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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.9
5
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6* The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
7 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
8 and may include things like its command line arguments.
9
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10* Python Scripting
11
12 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
13 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
14 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
15
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16* New commands
17
18maint print symbol-cache
19 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
20
21maint print symbol-cache-statistics
22 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
23
24maint flush-symbol-cache
25 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
26
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27* New options
28
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29set max-completions
30show max-completions
31 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
32 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
33 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
34 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
35
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36maint set symbol-cache-size
37maint show symbol-cache-size
38 Control the size of the symbol cache.
39
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40* The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
41 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
42
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43* Python/Guile scripting
44
45 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
46 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
47
3b2f13ff 48*** Changes in GDB 7.9
919b9a93 49
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50* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
51
5f3b99cf 52* Python Scripting
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53
54 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
55 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
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56 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
57 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
a0be3e44 58 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
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59 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
60 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
86e4ed39 61 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
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62 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
63 selecting a new file to debug.
02be9a71 64 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
6dddd6a5 65 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
5f3b99cf 66
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67 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
68 inferior.
69
70 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
71 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
72 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
73 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
74
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75* New Python-based convenience functions:
76
77 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
78 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
79 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
80 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
81
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82* GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
83 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
84 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
85 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
86 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
87 interface with this new feature are:
88
89 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
90 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
91
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92* New commands
93
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94demangle [-l language] [--] name
95 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
96 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
97 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
98 as "maint demangler-warning".
99
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100queue-signal signal-name-or-number
101 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
102
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103add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
104 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
105 scripts.
106
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107maint print user-registers
108 List all currently available "user" registers.
109
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110compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
111 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
112 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
113
114compile file [-r|-raw] filename
115 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
116 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
117 provided.
118
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119* On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
120 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
121 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
122 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
123 at resume time.
124
125* Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
126 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
127 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
128 switched threads meanwhile.
129
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130* "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
131
132 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
133 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
134 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
135 is now the default mode.
136
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137* New options
138
139set debug symbol-lookup
140show debug symbol-lookup
141 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
142
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143* MI changes
144
145 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
146 inferiors that have exited.
147
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148* New targets
149
150MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
151
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152* Removed targets
153
154Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
155
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156Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
157SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
158SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
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159VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
160VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
3831839c 161
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162* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
163 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
164 its alias "share", instead.
165
919b9a93 166*** Changes in GDB 7.8
e9475ead 167
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168* New command line options
169
170-D data-directory
171 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
172
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173* GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
174 as specified in ISO C99.
175
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176* The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
177 with or without disassembly.
b7bba001 178
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179* Guile scripting
180
181 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
182 available is determined at configure time.
183 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
184 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
185
186* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
187
188guile [code]
189gu [code]
190 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
191
192guile-repl
193gr
194 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
195
196info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
197 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
198
199* The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
200 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
201
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202* New options
203
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204set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
205show print symbol-loading
206 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
207 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
208 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
209 becomes less useful.
210
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211set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
212show guile print-stack
213 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
214
215set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
216show auto-load guile-scripts
217 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
218
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219maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
220maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
221 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
222 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
223 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
224 usage of this option.
225
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226set auto-connect-native-target
227
228 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
229 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
230 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
231
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232set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
233show record btrace replay-memory-access
234 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
235
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236maint set target-async (on|off)
237maint show target-async
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238 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
239 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
329ea579 240 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
5784b3ca 241 occurring only in synchronous mode.
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242
243set mi-async (on|off)
244show mi-async
245 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
246 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
247
248* "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
249 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
250
251* Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
252 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
253 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
254 "set target-async on" command.
255
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256* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
257
258 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
259 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
260 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
261 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
262 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
263
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264* The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
265 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
266 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
267
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268* The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
269 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
270 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
271 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
272 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
273 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
274 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
275
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276* The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
277 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
278
066ce621 279* The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
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280 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
281 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
066ce621 282
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283* The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
284 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
285 memory or registers.
286
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287* The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
288
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289* The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
290 remote. It now works with all targets.
291
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292* All native targets are now consistently called "native".
293 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
294 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
295 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
296 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
297 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
298 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
299 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
300 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
301 target-stack".
302
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303* The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
304 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
305 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
306
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307* GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
308
309* Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
310 Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers
311 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
312
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313* New remote packets
314
315qXfer:btrace:read's annex
316 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
317 branch trace incrementally.
318
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319* Python Scripting
320
321 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
322 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
323 available.
