwarf-die
1116 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1117show debug dwarf-die
1118 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1119
1120set debug dwarf-read
1121 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1122show debug dwarf-read
1123 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1124
1125maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1126 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1127maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1128 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1129
1130maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1131 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1132maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1133 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1134
27e0867f
DE
1135set debug dwarf-line
1136show debug dwarf-line
1137 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1138
ef0b411a
GB
1139set max-completions
1140show max-completions
1141 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1142 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1143 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1144 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1145
fc637f04
PP
1146set history remove-duplicates
1147show history remove-duplicates
1148 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1149
f57d2163
DE
1150maint set symbol-cache-size
1151maint show symbol-cache-size
1152 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1153
d33501a5
MM
1154set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1155 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1156 BTS format.
1157 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1158 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1159
7a6a1731
GB
1160set debug linux-namespaces
1161show debug linux-namespaces
1162 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1163
b20a6524
MM
1164set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1165 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
bc504a31 1166 Intel Processor Trace format.
b20a6524
MM
1167 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1168 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1169
b0627500
MM
1170maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1171 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1172 packet history.
1173
253828f1
JK
1174* The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1175 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1176
9f050062
DE
1177* Python/Guile scripting
1178
1179 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1180 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1181
f4abbc16
MM
1182* New remote packets
1183
1184qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1185 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1186
d33501a5
MM
1187Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1188 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1189
b20a6524 1190Qbtrace:pt
bc504a31 1191 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
b20a6524
MM
1192 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1193 qSupported query.
1194
1195Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
bc504a31 1196 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
b20a6524
MM
1197 Trace format.
1198
f7e6eed5
PA
1199swbreak stop reason
1200 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1201 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1202 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1203 mode operation.
1204
1205hwbreak stop reason
1206 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1207 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1208
0a93529c
GB
1209vFile:fstat:
1210 Return information about files on the remote system.
1211
c78fa86a
GB
1212qXfer:exec-file:read
1213 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1214 create a process running on the remote system.
1215
15a201c8
GB
1216vFile:setfs:
1217 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1218 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1219 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1220 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1221
0d71eef5
DB
1222fork stop reason
1223 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1224
1225vfork stop reason
1226 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1227
1228vforkdone stop reason
1229 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1230 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1231
1232fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1233 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1234 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1235 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1236 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1237 whether these features are enabled.
1238
1239* Extended-remote fork events
1240
1241 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1242 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1243 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1244 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1245
d33501a5
MM
1246* The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1247 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1248 the btrace record target.
1249 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1250
b05e3b0d
JM
1251* GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1252 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1253
550bdf96
AA
1254* GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1255 targets.
1256
4f45d445
JK
1257* Removed command line options
1258
1259-xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1260
0800b440
JK
1261* Removed targets and native configurations
1262
1263HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1264Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1265
58bfce93
MM
1266* New configure options
1267
1268--with-intel-pt
1269 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
bc504a31 1270 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
58bfce93
MM
1271
1272--with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1273 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1274 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1275 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1276
f5f85ab9
JB
1277*** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1278
1279* Python Scripting
1280
1281 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1282
3b2f13ff 1283*** Changes in GDB 7.9
919b9a93 1284
05db5edd
ST
1285* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1286
5f3b99cf 1287* Python Scripting
2b4fd423
DE
1288
1289 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1290 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
d096d8c1
DE
1291 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1292 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
a0be3e44 1293 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
7c50a931
DE
1294 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1295 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
86e4ed39 1296 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
4ffbba72
DE
1297 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1298 selecting a new file to debug.
02be9a71 1299 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
6dddd6a5 1300 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
5f3b99cf 1301
8fda9068
YQ
1302 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1303 inferior.
1304
1305 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1306 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1307 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1308 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1309
faa42425
DE
1310* New Python-based convenience functions:
1311
1312 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1313 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1314 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1315 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1316
bb2ec1b3
TT
1317* GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1318 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1319 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1320 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1321 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1322 interface with this new feature are:
1323
1324 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1325 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1326
81219e53
DE
1327* New commands
1328
439250fb
DE
1329demangle [-l language] [--] name
1330 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1331 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1332 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1333 as "maint demangler-warning".
1334
81219e53
DE
1335queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1336 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1337
f10c5b19
JK
1338add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1339 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1340 scripts.
1341
f5b95c01
AA
1342maint print user-registers
1343 List all currently available "user" registers.
1344
bb2ec1b3
TT
1345compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1346 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1347 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1348
1349compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1350 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1351 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1352 provided.
1353
70509625
PA
1354* On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1355 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1356 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1357 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1358 at resume time.
1359
1360* Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1361 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1362 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1363 switched threads meanwhile.
1364
a25a5a45
PA
1365* "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1366
1367 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1368 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1369 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1370 is now the default mode.
1371
cc485e62
DE
1372* New options
1373
1374set debug symbol-lookup
1375show debug symbol-lookup
1376 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1377
2ddf4301
SM
1378* MI changes
1379
1380 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1381 inferiors that have exited.
1382
bb7e3f4d
YQ
1383* New targets
1384
1385MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1386
3831839c
PA
1387* Removed targets
1388
1389Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1390
5ab806de
PA
1391Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1392SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1393SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
09dd9a69
PA
1394VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1395VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
3831839c 1396
6bf6fd09
JB
1397* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1398 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1399 its alias "share", instead.
1400
919b9a93 1401*** Changes in GDB 7.8
e9475ead 1402
8d551b02
DE
1403* New command line options
1404
1405-D data-directory
1406 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1407
e9475ead
SA
1408* GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1409 as specified in ISO C99.
1410
a75fef0e
NC
1411* The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1412 with or without disassembly.
b7bba001 1413
ed3ef339
DE
1414* Guile scripting
1415
1416 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1417 available is determined at configure time.
1418 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1419 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1420
1421* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1422
1423guile [code]
1424gu [code]
1425 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1426
1427guile-repl
1428gr
1429 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1430
1431info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1432 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1433
1434* The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1435 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1436
c6044dd1
JB
1437* New options
1438
770e7fc7
DE
1439set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1440show print symbol-loading
1441 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1442 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1443 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1444 becomes less useful.
1445
ed3ef339
DE
1446set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1447show guile print-stack
1448 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1449
1450set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1451show auto-load guile-scripts
1452 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1453
c6044dd1
JB
1454maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1455maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1456 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1457 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1458 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1459 usage of this option.
1460
6a3cb8e8
PA
1461set auto-connect-native-target
1462
1463 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1464 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1465 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1466
67b5c0c1
MM
1467set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1468show record btrace replay-memory-access
1469 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1470
329ea579
PA
1471maint set target-async (on|off)
1472maint show target-async
5784b3ca
JK
1473 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1474 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
329ea579 1475 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
5784b3ca 1476 occurring only in synchronous mode.
329ea579
PA
1477
1478set mi-async (on|off)
1479show mi-async
1480 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1481 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1482
1483* "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1484 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1485
1486* Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1487 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1488 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1489 "set target-async on" command.
1490
87ce2a04
DE
1491* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1492
1493 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1494 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1495 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1496 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1497 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1498
5de9129b
MM
1499* The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1500 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1501 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1502
8710b709
MM
1503* The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1504 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1505 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1506 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1507 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1508 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1509 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1510
0688d04e
MM
1511* The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1512 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1513
066ce621 1514* The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
0b722aec
MM
1515 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1516 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
066ce621 1517
52834460
MM
1518* The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1519 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1520 memory or registers.
1521
237b092b
AA
1522* The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1523
936d2992
PA
1524* The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1525 remote. It now works with all targets.
1526
930ee1b1
PA
1527* All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1528 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1529 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1530 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1531 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1532 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1533 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1534 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1535 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1536 target-stack".
1537
6a3cb8e8
PA
1538* The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1539 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1540 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1541
bc504a31 1542* GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
dc304a94 1543
bc504a31
PA
1544* Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1545 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
dc304a94
JK
1546 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1547
969c39fb
MM
1548* New remote packets
1549
1550qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1551 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1552 branch trace incrementally.
1553
f7bd0f78
SC
1554* Python Scripting
1555
1556 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1557 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1558 available.
0c6e92a5
SC
1559 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1560 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1561 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1562 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1563 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
f7bd0f78 1564
36c24d95
UW
1565* New targets
1566PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1567
95060284
JB
1568* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1569 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1570 its alias "share", instead.
1571
7f3c0343
JB
1572* The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1573 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1574 instead.
1575
329ea579
PA
1576* MI changes
1577
1578 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1579 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1580 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1581 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1582 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1583 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1584 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1585 commands and CLI execution commands.
1586
b7bba001 1587*** Changes in GDB 7.7
2d450646 1588
33a97bbe
OJ
1589* Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1590 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1591 recording has been added.
1592
08248ca9
SDJ
1593* GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1594
73869dc2
DE
1595* GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1596 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1597
a280dbd1
SDJ
1598* New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1599 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1600 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1601 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1602 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1603 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1604 "void".
1605
52e260a3
DE
1606* The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1607
9f948660
SDJ
1608* The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1609
901461f8
PA
1610* GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1611 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1612 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1613 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1614
1615 (gdb) p $rax
1616 $1 = <not saved>
1617
1618 (gdb) info registers rax
1619 rax <not saved>
1620
1621 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1622 "*value not available*".
1623
caf26be9
SB
1624* New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1625 to binaries.
1626
1e611234
PM
1627* Python scripting
1628
1629 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
f76c27b5 1630 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
bc79de95 1631 ** Line tables representation has been added.
a16b0e22
SC
1632 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1633 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
c0d48811 1634 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1e611234 1635
a1217d97
SL
1636* New targets
1637
1638Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1639Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
42059f0e 1640Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
a1217d97 1641
2659903b
JK
1642* Removed native configurations
1643
1644Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1645been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1646
1647arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1648i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1649i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1650i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1651m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1652sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1653vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1654
bd712aed 1655* New commands:
b340913d
TT
1656catch rethrow
1657 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
7d0c9981
DE
1658maint check-psymtabs
1659 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1660maint check-symtabs
1661 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1662maint expand-symtabs
1663 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
b340913d 1664
dccca75d
EZ
1665show configuration
1666 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1667
bd712aed
DE
1668maint set|show per-command
1669maint set|show per-command space
1670maint set|show per-command time
1671maint set|show per-command symtab
1672 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1673
98297bf6
NB
1674remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1675remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1676 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1677 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1678 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1679
58d06528
JB
1680info exceptions
1681info exceptions REGEXP
1682 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1683 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1684 are listed.
1685
bd3eecc3
PA
1686* New options
1687
8fb8eb5c
DE
1688set debug symfile off|on
1689show debug symfile
1690 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1691 symbol tables within those files
1692
e7045703
DE
1693set print raw frame-arguments
1694show print raw frame-arguments
1695 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1696 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1697
bd3eecc3
PA
1698set remote trace-status-packet
1699show remote trace-status-packet
1700 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1701
a1217d97
SL
1702set debug nios2
1703show debug nios2
1704 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1705
c1e36e3e
PA
1706set range-stepping
1707show range-stepping
1708 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1709
98882a26
PA
1710set startup-with-shell
1711show startup-with-shell
1712 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1713 directly.
1714
29453a14
YQ
1715set code-cache
1716show code-cache
1717 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1718 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1719
1c2e4450
PA
1720* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1721 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1722 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1723 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1724 "set height 0".
1725
db0fec5c
DE
1726* The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1727 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1728 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1729
dccca75d
EZ
1730* New command-line options
1731--configuration
1732 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1733
d0353e76
YQ
1734* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1735 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1736
b292c783
JK
1737* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1738 GDB command gcore.