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324 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
325 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
326 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
327 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
328 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
f7bd0f78 329
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330* New targets
331PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
332
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333* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
334 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
335 its alias "share", instead.
336
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337* The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
338 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
339 instead.
340
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341* MI changes
342
343 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
344 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
345 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
346 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
347 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
348 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
349 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
350 commands and CLI execution commands.
351
b7bba001 352*** Changes in GDB 7.7
2d450646 353
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354* Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
355 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
356 recording has been added.
357
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358* GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
359
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360* GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
361 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
362
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363* New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
364 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
365 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
366 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
367 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
368 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
369 "void".
370
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371* The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
372
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373* The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
374
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375* GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
376 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
377 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
378 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
379
380 (gdb) p $rax
381 $1 = <not saved>
382
383 (gdb) info registers rax
384 rax <not saved>
385
386 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
387 "*value not available*".
388
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389* New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
390 to binaries.
391
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392* Python scripting
393
394 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
f76c27b5 395 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
bc79de95 396 ** Line tables representation has been added.
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397 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
398 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
c0d48811 399 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1e611234 400
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401* New targets
402
403Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
404Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
42059f0e 405Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
a1217d97 406
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407* Removed native configurations
408
409Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
410been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
411
412arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
413i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
414i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
415i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
416m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
417sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
418vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
419
bd712aed 420* New commands:
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421catch rethrow
422 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
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423maint check-psymtabs
424 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
425maint check-symtabs
426 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
427maint expand-symtabs
428 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
b340913d 429
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430show configuration
431 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
432
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433maint set|show per-command
434maint set|show per-command space
435maint set|show per-command time
436maint set|show per-command symtab
437 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
438
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439remove-symbol-file FILENAME
440remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
441 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
442 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
443 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
444
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445info exceptions
446info exceptions REGEXP
447 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
448 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
449 are listed.
450
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451* New options
452
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453set debug symfile off|on
454show debug symfile
455 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
456 symbol tables within those files
457
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458set print raw frame-arguments
459show print raw frame-arguments
460 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
461 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
462
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463set remote trace-status-packet
464show remote trace-status-packet
465 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
466
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467set debug nios2
468show debug nios2
469 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
470
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471set range-stepping
472show range-stepping
473 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
474
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475set startup-with-shell
476show startup-with-shell
477 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
478 directly.
479
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480set code-cache
481show code-cache
482 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
483 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
484
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485* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
486 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
487 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
488 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
489 "set height 0".
490
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491* The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
492 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
493 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
494
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495* New command-line options
496--configuration
497 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
498
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499* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
500 buffer in Common Trace Format.
501
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502* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
503 GDB command gcore.
504
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505* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
506
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507* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
508 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
509
510* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
511 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
512
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513* The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
514 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
515 due to an uncaught signal.
516
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517* MI changes
518
403cb6b1 519 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
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520 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
521 command, which should contain "language-option".
403cb6b1 522
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523 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
524 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
525
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526 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
527 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
528 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
529 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
530 "undefined-command-error-code".
531
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532 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
533 Trace Format now.
534
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535 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
536
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537 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
538 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
539 are displayed.
540
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541 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
542 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
543
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544 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
545 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
546 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
547
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548 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
549 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
550 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
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551 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
552 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
553 "exec-run-start-option".
5713b9b5 554
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555 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
556 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
557
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558 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
559 the new "info exceptions" command.
560
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561* New system-wide configuration scripts
562 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
563 configuration scripts for the following systems:
564 ** ElinOS
565 ** Wind River Linux
566
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567* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
568 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
569 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
570 below.
571
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572* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
573 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
574
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575* On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
576 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
577 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
578
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579* New remote packets
580
581vCont;r
582
583 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
584 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
585 involvemement at each single-step.
586
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587qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
588 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
589 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
590 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
591 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
592 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
593 speedup.
594
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PA
595* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
596
597 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
598 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
599
28a93511
YQ
600 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
601 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
602 trace state variables.
603
7a60ad40
YQ
604 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
605 target.