1739
6e72ca20
TT
1740* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1741
b340913d
TT
1742* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1743 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1744
1745* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1746 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1747
0c557179
SDJ
1748* The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1749 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1750 due to an uncaught signal.
1751
d0353e76
YQ
1752* MI changes
1753
403cb6b1 1754 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
4e35e808
JB
1755 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1756 command, which should contain "language-option".
403cb6b1 1757
6b7cbff1
JB
1758 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1759 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1760
2ea126fa
JB
1761 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1762 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1763 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1764 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1765 "undefined-command-error-code".
1766
d0353e76
YQ
1767 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1768 Trace Format now.
1769
c5867ab6
HZ
1770 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1771
c898adb7
YQ
1772 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1773 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1774 are displayed.
1775
dc673c81
YQ
1776 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1777 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1778
6211c335
YQ
1779 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1780 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1781 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1782
5713b9b5
JB
1783 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1784 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1785 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
72bfa06c
JB
1786 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1787 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1788 "exec-run-start-option".
5713b9b5 1789
40555925
JB
1790 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1791 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1792
58d06528
JB
1793 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1794 the new "info exceptions" command.
1795
0201faac
JB
1796* New system-wide configuration scripts
1797 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1798 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1799 ** ElinOS
1800 ** Wind River Linux
1801
c1e36e3e
PA
1802* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1803 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1804 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1805 below.
1806
28a93511
YQ
1807* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1808 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1809
4ac33720
UW
1810* On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1811 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1812 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1813
c1e36e3e
PA
1814* New remote packets
1815
1816vCont;r
1817
1818 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1819 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1820 involvemement at each single-step.
1821
7f91dbec
GB
1822qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1823 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1824 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1825 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1826 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1827 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1828 speedup.
1829
c2d6af84
PA
1830* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1831
1832 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1833 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1834
28a93511
YQ
1835 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1836 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1837 trace state variables.
1838
7a60ad40
YQ
1839 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1840 target.
1841
6fbe845e
AB
1842* New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1843 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1844
9058cc3a
TG
1845* GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1846
0d12017b
JB
1847* The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1848 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1849 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1850 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1851
2d450646 1852*** Changes in GDB 7.6
80c8d323 1853
59ea5688
MM
1854* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1855 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1856 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1857 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1858
1859set|show record full insn-number-max
1860set|show record full stop-at-limit
1861set|show record full memory-query
1862
1863* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1864 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1865 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1866 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1867 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1868
1869record btrace
1870
1871 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1872 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1873
1874* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1875 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1876 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1877
1878record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1879 instruction granularity
1880
1881record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1882 function granularity
1883
543bf33d
AT
1884* New native configurations
1885
51d66578 1886ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 1887FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4f4352f7 1888x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 1889Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 1890
249729c4
JB
1891* New targets
1892
51d66578
MS
1893ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1894ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 1895Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 1896x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 1897Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249729c4 1898
e64e0392
DE
1899* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1900 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1901 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1902 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1903 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1904 --data-directory command-line option.
1905
07540c15
DE
1906* New command line options:
1907
1908-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1909 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1910
e93a8774
TT
1911* Removed command line options
1912
1913-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1914 Emacs.
1915
53342f27
TT
1916* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1917 type formatting.
1918
451b7c33
TT
1919* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1920
a72c3253
DE
1921* Python scripting
1922
1923 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1924
d7de8e3c
TT
1925 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1926
18a9fc12
TT
1927 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1928
9a27f2c6
PK
1929 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1930
bea883fd
SCR
1931 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1932 of architecture in the Python API.
1933
1934 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1935 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1936
a72c3253
DE
1937* New Python-based convenience functions:
1938
1939 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1940 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1941 ** $_strlen(str)
1942 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1943
f3c8a52a
JK
1944* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1945 given an argument.
1946
1605ef26
TT
1947* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1948 default for GCC since November 2000.
1949
504b36fd
YQ
1950* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1951
f2a8bc8a
YQ
1952* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1953 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1954
23a80689
JB
1955* New configure options
1956
1957--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1958 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1959 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1960 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1961 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1962 options allow the user to override that default.
393fd4c3
YQ
1963--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1964 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1965 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
23a80689 1966
d6b28940
TT
1967* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1968
ab04a2af
TT
1969catch signal
1970 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1971 conditions to be attached.
1972
d6b28940
TT
1973maint info bfds
1974 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1975
8315665e
YPK
1976python-interactive [command]
1977pi [command]
1978 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1979 and print the result of expressions.
1980
1981py [command]
1982 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1983
18a9fc12
TT
1984enable type-printer [name]...
1985disable type-printer [name]...
1986 Enable or disable type printers.
1987
aa9259cc
TS
1988* Removed commands
1989
1990 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1991 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1992 instead.
1993
53342f27
TT
1994* New options
1995
1996set print type methods (on|off)
1997show print type methods
1998 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1999 The default is to show them.
2000
2001set print type typedefs (on|off)
2002show print type typedefs
2003 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2004 The default is to show them.
2005
1b56eb55
JK
2006set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2007show filename-display
2008 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2009 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2010
e9f1758d
PA
2011set trace-buffer-size
2012show trace-buffer-size
2013 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2014
a46c1e42
PA
2015set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2016show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2017 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2018
be9a8770
PA
2019set debug aarch64
2020show debug aarch64
2021 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2022 The default is off.
2023
2024set debug coff-pe-read
2025show debug coff-pe-read
2026 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2027 exported symbols.
2028
2029set debug mach-o
2030show debug mach-o
2031 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2032 processing.
2033
2034set debug notification
2035show debug notification
2036 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2037
5b9afe8a
YQ
2038* MI changes
2039
2040 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2041 "=cmd-param-changed".
201b4506
YQ
2042 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2043 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
134a2066
YQ
2044 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2045 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2046 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
82a90ccf
YQ
2047 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2048 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
8de0566d
YQ
2049 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2050 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d 2051 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
ec83d211 2052 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
62747a60
TT
2053 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2054 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3fa7bf06
MG
2055 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2056 library load/unload events.
f2a8bc8a
YQ
2057 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2058 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2059 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
f5911ea1
HAQ
2060 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2061 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2062 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
ec83d211
JK
2063 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2064 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
5b9afe8a 2065
608e2dbb
TT
2066* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2067 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2068 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2069 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2070
f6f899bf
HAQ
2071* New remote packets
2072
2073QTBuffer:size
2074 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2075 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2076
10782d74
MM
2077Qbtrace:bts
2078 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2079 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2080 qSupported query.
2081
2082Qbtrace:off
2083 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2084 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2085
2086qXfer:btrace:read
2087 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2088 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2089
80c8d323 2090*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 2091
1b3371b1
L
2092* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2093 for more x32 ABI info.
2094
d0e64392
MR
2095* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2096
4cc0665f
MR
2097* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2098
85d4a676
SS
2099* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2100 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2101 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2102 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2103 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2104 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2105 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2106 "info os msg" lists message queues
2107 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2108
55aa24fb
SDJ
2109* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2110 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2111 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2112 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2113 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2114 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2115
72508ac0
PO
2116* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2117 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2118 record/replay support.
2119
16899756
DE
2120* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2121
4795f398
DE
2122* Python scripting
2123
7d74f244
DE
2124 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2125 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2126
4795f398
DE
2127 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2128
50897289
TT
2129 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2130 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2131
64e7d9dd
TT
2132 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2133
2134 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2135 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2136
f0823d2c
TT
2137 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2138 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2139 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2140 symbol's value.
2141
7b282c5a
SCR
2142 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2143 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2144
a20ee7a4
SCR
2145 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2146 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2147 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2148
7efc75aa
SCR
2149 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2150 object associated with a PC value.
2151
ee0bf529
SCR
2152 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2153 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2154
a766d390
DE
2155* Go language support.
2156 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2157 language.
2158
e0f9f062
DE
2159* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2160 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2161
217bff3e
JK
2162* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2163 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2164
cafec441
TT
2165* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2166 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2167 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2168 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2169 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2170 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2171
4aac40c8
TT
2172* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2173 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2174 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2175 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2176
d99bd577
UW
2177* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2178 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2179
53fe1783
GB
2180* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2181 since December 2007.
2182
e41eec66
JB
2183* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2184 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2185 command does. For instance:
2186
2187 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2188
2189 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2190 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2191 created, using the "condition" command.
2192
5808517f
YQ
2193* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2194 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2195
481860b3
GB
2196* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2197
2198* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2199 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2200 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
e615022a
DE
2201 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2202 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2203 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2204 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2205 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 2206
156942c7
DE
2207 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2208 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2209 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2210 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2211 the .gdb_index section.
2212
927fbba6
JB
2213* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2214
20388dd6
YQ
2215* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2216 target.
2217
f3e0e960
SS
2218* MI changes
2219
2220 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2221
37ce89eb
SS
2222 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2223
edcc5120
TT
2224* New commands
2225
e615022a
DE
2226 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2227 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2228 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2229
edcc5120
TT
2230 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2231 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2232
816338b5
SS
2233 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2234 several hits.
2235
57651221 2236 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
c4aeac85
TT
2237 C++ and Java objects.
2238
06fc020f 2239 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
6ea71545 2240 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
06fc020f
SCR
2241 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2242 configured with '--with-python'.
2243
bf88dd68
JK
2244 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2245 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2246 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2247 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2248 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2249 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2250 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2251
2252 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2253 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2254 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2255 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2256
e7e0cddf
SS
2257 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2258 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2259 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2260 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2261
9cb709b6
TT
2262 ** "set print symbol"
2263 "show print symbol"
2264 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2265 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2266 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2267
2d4c29c5
TS
2268* Deprecated commands
2269
2270 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2271 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2272
a58b110a
KB
2273* New targets
2274
2275Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 2276HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 2277
72895ff6
LM
2278* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2279 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2280 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2281 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2282 evaluates to true.
2283
2284* New options
2285
4cc0665f
MR
2286set mips compression
2287show mips compression
2288 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2289 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2290 mips16
2291 micromips
2292 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2293
72895ff6
LM
2294set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2295show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 2296 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
5b43fab2
JK
2297 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2298 available mode.
72895ff6
LM
2299 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2300 target.
2301
bf88dd68
JK
2302set auto-load off
2303 Disable auto-loading globally.
2304
2305show auto-load
2306 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2307
2308set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2309show auto-load gdb-scripts
2310 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2311
2312set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2313show auto-load python-scripts
2314 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2315
2316set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2317show auto-load local-gdbinit
2318 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2319
2320set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2321show auto-load libthread-db
2322 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2323
7349ff92 2324set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 2325show auto-load scripts-directory
7349ff92
JK
2326 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2327 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2328 of the directories listed by this option.
2329 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2330
bccbefd2
JK
2331set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2332show auto-load safe-path
2333 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2334 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2335
4dc84fd1
JK
2336set debug auto-load on|off
2337show debug auto-load
2338 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2339
d3ce09f5 2340set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 2341show dprintf-style
d3ce09f5
SS
2342 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2343 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2344 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2345 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
e7e0cddf
SS
2346
2347set dprintf-function <expr>
2348show dprintf-function
2349set dprintf-channel <expr>
2350show dprintf-channel
2351 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2352 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2353
d3ce09f5
SS
2354set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2355show disconnected-dprintf
2356 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2357 after GDB disconnects.
2358
6dea1fbd
JK
2359* New configure options
2360
7349ff92
JK
2361--with-auto-load-dir
2362 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1564a261
JK
2363 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2364 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2365 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2366 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 2367
6dea1fbd
JK
2368--with-auto-load-safe-path
2369 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 2370 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
6dea1fbd
JK
2371
2372--without-auto-load-safe-path
2373 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2374 security feature.