606
6fbe845e
AB
607* New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
608 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
609
9058cc3a
TG
610* GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
611
0d12017b
JB
612* The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
613 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
614 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
615 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
616
2d450646 617*** Changes in GDB 7.6
80c8d323 618
59ea5688
MM
619* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
620 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
621 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
622 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
623
624set|show record full insn-number-max
625set|show record full stop-at-limit
626set|show record full memory-query
627
628* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
629 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
630 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
631 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
632 This new recording method can be enabled using:
633
634record btrace
635
636 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
637 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
638
639* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
640 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
641 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
642
643record instruction-history prints the execution history at
644 instruction granularity
645
646record function-call-history prints the execution history at
647 function granularity
648
543bf33d
AT
649* New native configurations
650
51d66578 651ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 652FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4f4352f7 653x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 654Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 655
249729c4
JB
656* New targets
657
51d66578
MS
658ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
659ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 660Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 661x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 662Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249729c4 663
e64e0392
DE
664* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
665 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
666 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
667 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
668 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
669 --data-directory command-line option.
670
07540c15
DE
671* New command line options:
672
673-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
674 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
675
e93a8774
TT
676* Removed command line options
677
678-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
679 Emacs.
680
53342f27
TT
681* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
682 type formatting.
683
451b7c33
TT
684* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
685
a72c3253
DE
686* Python scripting
687
688 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
689
d7de8e3c
TT
690 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
691
18a9fc12
TT
692 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
693
9a27f2c6
PK
694 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
695
bea883fd
SCR
696 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
697 of architecture in the Python API.
698
699 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
700 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
701
a72c3253
DE
702* New Python-based convenience functions:
703
704 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
705 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
706 ** $_strlen(str)
707 ** $_regex(str, regex)
708
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JK
709* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
710 given an argument.
711
1605ef26
TT
712* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
713 default for GCC since November 2000.
714
504b36fd
YQ
715* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
716
f2a8bc8a
YQ
717* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
718 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
719
23a80689
JB
720* New configure options
721
722--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
723 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
724 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
725 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
726 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
727 options allow the user to override that default.
393fd4c3
YQ
728--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
729 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
730 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
23a80689 731
d6b28940
TT
732* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
733
ab04a2af
TT
734catch signal
735 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
736 conditions to be attached.
737
d6b28940
TT
738maint info bfds
739 List the BFDs known to GDB.
740
8315665e
YPK
741python-interactive [command]
742pi [command]
743 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
744 and print the result of expressions.
745
746py [command]
747 "py" is a new alias for "python".
748
18a9fc12
TT
749enable type-printer [name]...
750disable type-printer [name]...
751 Enable or disable type printers.
752
aa9259cc
TS
753* Removed commands
754
755 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
756 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
757 instead.
758
53342f27
TT
759* New options
760
761set print type methods (on|off)
762show print type methods
763 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
764 The default is to show them.
765
766set print type typedefs (on|off)
767show print type typedefs
768 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
769 The default is to show them.
770
1b56eb55
JK
771set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
772show filename-display
773 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
774 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
775
e9f1758d
PA
776set trace-buffer-size
777show trace-buffer-size
778 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
779
a46c1e42
PA
780set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
781show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
782 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
783
be9a8770
PA
784set debug aarch64
785show debug aarch64
786 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
787 The default is off.
788
789set debug coff-pe-read
790show debug coff-pe-read
791 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
792 exported symbols.
793
794set debug mach-o
795show debug mach-o
796 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
797 processing.
798
799set debug notification
800show debug notification
801 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
802
5b9afe8a
YQ
803* MI changes
804
805 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
806 "=cmd-param-changed".
201b4506
YQ
807 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
808 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
134a2066
YQ
809 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
810 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
811 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
82a90ccf
YQ
812 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
813 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
8de0566d
YQ
814 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
815 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d 816 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
ec83d211 817 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
62747a60
TT
818 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
819 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3fa7bf06
MG
820 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
821 library load/unload events.
f2a8bc8a
YQ
822 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
823 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
824 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
f5911ea1
HAQ
825 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
826 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
827 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
ec83d211
JK
828 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
829 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
5b9afe8a 830
608e2dbb
TT
831* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
832 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
833 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
834 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
835
f6f899bf
HAQ
836* New remote packets
837
838QTBuffer:size
839 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
840 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
841
10782d74
MM
842Qbtrace:bts
843 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
844 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
845 qSupported query.
846
847Qbtrace:off
848 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
849 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
850
851qXfer:btrace:read
852 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
853 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
854
80c8d323 855*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 856
1b3371b1
L
857* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
858 for more x32 ABI info.