2375
72895ff6
LM
2376* New remote packets
2377
74c48cbb
PA
2378z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2379
72895ff6
LM
2380 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2381 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2382 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2383 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2384
9b224c5e
PA
2385QProgramSignals:
2386
2387 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2388 program without GDB involvement.
2389
8320cc4f
JK
2390* New command line options
2391
2392--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2393 before loading inferior.
2394--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2395 execute it before loading inferior.
2396
8837a20f
JB
2397*** Changes in GDB 7.4
2398
f8eba3c6
TT
2399* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2400 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2401 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2402 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2403 inferior changes.
2404
1bfeeb0f
JL
2405* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2406 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2407
480a3f21
PW
2408* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2409 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2410 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2411 target hardware watchpoint.
2412
2413 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2414 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2415 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2416 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2417
3a7bf607
PM
2418* Python scripting
2419
32d1c362 2420 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 2421 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
2422 existing one.
2423
3a7bf607 2424 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
2425 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2426 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2427 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2428 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2429 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 2430
baacfb07 2431 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 2432 Python API.
713389e0 2433
fa3a4f15
PM
2434 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2435 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 2436 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
fa3a4f15
PM
2437 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2438 corresponding value.
2439
5e239b84
PM
2440 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2441 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2442 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2443 on GDB start-up.
2444
9df2fbc4
PM
2445 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2446 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2447 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2448 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2449
457e09f0
DE
2450 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2451
6839b47f
KP
2452 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2453 "gdb.breakpoints".
2454
cc72b2a2
KP
2455 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2456 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2457 available in the CLI.
2458
84ad80e6
PK
2459 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2460 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2461 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2462 "some_type.items()".
2463
20c168b5
KP
2464 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2465 new object file.
2466
03c3051a
PK
2467 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2468 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2469 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2470 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2471 any anonymous fields.
2472
7376e450
TT
2473* MI changes
2474
2475 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2476 "solib-event".
2477
2478 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2479 "=breakpoint-modified".
2480
2481 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2482
98a5dd13
DE
2483* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2484 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2485 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2486 lives.
2487
2488 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2489 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2490 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2491 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2492 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2493
2494 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2495 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2496
478aac75
DE
2497* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2498 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2499 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2500 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2501 use this option to specify where to find it.
2502
9c06b0b4
TJB
2503* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2504 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2505 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2506 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2507 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2508 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2509 section in the user manual for more details.
2510
03f2bd59
JK
2511* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2512 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2513 become available after that.
2514
71eba9c2 2515* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 2516
2bda9cc5
JK
2517* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2518 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2519 gcc version 4.7.
2520
ed59ded5
DE
2521* New commands
2522
2523!SHELL COMMAND
2524 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2525 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2526
9c06b0b4
TJB
2527* Changed commands
2528
2529watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2530 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2531 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2532
dbaefcf7
DE
2533info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2534 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2535 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2536
71eba9c2 2537info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2538 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2539 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2540 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2541 name starts with a hyphen.
2542
3065dfb6
SS
2543collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2544 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2545 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2546 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2547 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2548 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2549 number of bytes that will be collected.
2550
f196051f
SS
2551tstart [NOTES]
2552 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2553 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2554 setting the variable trace-notes.
2555
2556tstop [NOTES]
2557 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2558 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2559 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2560 trace-stop-notes.
2561
d248b706
KY
2562* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2563 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2564 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2565 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2566 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2567 is running.
2568
405f8e94
SS
2569* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2570 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2571 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2572
2bda9cc5
JK
2573* New options
2574
45cfd468
DE
2575set debug dwarf2-read
2576show debug dwarf2-read
2577 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2578 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2579
2580set debug symtab-create
2581show debug symtab-create
2582 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2583 creation. The default is off.
2584
baacfb07
PM
2585set extended-prompt
2586show extended-prompt
2587 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2588 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2589 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2590 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2591 prompt is displayed.
2592
2bda9cc5
JK
2593set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2594show print entry-values
2595 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2596 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2597 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2598
2599set debug entry-values
2600show debug entry-values
2601 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2602 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2603
c011a4f4
DE
2604set basenames-may-differ
2605show basenames-may-differ
2606 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2607 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2608 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2609 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2610 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2611 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2612 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2613 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2614
f196051f
SS
2615set trace-user
2616show trace-user
2617set trace-notes
2618show trace-notes
2619 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2620 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2621 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2622 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2623
2624set trace-stop-notes
2625show trace-stop-notes
2626 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2627 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2628 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2629 started by someone else.
2630
d248b706
KY
2631* New remote packets
2632
2633QTEnable
2634
2635 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2636
2637QTDisable
2638
2639 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2640
f196051f
SS
2641QTNotes
2642
2643 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2644
2645qTP
2646
2647 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2648
405f8e94
SS
2649qTMinFTPILen
2650
2651 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2652 be placed.
2653
1a532630
PP
2654* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2655 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2656
11315641
YQ
2657* New targets
2658
2659Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2660
87326c78
DD
2661* New Simulators
2662
2663Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2664
e8d56f18
JB
2665*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2666
2667* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2668
d6e00af6 2669*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 2670
60f98dde
MS
2671* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2672 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2673 matches the given regular expression.
2674
eee5b35e
DD
2675* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2676
b716877b
AB
2677* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2678 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2679
aae1c79a
DE
2680* New command line options
2681
2682-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2683 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2684
a86caf66
DE
2685* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2686 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2687
99e7ae30
DE
2688* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2689 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2690 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2691
4694da01
TT
2692* GDB now understands thread names.
2693
2694 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2695 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2696
2697 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2698 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2699
f4b8a18d
KW
2700* OpenCL C
2701 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2702 has been integrated into GDB.
2703
585d1eb8
PM
2704* Python scripting
2705
da5d4055
PM
2706 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2707 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2708 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2709
9a6f1302
PM
2710 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2711 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2712 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2713 and allows for more dynamic content.
2714
29703da4
PM
2715 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2716 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2717 have an is_valid method.
2718
350c6c65
PM
2719 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2720 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2721 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2722
6e6fbe60
DE
2723 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2724
585d1eb8
PM
2725 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2726 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2727 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2728 that function like so:
2729
2730 result = some_value (10,20)
2731
0e3509db
DE
2732 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2733 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2734 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2735
7b51bc51
DE
2736 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2737 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2738 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2739 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2740 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2741
2742 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2743 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2744
99e7ae30
DE
2745 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2746
d8e22779
TT
2747 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2748 selected thread.
2749
4694da01
TT
2750 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2751 holds the thread's name.
2752
505500db
SW
2753 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2754 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 2755 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
2756 The following events are currently supported:
2757 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2758 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2759 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2760
def98928
TT
2761* C++ Improvements:
2762
2763 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2764 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2765
2766 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2767
2768 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2769 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2770 was added to GCC 4.5.
2771
66cb8159
TT
2772 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2773 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2774 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2775 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2776 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2777 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2778
4aac0db7
UW
2779* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2780 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2781 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2782 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2783 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2784
283e6a52
TT
2785* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2786 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2787 execution to a label.
2788
2789* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2790 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2791 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2792 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2793
b56df873 2794* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 2795 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
2796 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2797 of scope.
2798
ae53ffa4
PA
2799* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2800
2801 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2802 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2803 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2804 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2805 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2806 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2807
2808 (gdb) info threads
2809 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2810
2811 While now you see this:
2812
2813 (gdb) info threads
2814 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2815
2816 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2817 dumps.
2818
2819 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2820 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2821 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2822 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2823
f1310107
TJB
2824* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2825 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2826 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2827 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2828 section in the user manual for more details.
2829
248c9dbc
JB
2830* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2831
1aee7009
JB
2832 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2833 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 2834
eb826dc6
MF
2835 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2836
44603653
JB
2837* New native configurations
2838
2839ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2840
91021223
MF
2841* New targets:
2842
2843Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2844
6e1bb179
JB
2845* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2846 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2847 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2848 in the GDB user manual.
2849
50c97f38
TT
2850* Guile support was removed.
2851
448a92bf
MF
2852* New features in the GNU simulator
2853
2854 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2855
66ee2731
MF
2856 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2857
76b8507d 2858*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 2859
ba25b921
PA
2860* Shared library support for remote targets by default
2861
2862 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2863 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2864 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2865 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2866 was always disabled for such configurations.
2867
4656f5c6
SW
2868* C++ Improvements:
2869
2870 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2871
2872 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2873 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2874 For example:
2875 namespace A
2876 {
2877 class B { };
2878 void foo (B) { }
2879 }
2880 ...
2881 A::B b
2882 foo(b)
2883 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2884 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2885 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2886
2887 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2888
2889 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2890 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2891 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2892 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2893 entry.
2894 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2895 mentioned flavors of operators.
2896
254e6b9e
DE
2897 ** static const class members
2898
2899 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2900 class definition has been fixed.
2901
711e434b
PM
2902* Windows Thread Information Block access.
2903
2904 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2905 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2906 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2907 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2908 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2909 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2910
0fb4aa4b
PA
2911* Static tracepoints
2912
2913 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2914 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2915 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2916 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2917 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2918 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2919 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2920 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2921 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2922 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2923 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2924 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2925 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2926 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2927 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2928 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2929 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2930 the "New remote packets" section below.
2931
ca11e899
SS
2932* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2933
2934 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2935 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2936 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2937 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2938
2939* Observer mode
2940
2941 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2942 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2943 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2944 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2945 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2946 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2947 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2948
2949* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2950 current thread.
2951
711e434b
PM
2952* New remote packets
2953
2954qGetTIBAddr
2955
2956 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2957
dde08ee1
PA
2958qRelocInsn
2959
2960 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2961 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2962 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2963 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2964 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2965 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2966
0fb4aa4b
PA
2967qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2968
2969 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2970
2971qTSTMat
2972
2973 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2974 program.
2975
2976qXfer:statictrace:read
2977
2978 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2979 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2980 to gdb's qSupported query.
2981
ca11e899
SS
2982QAllow
2983
2984 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2985
2986QTDPsrc
2987
2988 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2989 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2990
3f7b2faa
DE
2991* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2992 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2993 a directory.
2994
d337e9f0
PA
2995* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2996
0fb4aa4b
PA
2997 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2998 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2999 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3000 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3001
3002 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3003 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3004 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3005 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3006 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3007 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3008 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3009
3010 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3011 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 3012
c24d0242
PM
3013 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3014
c8d5aac9
L
3015* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3016 it understands register description.
3017
7c953934
TT
3018* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3019
8685c86f
L
3020* X86 general purpose registers
3021
3022 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3023 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3024 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3025 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3026 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3027
95a42b64 3028* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
3029 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3030 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3031 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3032 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3033 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 3034
8bd10a10
CM
3035* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3036 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3037 in the specified file.
3038
ab38a727
PA
3039* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3040 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3041 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3042 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3043 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3044 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3045 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3046 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3047 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3048 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3049
6149aea9
PA
3050* New commands
3051
f1421989
HZ
3052eval template, expressions...
3053 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3054 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3055
ab38a727
PA
3056set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3057show target-file-system-kind
3058 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3059 names.
3060
6149aea9
PA
3061save breakpoints <filename>
3062 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3063 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3064 definitions, use the `source' command.
3065
3066`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3067is now deprecated.
3068
0fb4aa4b
PA
3069info static-tracepoint-markers
3070 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3071
3072strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3073 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3074 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3075
ca11e899
SS
3076set observer on|off
3077show observer
3078 Enable and disable observer mode.
3079
3080set may-write-registers on|off
3081set may-write-memory on|off
3082set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3083set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3084set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3085set may-interrupt on|off
3086 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3087 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3088 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3089 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3090 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3091 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3092 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3093
3094set record memory-query on|off
3095show record memory-query
3096 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3097 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3098
53a71c06
CR
3099* Changed commands
3100
3101disassemble
3102 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3103
f3e9a817
PM
3104* Python scripting
3105
9279c692
JB
3106** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3107 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3108 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3109 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3110 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3111
adc36818 3112** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
3113 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3114 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3115 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 3116
fa33c3cd 3117** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
3118 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3119
3120** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
3121
3122** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 3123
967cf477
DE
3124** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3125
8a1ea21f
DE
3126** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3127 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3128 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3129
a7bdde9e
VP
3130* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3131there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3132tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3133regular breakpoints.
3134
05071a4d
PA
3135* New targets
3136
3137ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3138
6aecb9c2
JB
3139* D language support.
3140 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3141 language.
3142
431e49aa
TJB
3143* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3144 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3145 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3146 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3147 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3148
3149* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3150 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3151 conditions of the form:
3152
3153 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3154
3155 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3156 interface mentioned above.
3157
bfbf3774 3158*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 3159
4eef138c
TT
3160* C++ Improvements
3161
3162 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
3163
3164 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3165 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3166 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3167 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3168 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3169
4eef138c
TT
3170 ** Bug Fixes
3171
3172 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3173 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3174 qualified name.
3175
3176 ** Cast Operators
3177
3178 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3179 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3180
2d1c1221
ME
3181* New targets
3182
3183Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 3184Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
3185
3186* New Simulators
3187
3188Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 3189Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 3190
6c95b8df
PA
3191* Multi-program debugging.
3192
3193 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3194 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3195 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3196 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3197 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3198 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3199 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3200 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3201
d5551862
SS
3202* New tracing features
3203
3204 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3205
3206 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
3207
3208 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3209 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3210 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3211 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3212 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3213 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3214 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3215 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3216 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3217 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 3218
d5551862 3219 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
3220
3221 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3222 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3223 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3224 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3225 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3226 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3227 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3228 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3229 the regular trace command.
3230
d5551862
SS
3231 ** Disconnected tracing
3232
3233 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3234 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3235 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3236 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3237 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3238
00bf0b85
SS
3239 ** Trace files
3240
3241 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3242 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3243 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3244 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3245 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3246 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3247 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
3248
3249 ** Circular trace buffer
3250
3251 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3252 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3253 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3254 not be available for all target agents.
3255
21a0512e
PP
3256* Changed commands
3257
3258disassemble
3259 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3260 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3261
0fe7935b
DJ
3262info variables
3263 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3264 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3265
fb2e7cb4
JB
3266source
3267 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3268 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3269 support.
3270
3271 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3272 "set script-extension" (see below).
3273
6c95b8df
PA
3274* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3275
399cd161
MS
3276record save [<FILENAME>]
3277 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3278 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3279
3280record restore <FILENAME>
3281 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3282 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3283
6c95b8df
PA
3284add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3285 Add a new inferior.
3286
3287clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3288 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3289 inferior has loaded.
3290
3291remove-inferior ID
3292 Remove an inferior.
3293
3294maint info program-spaces
3295 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3296
9a7071a8
JB
3297set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3298show remote interrupt-sequence
3299 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3300 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3301 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3302 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3303 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3304
3305set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3306show remote interrupt-on-connect
3307 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3308 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3309 Linux kernel.
3310
3311set remotebreak [on | off]
3312show remotebreak
3313Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3314
f61e138d
SS
3315tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3316 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3317
3318info tvariables
3319 List trace state variables and their values.
3320
3321delete tvariable $NAME ...
3322 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3323
6da95a67
SS
3324teval EXPR, ...
3325 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3326 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3327
7a697b8d
SS
3328ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3329 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3330
b0f02ee9
JK
3331* New expression syntax
3332
3333 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3334 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3335
6c95b8df
PA
3336* New options
3337
3338set follow-exec-mode new|same
3339show follow-exec-mode
3340 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3341 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3342 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3343
236f1d4d
SS
3344set default-collect EXPR, ...
3345show default-collect
3346 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3347 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3348 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3349
d5551862
SS
3350set disconnected-tracing
3351show disconnected-tracing
3352 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3353 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3354 upon disconnection.
3355
4daf5ac0
SS
3356set circular-trace-buffer
3357show circular-trace-buffer
3358 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3359 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3360 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3361 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3362
fb2e7cb4
JB
3363set script-extension off|soft|strict
3364show script-extension
3365 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3366 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3367 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3368 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3369 evaluation failed.
3370 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3371
2b71fc8e
JB
3372set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3373show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3374 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3375 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3376 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3377 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3378 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3379 is on.
3380
de2e5182
TT
3381* Python API Improvements
3382
3383 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3384 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3385 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3386
3387 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3388 `is_base_class' attribute.
3389
3390 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3391
3392 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3393 evaluate an expression.
3394
f61e138d
SS
3395* New remote packets
3396
3397QTDV
3398 Define a trace state variable.
3399
3400qTV
3401 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3402
d5551862
SS
3403QTDisconnected
3404 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3405
4daf5ac0
SS
3406QTBuffer:circular
3407 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3408
d5551862
SS
3409qTfP, qTsP
3410 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3411
2d483d34
MS
3412* Bug fixes
3413
3414Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3415
6e0e5977
JB
3416Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3417much more reliable. In particular:
3418 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3419 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3420 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3421 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3422 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3423 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3424 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3425 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3426 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3427 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3428 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3429 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3430 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3431 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3432 non-threaded programs.
3433
93c26624
JK
3434PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3435This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3436libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3437executable program.
3438
abc7453d 3439*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 3440
4efc6507
DE
3441* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3442dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3443them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3444for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3445"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3446
782b2b07
SS
3447* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3448breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3449or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3450the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3451for tracepoint actions.
3452
53a71c06
CR
3453* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3454raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3455modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 3456
e7a8dbfb
HZ
3457* Process record and replay
3458
3459 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3460 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3461 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3462 execute commands.
3463
64644d9b
MS
3464* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3465step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3466set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3467reverse execution.
3468
b9412953
DD
3469* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3470feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
34712.6.28 or later.
3472
6c7a06a3
TT
3473* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3474target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3475char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3476literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3477U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3478`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3479system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3480the installation instructions for more information.
3481
f1838a98
UW
3482* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3483remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3484with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3485the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3486
55333a84
DE
3487* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3488and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3489
7f6a6314
PM
3490* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3491now complete on file names.
3492
65d12d83
TT
3493* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3494completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3495For instance, consider:
3496
3497 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3498 # struct example variable;
3499 (gdb) p variable.
3500
3501If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3502completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3503
edb3359d
DJ
3504* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3505the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3506
2fae03e8
TT
3507* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3508operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3509macros.
3510
47a3467a 3511* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
3512the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3513implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3514
3515* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3516registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3517can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3518and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 3519
08388c79
DE
3520* New remote packets
3521
3522qSearch:memory:
3523 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3524
a6f3e723
SL
3525QStartNoAckMode
3526 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3527 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3528 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3529
d7713ae0
EZ
3530vKill
3531 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3532 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3533
07e059b5
VP
3534qXfer:osdata:read
3535 Obtains additional operating system information
3536
47a3467a
PA
3537qXfer:siginfo:read
3538qXfer:siginfo:write
3539 Read or write additional signal information.
3540
060871df
PA
3541* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3542
3543 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3544 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3545 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3546
c055b101 3547* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 3548DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
3549
3550* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
3551and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3552`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 3553
31fffb02
CS
3554* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3555with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3556
88d8a8e0
JB
3557* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3558
7f99b190
JB
3559* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3560
ccd213ac
DJ
3561* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3562which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3563
1fddbabb 3564* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 3565list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 3566
a0ef4274
DJ
3567* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3568conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3569have also been fixed.
3570
bfb8797a 3571* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
3572From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3573are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 3574
71c25dea
TT
3575* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3576example, given:
3577
3578 template<typename T> class C { };
3579 C<char const *> c;
3580
3581GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3582
3583 ptype C<char const *>
3584 ptype C<char const*>
3585 ptype C<const char *>
3586 ptype C<const char*>
3587
ccd213ac
DJ
3588* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3589
3590 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3591 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3592
7ae0e2a2
UW
3593 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3594 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3595 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3596
a6f3e723
SL
3597 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3598 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3599
da8bd9a3
DJ
3600 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3601 gdbserver.
3602
d70e31dd
DE
3603 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3604 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3605
3606 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3607 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3608 as appropriate.
3609
d57a3c85
TJB
3610* Python scripting
3611
3612 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3613 available is determined at configure time.
3614
d8906c6f
TJB
3615 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3616
aadc346a
JB
3617* Ada tasking support
3618
3619 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3620 been introduced:
3621
3622 info tasks
3623 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3624 info task N
3625 Print detailed information about task number N.
3626 task
3627 Print the task number of the current task.
3628 task N
3629 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3630
adb483fe
DJ
3631* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3632add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3633
2277426b
PA
3634* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3635
3636 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3637 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3638 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3639 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3640 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3641 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3642 below.
3643
08d16641
PA
3644* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3645"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3646information.
3647
e35359c5
UW
3648* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3649to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3650architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3651See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3652more information.
3653
85e747d2
UW
3654* Multi-architecture debugging.
3655
3656 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3657 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3658 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3659 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3660 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3661
3662* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3663use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3664Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3665powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3666--enable-targets configure option.
3667
11ade57a
PA
3668* Non-stop mode debugging.
3669
3670 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3671 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3672 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3673 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3674 section in the user manual for more information.
3675
3676 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3677 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3678 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3679 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3680 extensions on linux targets.
3681
d7713ae0 3682* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 3683
a96d9b2e
SDJ
3684catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3685 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3686 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3687 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3688 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3689 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3690 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3691 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3692 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3693
08388c79
DE
3694find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3695 val1 [, val2, ...]
3696 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3697
d57a3c85
TJB
3698maint set python print-stack
3699maint show python print-stack
3700 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3701
3702python [CODE]
3703 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3704
d7713ae0
EZ
3705macro define
3706macro list
3707macro undef
3708 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3709 interactively.
3710
3711info os processes
3712 Show operating system information about processes.
3713
2277426b
PA
3714info inferiors
3715 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3716
3717inferior NUM
3718 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3719
3720detach inferior NUM
3721 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3722
3723kill inferior NUM
3724 Kill inferior number NUM.
3725
d7713ae0
EZ
3726* New options
3727
3285f3fe
UW
3728set spu stop-on-load
3729show spu stop-on-load
3730 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3731
ff1a52c6
UW
3732set spu auto-flush-cache
3733show spu auto-flush-cache
3734 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3735 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3736
d7713ae0
EZ
3737set sh calling-convention
3738show sh calling-convention
3739 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3740
e0a3ce09 3741set debug timestamp
75feb17d 3742show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
3743 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3744
3745set disassemble-next-line
3746show disassemble-next-line
3747 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3748 the debuggee stops.
3749
3750set remote noack-packet
3751show remote noack-packet
3752 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3753 under "New remote packets."
3754
3755set remote query-attached-packet
3756show remote query-attached-packet
3757 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3758
3759set remote read-siginfo-object
3760show remote read-siginfo-object
3761 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3762 packet.
3763
3764set remote write-siginfo-object
3765show remote write-siginfo-object
3766 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3767 packet.