859
d0e64392
MR
860* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
861
4cc0665f
MR
862* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
863
85d4a676
SS
864* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
865 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
866 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
867 "info os files" lists file descriptors
868 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
869 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
870 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
871 "info os msg" lists message queues
872 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
873
55aa24fb
SDJ
874* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
875 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
876 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
877 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
878 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
879 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
880
72508ac0
PO
881* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
882 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
883 record/replay support.
884
16899756
DE
885* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
886
4795f398
DE
887* Python scripting
888
7d74f244
DE
889 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
890 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
891
4795f398
DE
892 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
893
50897289
TT
894 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
895 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
896
64e7d9dd
TT
897 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
898
899 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
900 the source at which the symbol was defined.
901
f0823d2c
TT
902 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
903 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
904 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
905 symbol's value.
906
7b282c5a
SCR
907 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
908 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
909
a20ee7a4
SCR
910 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
911 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
912 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
913
7efc75aa
SCR
914 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
915 object associated with a PC value.
916
ee0bf529
SCR
917 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
918 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
919
a766d390
DE
920* Go language support.
921 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
922 language.
923
e0f9f062
DE
924* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
925 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
926
217bff3e
JK
927* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
928 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
929
cafec441
TT
930* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
931 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
932 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
933 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
934 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
935 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
936
4aac40c8
TT
937* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
938 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
939 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
940 build/libcpp/expr.c.
941
d99bd577
UW
942* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
943 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
944
53fe1783
GB
945* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
946 since December 2007.
947
e41eec66
JB
948* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
949 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
950 command does. For instance:
951
952 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
953
954 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
955 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
956 created, using the "condition" command.
957
5808517f
YQ
958* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
959 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
960
481860b3
GB
961* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
962
963* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
964 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
965 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
e615022a
DE
966 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
967 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
968 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
969 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
970 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 971
156942c7
DE
972 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
973 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
974 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
975 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
976 the .gdb_index section.
977
927fbba6
JB
978* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
979
20388dd6
YQ
980* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
981 target.
982
f3e0e960
SS
983* MI changes
984
985 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
986
37ce89eb
SS
987 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
988
edcc5120
TT
989* New commands
990
e615022a
DE
991 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
992 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
993 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
994
edcc5120
TT
995 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
996 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
997
816338b5
SS
998 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
999 several hits.
1000
57651221 1001 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
c4aeac85
TT
1002 C++ and Java objects.
1003
06fc020f 1004 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
6ea71545 1005 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
06fc020f
SCR
1006 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1007 configured with '--with-python'.
1008
bf88dd68
JK
1009 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1010 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1011 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1012 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1013 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1014 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1015 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1016
1017 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1018 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1019 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1020 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1021
e7e0cddf
SS
1022 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1023 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1024 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1025 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1026
9cb709b6
TT
1027 ** "set print symbol"
1028 "show print symbol"
1029 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1030 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1031 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1032
2d4c29c5
TS
1033* Deprecated commands
1034
1035 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1036 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1037
a58b110a
KB
1038* New targets
1039
1040Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 1041HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 1042
72895ff6
LM
1043* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1044 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1045 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1046 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1047 evaluates to true.
1048
1049* New options
1050
4cc0665f
MR
1051set mips compression
1052show mips compression
1053 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1054 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1055 mips16
1056 micromips
1057 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1058
72895ff6
LM
1059set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1060show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 1061 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
5b43fab2
JK
1062 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1063 available mode.
72895ff6
LM
1064 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1065 target.
1066
bf88dd68
JK
1067set auto-load off
1068 Disable auto-loading globally.
1069
1070show auto-load
1071 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1072
1073set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1074show auto-load gdb-scripts
1075 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1076
1077set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1078show auto-load python-scripts
1079 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1080
1081set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1082show auto-load local-gdbinit
1083 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1084
1085set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1086show auto-load libthread-db
1087 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1088
7349ff92 1089set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 1090show auto-load scripts-directory
7349ff92
JK
1091 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1092 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1093 of the directories listed by this option.
1094 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1095
bccbefd2
JK
1096set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1097show auto-load safe-path
1098 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1099 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1100
4dc84fd1
JK
1101set debug auto-load on|off
1102show debug auto-load
1103 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1104
d3ce09f5 1105set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 1106show dprintf-style
d3ce09f5
SS
1107 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1108 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1109 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1110 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
e7e0cddf
SS
1111
1112set dprintf-function <expr>
1113show dprintf-function
1114set dprintf-channel <expr>
1115show dprintf-channel
1116 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1117 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1118
d3ce09f5
SS
1119set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1120show disconnected-dprintf
1121 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1122 after GDB disconnects.
1123
6dea1fbd
JK
1124* New configure options
1125
7349ff92
JK
1126--with-auto-load-dir
1127 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1564a261
JK
1128 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1129 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1130 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1131 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 1132
6dea1fbd
JK
1133--with-auto-load-safe-path
1134 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 1135 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
6dea1fbd
JK
1136
1137--without-auto-load-safe-path
1138 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1139 security feature.
1140
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LM
1141* New remote packets
1142
74c48cbb
PA
1143z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1144
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LM
1145 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1146 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1147 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1148 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1149
9b224c5e
PA
1150QProgramSignals:
1151
1152 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1153 program without GDB involvement.
1154
8320cc4f
JK
1155* New command line options
1156
1157--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1158 before loading inferior.
1159--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1160 execute it before loading inferior.
1161
8837a20f
JB
1162*** Changes in GDB 7.4
1163
f8eba3c6
TT
1164* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1165 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1166 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1167 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1168 inferior changes.
1169
1bfeeb0f
JL
1170* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1171 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1172
480a3f21
PW
1173* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1174 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1175 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1176 target hardware watchpoint.
1177
1178 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1179 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1180 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1181 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1182
3a7bf607
PM
1183* Python scripting
1184
32d1c362 1185 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 1186 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
1187 existing one.
1188
3a7bf607 1189 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
1190 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1191 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1192 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1193 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1194 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 1195
baacfb07 1196 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 1197 Python API.
713389e0 1198
fa3a4f15
PM
1199 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1200 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 1201 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
fa3a4f15
PM
1202 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1203 corresponding value.
1204
5e239b84
PM
1205 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1206 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1207 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1208 on GDB start-up.
1209
9df2fbc4
PM
1210 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1211 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1212 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1213 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1214
457e09f0
DE
1215 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1216
6839b47f
KP
1217 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1218 "gdb.breakpoints".
1219
cc72b2a2
KP
1220 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1221 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1222 available in the CLI.
1223
84ad80e6
PK
1224 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1225 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1226 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1227 "some_type.items()".
1228
20c168b5
KP
1229 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1230 new object file.
1231
03c3051a
PK
1232 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1233 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1234 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1235 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1236 any anonymous fields.
1237
7376e450
TT
1238* MI changes
1239
1240 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1241 "solib-event".
1242
1243 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1244 "=breakpoint-modified".
1245
1246 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1247
98a5dd13
DE
1248* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1249 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1250 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1251 lives.
1252
1253 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1254 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1255 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1256 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1257 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1258
1259 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1260 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1261
478aac75
DE
1262* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1263 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1264 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1265 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1266 use this option to specify where to find it.
1267
9c06b0b4
TJB
1268* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1269 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1270 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1271 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1272 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1273 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1274 section in the user manual for more details.
1275
03f2bd59
JK
1276* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1277 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1278 become available after that.
1279
71eba9c2 1280* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 1281
2bda9cc5
JK
1282* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1283 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1284 gcc version 4.7.
1285
ed59ded5
DE
1286* New commands
1287
1288!SHELL COMMAND
1289 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1290 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1291
9c06b0b4
TJB
1292* Changed commands
1293
1294watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1295 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1296 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1297
dbaefcf7
DE
1298info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1299 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1300 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1301
71eba9c2 1302info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1303 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1304 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1305 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1306 name starts with a hyphen.
1307
3065dfb6
SS
1308collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1309 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1310 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1311 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1312 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1313 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1314 number of bytes that will be collected.
1315
f196051f
SS
1316tstart [NOTES]
1317 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1318 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1319 setting the variable trace-notes.
1320
1321tstop [NOTES]
1322 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1323 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1324 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1325 trace-stop-notes.
1326
d248b706
KY
1327* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1328 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1329 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1330 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1331 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1332 is running.
1333
405f8e94
SS
1334* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1335 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1336 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1337
2bda9cc5
JK
1338* New options
1339
45cfd468
DE
1340set debug dwarf2-read
1341show debug dwarf2-read
1342 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1343 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1344
1345set debug symtab-create
1346show debug symtab-create
1347 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1348 creation. The default is off.
1349
baacfb07
PM
1350set extended-prompt
1351show extended-prompt
1352 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1353 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1354 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1355 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1356 prompt is displayed.