3768
40ab02ce
MS
3769set remote reverse-continue
3770show remote reverse-continue
3771 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3772
3773set remote reverse-step
3774show remote reverse-step
3775 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3776
d7713ae0
EZ
3777set displaced-stepping
3778show displaced-stepping
3779 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3780 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3781 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3782
3783set debug displaced
3784show debug displaced
3785 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3786
3787maint set internal-error
3788maint show internal-error
3789 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3790
3791maint set internal-warning
3792maint show internal-warning
3793 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 3794
ccd213ac
DJ
3795set exec-wrapper
3796show exec-wrapper
3797unset exec-wrapper
3798 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 3799
aad4b048
JB
3800set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3801show multiple-symbols
3802 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3803 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3804 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3805
74960c60
VP
3806set breakpoint always-inserted
3807show breakpoint always-inserted
3808 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3809 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3810 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3811
0428b8f5
DJ
3812set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3813show arm fallback-mode
3814set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3815show arm force-mode
3816 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3817 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3818 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3819 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3820
10568435
JK
3821set disable-randomization
3822show disable-randomization
3823 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3824 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3825 multiple debugging sessions.
3826
d7713ae0
EZ
3827set non-stop
3828show non-stop
3829 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3830 a breakpoint.
3831
b3eb342c 3832set target-async
d7713ae0 3833show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
3834 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3835 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3836 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3837 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3838
6c7a06a3
TT
3839set target-wide-charset
3840show target-wide-charset
3841 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3842 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3843
84603566
SL
3844set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3845show tcp auto-retry
3846set tcp connect-timeout
3847show tcp connect-timeout
3848 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3849 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3850 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3851
17a37d48
PP
3852set libthread-db-search-path
3853show libthread-db-search-path
3854 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3855 libthread_db.
3856
d4db2f36
PA
3857set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3858show schedule-multiple
3859 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3860 the current process.
3861
4e5d721f
DE
3862set stack-cache
3863show stack-cache
3864 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3865 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3866 affecting correctness.
3867
910c5da8
JB
3868set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3869show interactive-mode
3870 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3871 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3872 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3873 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3874 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3875
2277426b
PA
3876* Removed commands
3877
3878info forks
3879 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3880 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3881 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3882 command.
3883
3884fork NUM
3885 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3886 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3887 alias for the `fork' command.
3888
3889process PID
3890 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3891 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3892 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3893
3894delete fork NUM
3895 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3896 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3897 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3898 fork' command.
3899
3900detach fork NUM
3901 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3902 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3903 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3904 fork' command.
3905
a80b95ba
TG
3906* New native configurations
3907
3908x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3909
b8bfd3ed
JB
3910x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3911
75a2d5e7
TT
3912* New targets
3913
c28c63d8 3914Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 3915x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 3916x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 3917S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 3918
6de3146c
PA
3919* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3920 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3921
d5cbbe6e
JB
3922* Removed commands
3923
3924catch load
3925catch unload
3926 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3927
75feb17d 3928*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 3929
af5ca30d
NH
3930* New native configurations
3931
3932NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 3933Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
3934
3935* New targets
3936
3937NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 3938Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 3939
7a404eba
PA
3940* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3941
3942 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3943 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3944 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3945 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3946
430ebac9
PA
3947* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3948(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3949
fe6fbf8b 3950* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 3951is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
3952
3953* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
3954including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3955and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 3956
10665d76
JB
3957* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3958accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3959more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3960
7cc46491
DJ
3961* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3962
d71340b8
DJ
3963* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3964registers on PowerPC targets.
3965
523c4513
DJ
3966* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3967targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3968
a6b151f1
DJ
3969* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3970commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3971
2d717e4f
DJ
3972* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3973extended-remote mode.
3974
24a836bd 3975* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
3976The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3977error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3978The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 3979
d0c678e6
UW
3980* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3981building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3982target architectures.
3983
d64a946d
TJB
3984* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3985Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3986now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3987stored in two consecutive float registers.
3988
ee163bf5
VP
3989* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3990breakpoints now.
3991
b93b6ca7 3992* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
3993Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3994include:
b93b6ca7
JB
3995 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3996 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3997 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3998 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3999 of an assignment
4000 - Improved command completion in Ada
4001 - Several bug fixes
4002
d001be7a
DJ
4003* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4004process.
4005
a6b151f1
DJ
4006* New commands
4007
6d53d0af
JB
4008set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4009show print frame-arguments
4010 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4011 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4012
a6b151f1
DJ
4013remote put
4014remote get
4015remote delete
4016 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4017
4018* New MI commands
4019
4020-target-file-put
4021-target-file-get
4022-target-file-delete
4023 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4024
4025* New remote packets
4026
4027vFile:open:
4028vFile:close:
4029vFile:pread:
4030vFile:pwrite:
4031vFile:unlink:
4032 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 4033
2d717e4f
DJ
4034vAttach
4035 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4036 mode.
4037
4038vRun
4039 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4040
8d5f9c6f 4041*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 4042
19d378fc
MS
4043* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4044bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4045Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4046
3a40aaa0
UW
4047* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4048symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4049-Bsymbolic linker option.
4050
a6ec25f2
BW
4051* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4052recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4053is not supported.
4054
6dd09645
JB
4055* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4056frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4057
c9bb8148
DJ
4058* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
405932-bit or 64-bit register values.
4060
0d5de010
DJ
4061* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4062
23181151
DJ
4063* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4064target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4065a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4066
ea37ba09
DJ
4067* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4068automatically displayed as character or string data.
4069
4070* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4071arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4072as strings.
e1f48ead 4073
123dc839
DJ
4074* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4075for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 4076only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 4077
05a4558a
DJ
4078* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4079iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 4080
7c963485
PA
4081* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4082ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4083has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4084
b18be20d
DJ
4085* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4086
0ca420ce
UW
4087* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4088
31d99776
DJ
4089* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4090layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4091segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4092
a4642986
MR
4093* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4094immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4095
cfa9d6d9
DJ
4096* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4097"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4098packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4099where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4100Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
4101
4102* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4103(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
4104
4105* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4106according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 4107
c9bb8148
DJ
4108* New commands
4109
23776285
MR
4110set remoteflow
4111show remoteflow
4112 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4113 when debugging using remote targets.
4114
c9bb8148
DJ
4115set mem inaccessible-by-default
4116show mem inaccessible-by-default
4117 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4118 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4119 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4120 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4121 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4122
4123set breakpoint auto-hw
4124show breakpoint auto-hw
4125 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4126 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4127 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4128 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4129 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4130 including "next" and "finish".
4131
0e420bd8
JB
4132catch exception
4133catch exception unhandled
4134 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4135
4136catch assert
4137 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4138
f822c95b
DJ
4139set sysroot
4140show sysroot
4141 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4142 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4143 an alias to "set sysroot".
4144
83cc5c53
UW
4145info spu
4146 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4147 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4148 architecture.
4149
bd372731
MK
4150* New native configurations
4151
4152OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4153
23181151
DJ
4154set tdesc filename
4155unset tdesc filename
4156show tdesc filename
4157 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4158 not query the target for its built-in description.
4159
c9bb8148
DJ
4160* New targets
4161
54fe9172 4162OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 4163MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 4164Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 4165
6dd09645
JB
4166* New remote packets
4167
4168QPassSignals:
4169 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4170 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4171
23181151
DJ
4172qXfer:features:read:
4173 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4174 features.
6dd09645 4175
83cc5c53
UW
4176qXfer:spu:read:
4177qXfer:spu:write:
4178 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4179 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4180
cfa9d6d9
DJ
4181qXfer:libraries:read:
4182 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4183 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4184 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4185 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4186
483367ee
DJ
4187* Removed targets
4188
4189Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4190
d08950c4
UW
4191alpha*-*-osf1*
4192alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 4193d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
4194hppa*-*-hiux*
4195i[34567]86-ncr-*
4196i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4197i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4198i[34567]86-*-netware*
4199i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4200i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4201i[34567]86-*-sco*
4202i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4203i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4204i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4205i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4206i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4207i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4208i[34567]86-*-isc*
4209m68*-cisco*-*
4210m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 4211mips*-*-pe
483367ee 4212rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 4213sh*-*-pe
483367ee 4214
7ce59000
DJ
4215* Other removed features
4216
4217target abug
4218target cpu32bug
4219target est
4220target rom68k
4221
4222 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4223
ea35711c
DJ
4224target hms
4225target e7000
4226target sh3
4227target sh3e
4228
4229 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4230 H8/300.
4231
4232target ocd
4233
4234 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4235 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4236 interfaces.
4237
7ce59000
DJ
4238DWARF 1 support
4239
4240 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4241 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4242
54d61198
DJ
4243Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4244
4245 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4246 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4247 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4248 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4249
ea35711c
DJ
4250MIPS ".pdr" sections
4251
4252 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4253 in debugging information.
4254
4255Scheme support
4256
4257 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4258 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4259
1a69e1e4
DJ
4260set mips stack-arg-size
4261set mips saved-gpreg-size
4262
4263 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4264
6dd09645 4265*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 4266
ca3bf3bd
DJ
4267* New targets
4268
4269Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 4270Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 4271
6aec2e11
DJ
4272* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4273(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4274running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4275
4276* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4277Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4278supported.
4279
17218d91
DJ
4280* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4281broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4282
9ebce043
DJ
4283* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4284stub provides the required support.
4285
7d3d3ece
DJ
4286* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4287longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4288
4f8253f3
JB
4289* New commands
4290
4291set substitute-path
4292unset substitute-path
4293show substitute-path
4294 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4295 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4296 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4297 between compilation and debugging.
4298
9fa66fd7
AS
4299set trace-commands
4300show trace-commands
4301 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4302 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4303 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4304
1f5befc1
DJ
4305* REMOVED features
4306
4307The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4308
2ec3381a
DJ
4309Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4310an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4311
3d00d119
DJ
4312The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4313
be2a5f71
DJ
4314* New remote packets
4315
4316qSupported:
4317 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4318 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4319 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4320 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4321 target.
4322
0876f84a
DJ
4323qXfer:auxv:read:
4324 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4325 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4326
9ebce043
DJ
4327qXfer:memory-map:read:
4328 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4329 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4330
4331vFlashErase:
4332vFlashWrite:
4333vFlashDone:
4334 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4335
0876f84a
DJ
4336* Removed remote packets
4337
4338qPart:auxv:read:
4339 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4340 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4341
e374b601 4342*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 4343
96309189
MS
4344* New targets
4345
4346Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4347
4348Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4349
53e5f3cf
AS
4350* New commands
4351
4352init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4353 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4354
ac264b3b
MS
4355The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4356
4357checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4358
4359restart <n> Return the program state to a
4360 previously saved state.
4361
4362info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4363
4364delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4365
4366set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4367 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4368
4369info forks List forks of the user program that
4370 are available to be debugged.
4371
4372fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4373 forks of the user program that are
4374 available to be debugged.
4375
4376delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4377 that are available to be debugged (and
4378 kill the forked process).
4379
4380detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4381 that are available to be debugged (and
4382 allow the process to continue).
4383
3950dc3f
NS
4384* New architecture
4385
4386Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4387
0ea3f30e
DJ
4388* Improved Windows host support
4389
4390GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4391native console support, and remote communications using either
4392network sockets or serial ports.
4393
f79daebb
GM
4394* Improved Modula-2 language support
4395
4396GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4397basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4398pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4399printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4400written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4401GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4402
acab6ab2
MM
4403* REMOVED features
4404
4405The ARM rdi-share module.
4406
f4267320
DJ
4407The Netware NLM debug server.
4408
53e5f3cf 4409*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 4410
e0ecbda1
MK
4411* New native configurations
4412
02a677ac 4413OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
4414OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4415
d64a6579
KB
4416* New targets
4417
4418Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4419
b33a6190
AS
4420* New command line options
4421
4422--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4423--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4424 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4425--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4426 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4427 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4428 with the --command (-x) option.
4429
11dced61
AC
4430* Deprecated commands removed
4431
4432The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4433removed:
4434
4435 Command Replacement
4436 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4437 othernames set arm disassembler
4438 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4439 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4440 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4441 regs info registers
4442
6fe85783
MK
4443* New BSD user-level threads support
4444
4445It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4446library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4447configurations are:
4448
4449FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4450FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4451OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4452
4453Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4454are not yet supported.