1357
2bda9cc5
JK
1358set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1359show print entry-values
1360 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1361 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1362 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1363
1364set debug entry-values
1365show debug entry-values
1366 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1367 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1368
c011a4f4
DE
1369set basenames-may-differ
1370show basenames-may-differ
1371 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1372 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1373 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1374 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1375 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1376 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1377 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1378 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1379
f196051f
SS
1380set trace-user
1381show trace-user
1382set trace-notes
1383show trace-notes
1384 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1385 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1386 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1387 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1388
1389set trace-stop-notes
1390show trace-stop-notes
1391 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1392 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1393 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1394 started by someone else.
1395
d248b706
KY
1396* New remote packets
1397
1398QTEnable
1399
1400 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1401
1402QTDisable
1403
1404 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1405
f196051f
SS
1406QTNotes
1407
1408 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1409
1410qTP
1411
1412 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1413
405f8e94
SS
1414qTMinFTPILen
1415
1416 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1417 be placed.
1418
1a532630
PP
1419* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1420 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1421
11315641
YQ
1422* New targets
1423
1424Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1425
87326c78
DD
1426* New Simulators
1427
1428Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1429
e8d56f18
JB
1430*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1431
1432* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1433
d6e00af6 1434*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 1435
60f98dde
MS
1436* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1437 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1438 matches the given regular expression.
1439
eee5b35e
DD
1440* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1441
b716877b
AB
1442* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1443 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1444
aae1c79a
DE
1445* New command line options
1446
1447-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1448 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1449
a86caf66
DE
1450* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1451 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1452
99e7ae30
DE
1453* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1454 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1455 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1456
4694da01
TT
1457* GDB now understands thread names.
1458
1459 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1460 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1461
1462 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1463 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1464
f4b8a18d
KW
1465* OpenCL C
1466 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1467 has been integrated into GDB.
1468
585d1eb8
PM
1469* Python scripting
1470
da5d4055
PM
1471 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1472 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1473 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1474
9a6f1302
PM
1475 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1476 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1477 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1478 and allows for more dynamic content.
1479
29703da4
PM
1480 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1481 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1482 have an is_valid method.
1483
350c6c65
PM
1484 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1485 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1486 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1487
6e6fbe60
DE
1488 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1489
585d1eb8
PM
1490 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1491 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1492 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1493 that function like so:
1494
1495 result = some_value (10,20)
1496
0e3509db
DE
1497 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1498 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1499 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1500
7b51bc51
DE
1501 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1502 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1503 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1504 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1505 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1506
1507 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1508 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1509
99e7ae30
DE
1510 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1511
d8e22779
TT
1512 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1513 selected thread.
1514
4694da01
TT
1515 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1516 holds the thread's name.
1517
505500db
SW
1518 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1519 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 1520 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
1521 The following events are currently supported:
1522 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1523 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1524 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1525
def98928
TT
1526* C++ Improvements:
1527
1528 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1529 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1530
1531 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1532
1533 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1534 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1535 was added to GCC 4.5.
1536
66cb8159
TT
1537 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1538 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1539 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1540 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1541 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1542 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1543
4aac0db7
UW
1544* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1545 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1546 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1547 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1548 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1549
283e6a52
TT
1550* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1551 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1552 execution to a label.
1553
1554* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1555 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1556 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1557 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1558
b56df873 1559* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 1560 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
1561 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1562 of scope.
1563
ae53ffa4
PA
1564* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1565
1566 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1567 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1568 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1569 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1570 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1571 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1572
1573 (gdb) info threads
1574 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1575
1576 While now you see this:
1577
1578 (gdb) info threads
1579 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1580
1581 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1582 dumps.
1583
1584 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1585 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1586 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1587 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1588
f1310107
TJB
1589* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1590 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1591 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1592 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1593 section in the user manual for more details.
1594
248c9dbc
JB
1595* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1596
1aee7009
JB
1597 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1598 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 1599
eb826dc6
MF
1600 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1601
44603653
JB
1602* New native configurations
1603
1604ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1605
91021223
MF
1606* New targets:
1607
1608Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1609
6e1bb179
JB
1610* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1611 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1612 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1613 in the GDB user manual.
1614
50c97f38
TT
1615* Guile support was removed.
1616
448a92bf
MF
1617* New features in the GNU simulator
1618
1619 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1620
66ee2731
MF
1621 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1622
76b8507d 1623*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 1624
ba25b921
PA
1625* Shared library support for remote targets by default
1626
1627 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1628 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1629 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1630 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1631 was always disabled for such configurations.