4455
5260ca71
MS
4456* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4457(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4458
e84ecc99
AC
4459* REMOVED configurations and files
4460
4461VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 4462Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 4463National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 4464
31e35378
JB
4465* New "set print array-indexes" command
4466
4467After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4468when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4469behavior.
4470
e85e5c83
MK
4471* VAX floating point support
4472
4473GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4474
d91e9901
AS
4475* User-defined command support
4476
4477In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4478to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4479section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4480
f2cb65ca
MC
4481*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4482
f47b1503
AS
4483* New command line option
4484
4485GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4486debugging.
4487
f2cb65ca
MC
4488* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4489
4490GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4491information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4492by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4493proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4494to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 4495
d08c0230
AC
4496* Internationalization
4497
4498When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4499internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4500continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4501
117ea3cf
PH
4502* Ada
4503
4504Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4505implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4506into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4507
d08c0230
AC
4508* New native configurations
4509
4510GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4511
4512* Remote 'p' packet
4513
4514GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4515packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4516
4517* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4518
4519GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4520The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4521features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4522i386 application).
4523
4524GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4525compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4526continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4527configurations:
4528
4529hppa-*-hpux
4530ia64-*-aix
4531mips-*-irix*
4532*-*-lynx
4533mips-*-linux-gnu
4534sds protocol
4535xdr protocol
4536powerpc bdm protocol
4537
4538Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4539made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4540
4541* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4542
4543Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4544been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4545configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4546permanently REMOVED.
4547
4548h8300-*-*
4549mcore-*-*
4550mn10300-*-*
4551ns32k-*-*
4552sh64-*-*
4553v850-*-*
4554
ebb7c577
AC
4555*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4556
4557* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4558
4559When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4560heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4561been fixed.
4562
4563* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4564
4565When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4566fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4567IRIX long double values).
4568
4569* VAX and "next"
4570
4571A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4572command. This problem has been fixed.
4573
860660cb 4574*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 4575
0dea2468
AC
4576* Fix for ``many threads''
4577
4578On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4579rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4580error message:
4581
4582 ptrace: No such process.
4583 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4584
4585This problem has been fixed.
4586
2c07db7a
AC
4587* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4588
4589Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4590GDB to dump core).
4591
c23968a2
JB
4592* New ``start'' command.
4593
4594This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4595
71009278
MK
4596* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4597
4598Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4599live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4600platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4601
4602FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4603FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4604NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4605NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4606NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4607OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4608OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4609OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4610OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4611
3c0b7db2
AC
4612* Signal trampoline code overhauled
4613
4614Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4615These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4616of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4617call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4618signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4619
73cc75f3
AC
4620Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4621features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4622include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 4623
7243600a
BF
4624* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4625
6f606e1c
MK
4626* New native configurations
4627
97dc871c 4628GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 4629OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
4630OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4631OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 4632OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 4633NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 4634OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 4635
a1b461bf
AC
4636* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4637
4638GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4639The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4640including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4641migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4642compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4643work, was also included.
4644
4645GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4646module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4647
4648h8300-*-*
4649mcore-*-*
4650mn10300-*-*
4651ns32k-*-*
4652sh64-*-*
4653v850-*-*
4654xstormy16-*-*
4655
4656Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4657made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4658
3c7012f5
AC
4659* REMOVED configurations and files
4660
4661Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4662Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4663Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4664Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4665Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4666AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4667Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4668decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4669riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4670sonymips mips-sony-*
4671sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4672
e5fe55f7
AC
4673*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4674
4675* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4676
4677The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4678GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4679command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4680program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4681with GDB".
4682
4683* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4684
4685Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4686libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4687cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4688GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4689shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4690the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4691are created.
4692
4693Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4694
4695* Fixed ISO-C build problems
4696
4697The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4698non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4699compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4700
4701* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4702
4703Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4704wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4705
4706* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4707
4708The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4709permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4710systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4711
4712* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4713
4714Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4715has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4716
4717* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4718
4719GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4720its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4721panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4722
4723* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4724
4725When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4726by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4727not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4728
faae5abe 4729*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 4730
9175c9a3
MC
4731* Removed --with-mmalloc
4732
4733Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4734conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4735
3cc87ec0
MK
4736* Changes in AMD64 configurations
4737
4738The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4739the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4740and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4741you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4742
f0424ef6
MK
4743* Revised SPARC target
4744
4745The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4746FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
4747support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4748from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4749(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 4750
59659be2
ILT
4751* New C++ demangler
4752
4753GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4754names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4755with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4756programs.
4757
9e08b29b
DJ
4758* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4759
4760GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4761arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4762encountered these.
4763
8dfe8985
DC
4764* C++ nested types and namespaces
4765
4766GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4767improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4768is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4769Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4770namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4771"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4772frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4773if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4774GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4775
cced5e27
MK
4776* New native configurations
4777
4778NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 4779OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 4780OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
4781OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4782OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 4783
b4b4b794
KI
4784* New debugging protocols
4785
4786M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4787
7989c619
AC
4788* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4789
4790The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4791and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4792tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4793
5994185b
AC
4794* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4795
4796Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4797been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4798configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4799permanently REMOVED.
4800
4801Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4802Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4803Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4804Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4805Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4806AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4807Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
4808decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4809riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4810sonymips mips-sony-*
4811sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 4812
0ddabb4c
AC
4813* REMOVED configurations and files
4814
4815SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4816SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
4817Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4818Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4819H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4820HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4821HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4822HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4823PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 4824386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
4825Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4826 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4827 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
4828SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4829SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
4830Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4831Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 4832
c7f1390e
DJ
4833*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4834
1fe43d45
AC
4835* Objective-C
4836
4837Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4838integrated into GDB.
4839
e6beb428
AC
4840* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4841
4842DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4843information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4844By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4845backtraces.
4846
4847The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4848have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4849DWARF 2 CFI support.
4850
4851* Hosted file I/O.
4852
4853GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4854file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4855remote protocol documentation for details.
4856
4857* All targets using the new architecture framework.
4858
4859All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4860architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4861to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4862ppc32 on ppc64).
4863
4864* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4865
4866GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4867per-thread variables.
4868
4869* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4870
4871GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4872GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4873
4874* Separate debug info.
4875
4876GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4877automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4878of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4879system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4880and optional debug files.
4881
4882* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4883
4884DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4885describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4886debugger.
4887
4888GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4889for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4890
4891* Java
4892
4893A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4894Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4895considered "useable".
4896
85f8f974
DJ
4897* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4898
4899The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4900commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4901kernel.
4902
0fac0b41
DJ
4903* GDB supports logging output to a file
4904
4905There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4906used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 4907
6ad8ae5c
DJ
4908* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4909
4910The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4911disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4912command.
4913
e286caf2 4914* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
4915
4916The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4917registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4918
d28f9cdf
DJ
4919* Profiling support
4920
4921A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4922be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4923session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4924"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4925data, for more informative profiling results.
4926
da0f9dcd
AC
4927* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4928
4929The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4930option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 4931"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
4932
4933Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4934removed.
4935
fb9b6b35
JJ
4936Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4937Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4938Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4939 in a subsequent -var-update.
4940
954a4db8
MK
4941* New native configurations.
4942
4943FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4944
6760f9e6
JB
4945* Multi-arched targets.
4946
b4263afa 4947HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 4948Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 4949
1b831c93
AC
4950* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4951
4952Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4953been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4954configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4955permanently REMOVED.
4956
8b0e5691 4957Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 4958Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 4959H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
4960HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4961HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4962HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 4963PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
4964Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4965 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4966 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
4967Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4968Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 4969
5835abe7
NC
4970* REMOVED configurations and files
4971
4972V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
4973Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4974IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4975i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4976i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4977i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4978HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4979 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4980 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4981Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4982Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4983Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4984OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4985I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 4986
a094c6fb
AC
4987* MIPS $fp behavior changed
4988
4989The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4990the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4991context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4992address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4993The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4994
299ffc64 4995*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 4996
46248966
AC
4997* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4998
4999When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5000`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5001in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5002library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5003shared libs like mad''.
5004
b9d14705 5005* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 5006
b9d14705
DJ
5007Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5008the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5009arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5010powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 5011
e0e9281e
JB
5012* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5013
5014GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5015and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5016they expand.
5017
dd73b9bb
AC
5018The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5019invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5020
5021The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5022macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5023
e0e9281e
JB
5024Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5025information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5026your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5027information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5028
2250ee0c
CV
5029* Multi-arched targets.
5030
6e3ba3b8
JT
5031DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5032DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 5033NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 5034National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
5035Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5036Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 5037
cd9bfe15 5038* New targets.
e33ce519 5039
456f8b9d
DB
5040Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5041
e33ce519 5042
da8ca43d
JT
5043* New native configurations
5044
5045Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 5046SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 5047MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 5048UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 5049
cd9bfe15
AC
5050* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5051
5052Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5053been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5054configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5055permanently REMOVED.
5056
92eb23c5 5057Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 5058OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 5059IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 5060Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 5061Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 5062Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
5063i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5064i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5065i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
5066HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5067 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5068 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 5069I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 5070
db034ac5
AC
5071* OBSOLETE languages
5072
5073CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5074
cd9bfe15
AC
5075* REMOVED configurations and files
5076
5077AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5078A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5079AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5080AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5081AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5082
5083testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5084
20f01a46
DH
5085* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5086
5087This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5088commands. The default is 1024.
5089
a5941fbf
MK
5090* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5091
5092Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5093
89743e04
MS
5094* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5095
5096These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5097to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5098from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 5099
9fb14e79
JB
5100* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5101
5102The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5103including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5104of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5105
2037aebb
AC
5106*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5107
5108* New targets.
5109
5110Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5111
5112* Bug fixes
5113
5114gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5115mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5116Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5117
5118gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5119dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5120Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5121
5122Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5123Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5124By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5125
5126i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5127avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5128By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5129
37057839 5130*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 5131
1a703748
MS
5132* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5133
5134This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5135really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5136In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5137target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5138This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5139(notably embedded) targets.
5140
cefd4ef5
MS
5141* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5142
55241689
AC
5143This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5144process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5145GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5146hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 5147
352ed7b4
MS
5148* New command line option
5149
5150GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5151
5152* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5153
5154There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5155command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5156a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5157be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5158open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5159issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5160a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5161it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5162GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5163is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5164
fe419ffc
RE
5165* Changes in ARM configurations.
5166
5167Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5168configuration is fully multi-arch.
5169
eb7cedd9
MK
5170* New native configurations
5171
fe419ffc 5172ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 5173x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 5174AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 5175Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 5176
c9f63e6b
CV
5177* New targets
5178
5179Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5180
9b4ff276
AC
5181* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5182
5183Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5184been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5185configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5186permanently REMOVED.
5187
5188AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5189A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5190AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5191AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5192AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5193
b4ceaee6 5194testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 5195
e2caac18
AC
5196* REMOVED configurations and files
5197
5198TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 5199WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
5200PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5201PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5202PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 5203Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
5204Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5205 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 5206SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 5207Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
5208Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5209ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 5210Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 5211
c2a727fa
TT
5212* Changes to command line processing
5213
5214The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5215for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5216
467d8519
TT
5217* Changes to key bindings
5218
5219There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5220
7072a954
AC
5221*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5222
5223Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5224
5225Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5226corrupted.
5227
5228Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5229
5230Numerous documentation fixes.
5231
5232Numerous testsuite fixes.
5233
34f47bc4 5234*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
5235
5236* New native configurations
5237
5238Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5239x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 5240MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
5241MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5242ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 5243s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 5244
bf64bfd6
AC
5245* New targets
5246
def90278 5247Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 5248CRIS cris-axis
55241689 5249UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 5250
17e78a56 5251* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
5252
5253x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 5254Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
5255Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5256 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
5257TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5258WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 5259Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
5260PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5261PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5262PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 5263SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
5264Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5265ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 5266Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 5267
17e78a56
AC
5268stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5269kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5270
7fcca85b
AC
5271Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5272been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5273configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5274permanently REMOVED.
5275
a196c81c 5276* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
5277
5278Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5279Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5280Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5281ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5282Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 5283ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 5284
6d6b80e5 5285* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 5286
6d6b80e5 5287GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
5288sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5289present.
5290
bf64bfd6
AC
5291* Other news:
5292
e23194cb
EZ
5293* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5294
5295* The MI enabled by default.
5296
5297The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5298revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5299engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5300using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5301which is now deprecated.
5302
5303* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5304
5305GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5306main features are supported:
5307
5308 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5309
5310 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5311 extension;
5312
5313 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5314
5315 - a Pascal expression parser.
5316
5317However, some important features are not yet supported.
5318
5319 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5320
5321 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5322
5323 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5324 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5325
5326 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5327
5328 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5329
5330* Changes in completion.
5331
5332Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5333to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5334users expect at the shell prompt.
5335
5336Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5337`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5338program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5339files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5340be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5341considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5342name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5343
5344`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5345
5346* New platform-independent commands:
5347
5348It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5349hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5350documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5351
5352* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5353
d7275149
MK
5354Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5355revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5356many threads as your system allows you to have.
5357
e23194cb
EZ
5358Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5359
d7275149
MK
5360Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5361multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
5362
5363* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
5364
5365Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5366
e23194cb
EZ
5367GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5368debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5369supported.)
5370
5371* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5372
5373Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5374breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5375implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5376put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5377and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5378registers.
5379
5380The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5381debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5382watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5383
5384* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5385
5386New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5387the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5388
5389New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5390display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5391IDT.
5392
5393New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5394from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5395New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5396a given linear address.
5397
5398GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5399program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5400which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5401
5402DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5403
6c56c069
EZ
5404It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5405
e23194cb
EZ
5406* Changes in documentation.
5407
5408All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5409Documentation License.
5410
5411Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5412manual.
5413
5414TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5415
5416Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5417manual.
5418
5419The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5420documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5421hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5422
5d6640b1
AC
5423* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5424
5425The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5426``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5427contents of this file.
5428
1a1d8446
AC
5429* gdba.el deleted
5430
5431GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 5432
9debab2f 5433*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 5434
c63ce875
EZ
5435* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5436
5437Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5438programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5439displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5440greater level of detail.
5441
5442* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5443
5444It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5445bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5446on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5447written.
5448
5449* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5450
5451The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5452necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5453machines ``out of the box''.
5454
5455The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5456possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5457signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5458would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5459interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5460
5461It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5462standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5463even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5464and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5465terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5466
5467The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5468enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5469also works.
5470
5471DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5472GDB.
5473
5474It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5475directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5476times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5477breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5478
ed9a39eb
JM
5479* New native configurations
5480
5481ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 5482PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 5483
7a292a7a
SS
5484* New targets
5485
96baa820 5486Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
5487x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5488PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
5489TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5490
085dd6e6
JM
5491* OBSOLETE configurations
5492
5493Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5494Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 5495Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 5496ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 5497Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 5498
9debab2f
AC
5499Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5500but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5501these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5502be permanently REMOVED.
5503
5330533d
SS
5504* Gould support removed
5505
5506Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5507
bc9e5bbf
AC
5508* New features for SVR4
5509
5510On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5511without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5512load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5513
5514* Many C++ enhancements
5515
5516C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5517in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5518
adf40b2e
JM
5519* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5520
5521A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5522sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5523with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5524``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5525
5526 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5527 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5528
43e526b9
JM
5529* MIPS 64 remote protocol
5530
5531A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5532expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5533instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5534
5535The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5536added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5537
96baa820
JM
5538* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5539
5540The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5541``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5542include ``set remote P-packet''.
5543
11cf8741
JM
5544* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5545
5546The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5547accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5548``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5549
7876dd43
DB
5550* ``apropos'' command added.
5551
5552The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5553documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5554try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5555
bc9e5bbf
AC
5556* New MI interface
5557
5558A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5559interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
5560process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5561"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5562enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
5563
5564 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5565
c906108c
SS
5566*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5567
5568* New native configurations
5569
5570HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5571HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 5572M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
5573
5574* New targets
5575
5576Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5577Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5578Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5579
5580* OBSOLETE configurations
5581
5582Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5583
5584Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5585but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5586these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5587be permanently REMOVED.
5588
5589* ANSI/ISO C
5590
5591As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5592buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5593containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5594use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5595available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5596configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5597information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5598already.
5599
5600* Readline 2.2
5601
5602GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5603
5604* set extension-language
5605
5606You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5607languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5608you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5609 set extension-language .c c++
5610The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5611and their associated languages.
5612
5613* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5614
5615When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5616you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5617PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5618
5619 set processor NAME
5620
5621sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5622following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5623
5624 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5625 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5626 403 IBM PowerPC 403
5627 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5628 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5629 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5630 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5631 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5632 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5633 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5634 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5635
5636At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5637special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5638registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5639only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5640
5641* HP-UX support
5642
5643Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5644more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5645library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5646support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5647for xdb and dbx commands.
5648
5649* Catchpoints
5650
5651HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5652generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5653to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5654
5655This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5656argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5657output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5658
5659* Debugging across forks
5660
5661On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5662in the inferior.
5663
5664* TUI
5665
5666HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5667it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5668configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5669
5670* GDB remote protocol additions
5671
5672A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5673Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5674fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5675allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5676
5677For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5678full 64-bit address. The command
5679
5680 set remoteaddresssize 32
5681
5682can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5683the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5684will be discarded.
5685
5686In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5687command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5688
5689 maint packet heythere
5690
5691sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5692disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5693time.
5694
5695The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5696target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5697downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5698
5699* Tracing can collect general expressions
5700
5701You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5702further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5703doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5704
5705* mask-address variable for Mips
5706
5707For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5708a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5709of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5710
5711* Higher serial baud rates
5712
5713GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5714230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5715to achieve all of these rates.)
5716
5717* i960 simulator
5718
5719The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5720builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5721
5722
5723*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5724
5725* New native configurations
5726
5727Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5728Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5729Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5730PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5731PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5732Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5733Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5734
5735* New targets
5736
5737Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5738Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5739Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5740Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5741MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5742MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5743MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5744Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5745Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5746Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5747NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5748
5749* New debugging protocols
5750
5751ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5752M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5753DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5754PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5755PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5756Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5757
5758* DWARF 2
5759
5760All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5761format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5762information.
5763
5764* Java frontend
5765
5766GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5767only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5768
5769* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5770
5771For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5772loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5773locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5774
5775* Live range splitting
5776
5777GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5778range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5779more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5780
5781* Hurd support
5782
5783GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5784updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5785
5786* ARM Thumb support
5787
5788GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5789instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5790instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5791accordingly.
5792
5793* MIPS16 support
5794
5795GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5796instruction set.
5797
5798* Overlay support
5799
5800GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5801linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5802will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5803control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5804additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5805in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5806
5807* info symbol
5808
5809The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5810the symbol at the specified address.
5811
5812* Trace support
5813
5814The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5815asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5816extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5817includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5818file tracepoint.c for more details.
5819
5820* MIPS simulator
5821
5822Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5823by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5824of most MIPS variants.
5825
5826* Sparc simulator
5827
5828Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5829by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5830Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5831
5832* set architecture
5833
5834For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5835basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5836architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5837the possible architectures.
5838
5839*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5840
5841* New native configurations
5842
5843Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5844M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5845PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5846PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5847PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5848RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5849
5850* New targets
5851
5852ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5853I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5854MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5855MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5856PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5857Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
5858Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5859
5860* PowerPC simulator
5861
5862The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5863contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5864PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5865basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5866performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5867
5868* Solaris 2.5
5869
5870GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5871
5872* Windows 95/NT native
5873
5874GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5875To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5876which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5877Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5878ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5879
5880* dont-repeat command
5881
5882If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5883command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5884useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5885extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5886
5887* Send break instead of ^C
5888
5889The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5890rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5891GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5892
5893* Remote protocol timeout
5894
5895The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5896that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5897to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5898
5899* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5900
5901By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5902loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5903stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5904when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5905in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5906
5907Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5908/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5909automatically on hpux10.
5910
5911* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5912
5913Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5914
5915* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5916
5917When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5918may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5919the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5920every character. The default value is 1050.
5921
5922* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5923
5924If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5925a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5926replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5927details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5928remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5929to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5930
5931* Speedups for remote debugging
5932
5933GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5934the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5935and more efficient S-record downloading.
5936
5937* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5938
5939GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5940Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5941
5942*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5943
5944* Psymtabs for XCOFF
5945
5946The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5947can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5948
5949* Remote targets use caching
5950
5951Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5952remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5953it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5954debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5955off' turns the the data cache off.
5956
5957* Remote targets may have threads
5958
5959The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5960in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5961gdb/remote.c for details.
5962
5963* NetROM support
5964
5965If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5966support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5967acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5968write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5969support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5970another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5971sequence is something like
5972
5973 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5974 load <prog>
5975 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5976
5977* Macintosh host
5978
5979GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5980may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5981it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5982available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5983device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5984directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5985scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5986mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5987
5988* Autoconf
5989
5990GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5991but does simplify configuration and building.
5992
5993* hpux10
5994
5995GDB now supports hpux10.
5996
5997*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5998
5999* New native configurations
6000
6001x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6002x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6003NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6004Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6005
6006* New targets
6007
6008A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6009HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6010CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6011PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6012WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6013
6014* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6015
6016GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6017possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6018filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6019the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6020if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6021
6022* Arguments to user-defined commands
6023
6024User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6025Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6026trivial example:
6027define adder
6028 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6029
6030To execute the command use:
6031adder 1 2 3
6032
6033Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6034Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6035use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6036
6037* New `if' and `while' commands
6038
6039This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6040commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6041expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6042execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6043terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6044`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6045if the expression is zero.
6046
6047* Fortran source language mode
6048
6049GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6050Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6051variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6052with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6053Fortran compilers.
6054
6055* Better HPUX support
6056
6057Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6058running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6059processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6060for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6061that behavior do the following before running the program:
6062
6063 adb -w a.out
6064 __dld_flags?W 0x5
6065 control-d
6066
6067This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6068To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6069
6070 adb -w a.out
6071 __dld_flags?W 0x4
6072 control-d
6073
6074You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6075the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6076external linkage.
6077
6078GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6079HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6080
6081* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6082
6083You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6084commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6085current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6086"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6087associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6088configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6089
6090* New DOS host serial code
6091
6092This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6093no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6094a PC's serial port.
6095
6096*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6097
6098* New "complete" command
6099
6100This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6101were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6102
6103* Trailing space optional in prompt
6104
6105"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6106allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6107
6108* Breakpoint hit counts
6109
6110"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6111has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6112can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6113to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6114less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6115that breakpoint.
6116
6117* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6118
6119"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6120an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6121arrays actually contain only short strings.
6122
6123* Shared library breakpoints
6124
6125In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6126breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6127
6128* Hardware watchpoints
6129
6130There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6131targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6132
55241689 6133Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
6134
6135* Annotations
6136
6137Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6138and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6139
6140* Improved Irix 5 support
6141
6142GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6143
6144* Improved HPPA support
6145
6146GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6147
6148* New native configurations
6149
6150Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6151HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6152Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6153RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6154
6155* New targets
6156
6157OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6158MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6159Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6160
6161* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6162
6163There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6164This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6165
6166* Fixes
6167
6168As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6169and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6170
6171*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6172
6173* Irix 5 is now supported
6174
6175* HPPA support
6176
6177GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6178to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6179GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6180of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6181can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6182
6183
6184*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6185
6186* User visible changes:
6187
6188* Remote Debugging
6189
6190The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6191target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6192debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6193integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6194debugging info for the mips target).
6195
6196* DEC Alpha native support
6197
6198GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6199debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6200work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6201Alpha-specific notes.
6202
6203* Preliminary thread implementation
6204
6205GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6206
6207* LynxOS native and target support for 386
6208
6209This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6210to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6211for details).
6212
6213* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6214
6215This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6216mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6217call methods, ...etc.
6218
6219*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6220
6221 * User visible changes:
6222
6223Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6224supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6225other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6226somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6227
6228Filename completion now works.
6229
6230When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6231arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6232addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6233
6234All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6235vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6236should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6237your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6238to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6239
6240 * DEC alpha support
6241
6242This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6243cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6244
6245
6246*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6247
6248 * Testsuite
6249
6250This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6251The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6252via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6253
6254 * C++ demangling
6255
6256'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6257emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6258Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6259disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6260use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6261
6262 * Simulators
6263
6264GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6265So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6266Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6267
6268 * New targets supported
6269
6270H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6271H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6272SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6273Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6274IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6275
6276Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6277version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6278GO32 memory extender.
6279
6280 * New remote protocols
6281
6282MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6283
6284 * New source languages supported
6285
6286This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6287used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6288into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6289
6290
6291*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6292
6293 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6294
6295GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6296version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6297University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6298compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6299format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6300(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6301
6302Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6303
6304 * Faster and better demangling
6305
6306We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6307demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6308character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6309only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6310This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6311increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6312symbol lookups.
6313
6314`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6315from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6316compiler does not actually implement.
6317
6318 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6319
6320In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6321inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6322recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6323very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6324The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6325circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6326fix.
6327
6328The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6329release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6330
6331 * Improved configure script
6332
6333The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6334you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6335host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6336done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6337
6338We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6339version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6340`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6341The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6342only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6343We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6344
6345 * Documentation improvements
6346
6347There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6348produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6349before submitting changes.
6350
6351The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6352M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6353`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6354you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6355a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6356
6357*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6358We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6359been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6360or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6361`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6362around this problem.
6363
6364 * New features
6365
6366GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6367the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6368`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6369the target program.
6370
6371The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6372how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6373
6374 * New native hosts supported
6375
6376HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6377386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6378
6379 * New targets supported
6380
6381AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6382
6383 * New file formats supported
6384
6385BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6386HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6387
6388 * Major bug fixes
6389
6390Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6391
6392We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6393printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6394
6395We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6396for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6397release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6398
6399You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6400will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6401
6402We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6403for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6404especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6405libraries.
6406
6407The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6408information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6409command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6410any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6411when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6412
6413 * Internal improvements
6414
6415GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6416debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6417
6418GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6419Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6420symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6421contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6422shared code that handles any of them.
6423
6424 * New command line options
6425
6426We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6427
6428 * Mmalloc licensing
6429
6430The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6431General Public License.
6432
6433*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6434
6435 * Host/native/target split
6436
6437GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6438hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6439target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6440local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6441ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6442
6443The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6444GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6445is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6446code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6447any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6448built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6449handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6450
6451GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6452It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6453plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6454
6455 * New hosts supported
6456
6457HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6458386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6459386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6460
6461 * New targets supported
6462
6463Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
646468030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6465
6466 * New native hosts supported
6467
6468386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6469 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6470386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6471
6472 * New file formats supported
6473
6474BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6475supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6476format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6477
6478 * New commands
6479
6480`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6481`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6482These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6483
6484`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6485
6486You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6487scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6488prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6489executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6490
6491 * C++ improvements
6492
6493We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6494info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6495symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6496
6497Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6498
6499 * Major bug fixes
6500
6501The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6502fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6503by the compiler.
6504
6505We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6506support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6507
6508John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6509slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6510that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6511purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6512the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6513mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6514
6515Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6516about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6517completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6518we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6519
6520 * AMD 29k support
6521
6522A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6523specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6524calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6525usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6526in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6527
6528We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6529Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6530of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6531resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6532
6533 * Remote interfaces
6534
6535We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6536with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6537message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6538This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6539needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6540breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6541each instruction being stepped through.
6542
6543The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6544registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6545
6546There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6547find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6548Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6549processor with a serial port.
6550
6551 * Configuration
6552
6553Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6554`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6555supported, and what files each one uses.
6556
6557 * Library changes
6558
6559There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6560disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6561Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6562disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6563
6564The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6565Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6566can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6567grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6568
6569 * Documentation
6570
6571The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6572reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6573as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6574encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6575system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6576bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6577
6578And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6579
6580
6581*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6582
6583 * Better support for C++ function names
6584
6585GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6586names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6587(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6588single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6589Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6590
6591GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6592the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6593You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6594lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6595for the list of formats.
6596
6597 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6598
6599Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6600C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6601directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6602can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6603usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6604about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6605this problem.)
6606
6607 * New 'maintenance' command
6608
6609All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6610the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6611can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6612
6613 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6614 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6615 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6616 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6617 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6618 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6619
6620The following commands are new:
6621
6622 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6623 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6624 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6625
6626 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6627
6628We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6629(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6630be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6631read after argv processing.
6632
6633 * New hosts supported
6634
6635Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6636
55241689 6637GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
6638
6639We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6640is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6641for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6642masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6643fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6644It costs extra.
6645
6646 * New targets supported
6647
6648Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6649
6650 * More smarts about finding #include files
6651
6652GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6653all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6654greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6655especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6656the one that contains your sources.
6657
6658We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6659breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6660try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6661
6662 * Interesting infernals change
6663
6664GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6665section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6666target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6667stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6668
6669 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6670
6671There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6672 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6673 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6674
6675See the ChangeLog for details.
6676
6677*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6678
6679 * New machines supported (host and target)
6680
6681IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6682
6683SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6684
6685 * New malloc package
6686
6687GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6688Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6689capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6690This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6691pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6692more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6693
6694 * info proc
6695
6696The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6697'help info proc' for details.
6698
6699 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6700
6701The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6702Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6703possible.
6704
6705 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6706
6707Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6708support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6709conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6710environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6711that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6712in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6713
6714 * Cross byte order fixes
6715
6716Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6717targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6718
6719 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6720
6721If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6722system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6723`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6724program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6725called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6726Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6727and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6728the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6729option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6730starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6731
6732You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6733the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6734information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6735slower, but makes future operations faster.
6736
6737The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6738build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6739A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6740use is:
6741
6742 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6743
6744The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6745It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6746shared across multiple host platforms.
6747
6748 * longjmp() handling
6749
6750GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6751siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6752all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6753platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6754
6755 * Solaris 2.0
6756
6757Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6758this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6759reading symbols.
6760
6761 * Bug fixes
6762
6763As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6764People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6765crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6766
6767*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6768
6769 * New machines supported (host and target)
6770
6771SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6772 (except core files)
6773BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6774Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6775
6776 * New machines supported (target)
6777
6778AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6779
6780 * C++ support
6781
6782GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6783The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6784per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6785
6786GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6787`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6788extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6789good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6790will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6791released.
6792
6793 * New features for SVR4
6794
6795GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6796shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6797only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6798
6799The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6800on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6801it prints the address mappings of the process.
6802
6803If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6804bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6805
6806 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6807
6808Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6809now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6810skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6811make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6812same code linked statically.
6813
6814 * New Getopt
6815
6816GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6817version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6818continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6819Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6820added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6821future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6822
6823 * Bugs fixed
6824
6825The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6826Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6827See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6828
6829
6830*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6831
6832 * New machines supported (host and target)
6833
6834Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6835NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6836Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6837
6838 * Almost SCO Unix support
6839
6840We had hoped to support:
6841SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6842(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6843that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6844about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6845
6846 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6847
6848GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6849debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6850is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6851send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6852reqired (if any).
6853
6854 * New Readline
6855
6856GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6857is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6858required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6859
6860 * Bugs fixed
6861
6862The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6863Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6864See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6865
6866 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6867
6868GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6869supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6870symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6871
6872Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6873mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6874debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6875mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6876version 2.
6877
6878Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6879really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6880line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6881variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6882situation somewhat.
6883
6884When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6885However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6886methods.
6887
6888We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6889DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6890encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6891
6892
6893*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6894
6895 * Improved configuration
6896
6897Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6898Porting BFD is simpler.
6899
6900 * Stepping improved
6901
6902The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6903of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6904in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6905function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6906
6907 * Bug fixing
6908
6909Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6910
6911 * New host supported (not target)
6912
6913Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6914
6915
6916*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6917
6918 * Multiple source language support
6919
6920GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6921It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6922and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6923language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6924You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6925`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6926
6927 * GDB and Modula-2
6928
6929GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6930currently under development at the State University of New York at
6931Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6932continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6933
6934Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6935debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6936symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6937
6938There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6939in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6940
6941 * set write on/off
6942
6943GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6944a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6945the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6946by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6947effect immediately.
6948
6949 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6950
6951When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6952shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6953The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6954examining core files.
6955
6956 * set listsize
6957
6958You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6959The default is 10.
6960
6961 * New machines supported (host and target)
6962
6963SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6964Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6965Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6966
6967 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6968
6969IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6970
6971 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6972
6973AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6974AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6975Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6976
6977 * New remote interfaces
6978
6979AMD 29000 Adapt
6980AMD 29000 Minimon
6981
6982
6983*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6984
6985 * New Facilities
6986
6987Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6988
6989Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6990target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6991is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6992remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6993remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6994also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6995using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6996stub on the target system.
6997
6998New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6999
7000GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7001library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7002object file types such as a.out and coff.
7003
7004There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7005refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7006
7007
7008 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7009
7010All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7011by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7012
7013For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7014``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7015Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7016
7017What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7018print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7019will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7020all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7021
7022confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7023 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7024 it is already running. Default is ON.
7025
7026editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7027 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7028 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7029 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7030 Default is ON.
7031
7032history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7033 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7034 or the value of the environment variable
7035 GDBHISTFILE.
7036
7037history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7038 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7039 HISTSIZE.
7040
7041history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7042 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7043 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7044
7045history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7046 history expansion will be performed on
7047 command line input. The default is OFF.
7048
7049radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7050 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7051 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7052
7053height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7054 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7055 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7056 variable TERM.
7057
7058width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7059 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7060 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7061 variable TERM.
7062
7063Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7064``set width'' instead.
7065
7066print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7067 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7068 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7069 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7070
7071print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7072 is OFF.
7073
7074print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7075 "raw" form if off.
7076
7077print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7078 like instructions.
7079
7080print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7081
7082
7083 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7084
7085The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7086new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7087are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7088window.
7089
7090
7091 * Support for Shared Libraries
7092
7093GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7094Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7095before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7096happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7097At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7098from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7099shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7100It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7101
7102sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7103 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7104 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7105
7106info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7107
7108
7109 * Watchpoints
7110
7111A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7112expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7113tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7114quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7115problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7116more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7117
7118watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7119
7120info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7121
7122delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7123disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7124enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7125
7126
7127 * C++ multiple inheritance
7128
7129When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7130for C++ programs.
7131
7132 * C++ exception handling
7133
7134Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7135ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7136the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7137handler's context).
7138
7139catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7140 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7141 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7142
7143info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7144 current stack frame.
7145
7146
7147 * Minor command changes
7148
7149The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7150command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7151is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7152
7153The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7154at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7155frames without printing.
7156
7157 * New directory command
7158
7159'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7160The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7161about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7162with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7163find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7164
7165 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7166
7167For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7168for more details.
7169
7170GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7171two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7172Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7173where the program that you are debugging will run.