1632
4656f5c6
SW
1633* C++ Improvements:
1634
1635 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1636
1637 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1638 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1639 For example:
1640 namespace A
1641 {
1642 class B { };
1643 void foo (B) { }
1644 }
1645 ...
1646 A::B b
1647 foo(b)
1648 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1649 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1650 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1651
1652 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1653
1654 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1655 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1656 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1657 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1658 entry.
1659 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1660 mentioned flavors of operators.
1661
254e6b9e
DE
1662 ** static const class members
1663
1664 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1665 class definition has been fixed.
1666
711e434b
PM
1667* Windows Thread Information Block access.
1668
1669 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1670 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1671 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1672 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1673 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1674 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1675
0fb4aa4b
PA
1676* Static tracepoints
1677
1678 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1679 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1680 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1681 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1682 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1683 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1684 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1685 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1686 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1687 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1688 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1689 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1690 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1691 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1692 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1693 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1694 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1695 the "New remote packets" section below.
1696
ca11e899
SS
1697* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1698
1699 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1700 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1701 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1702 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1703
1704* Observer mode
1705
1706 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1707 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1708 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1709 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1710 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1711 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1712 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1713
1714* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1715 current thread.
1716
711e434b
PM
1717* New remote packets
1718
1719qGetTIBAddr
1720
1721 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1722
dde08ee1
PA
1723qRelocInsn
1724
1725 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1726 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1727 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1728 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1729 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1730 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1731
0fb4aa4b
PA
1732qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1733
1734 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1735
1736qTSTMat
1737
1738 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1739 program.
1740
1741qXfer:statictrace:read
1742
1743 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1744 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1745 to gdb's qSupported query.
1746
ca11e899
SS
1747QAllow
1748
1749 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1750
1751QTDPsrc
1752
1753 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1754 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1755
3f7b2faa
DE
1756* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1757 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1758 a directory.
1759
d337e9f0
PA
1760* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1761
0fb4aa4b
PA
1762 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1763 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1764 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1765 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1766
1767 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1768 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1769 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1770 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1771 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1772 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1773 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1774
1775 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1776 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 1777
c24d0242
PM
1778 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1779
c8d5aac9
L
1780* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1781 it understands register description.
1782
7c953934
TT
1783* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1784
8685c86f
L
1785* X86 general purpose registers
1786
1787 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1788 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1789 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1790 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1791 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1792
95a42b64 1793* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
1794 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1795 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1796 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1797 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1798 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 1799
8bd10a10
CM
1800* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1801 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1802 in the specified file.
1803
ab38a727
PA
1804* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1805 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1806 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1807 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1808 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1809 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1810 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1811 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1812 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1813 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1814
6149aea9
PA
1815* New commands
1816
f1421989
HZ
1817eval template, expressions...
1818 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1819 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1820
ab38a727
PA
1821set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1822show target-file-system-kind
1823 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1824 names.
1825
6149aea9
PA
1826save breakpoints <filename>
1827 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1828 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1829 definitions, use the `source' command.
1830
1831`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1832is now deprecated.
1833
0fb4aa4b
PA
1834info static-tracepoint-markers
1835 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1836
1837strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1838 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1839 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1840
ca11e899
SS
1841set observer on|off
1842show observer
1843 Enable and disable observer mode.
1844
1845set may-write-registers on|off
1846set may-write-memory on|off
1847set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1848set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1849set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1850set may-interrupt on|off
1851 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1852 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1853 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1854 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1855 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1856 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1857 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1858
1859set record memory-query on|off
1860show record memory-query
1861 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1862 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1863
53a71c06
CR
1864* Changed commands
1865
1866disassemble
1867 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1868
f3e9a817
PM
1869* Python scripting
1870
9279c692
JB
1871** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1872 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1873 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1874 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1875 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1876
adc36818 1877** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
1878 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1879 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1880 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 1881
fa33c3cd 1882** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
1883 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1884
1885** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
1886
1887** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 1888
967cf477
DE
1889** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1890
8a1ea21f
DE
1891** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1892 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1893 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1894
a7bdde9e
VP
1895* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1896there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1897tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1898regular breakpoints.
1899
05071a4d
PA
1900* New targets
1901
1902ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1903
6aecb9c2
JB
1904* D language support.
1905 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1906 language.
1907
431e49aa
TJB
1908* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1909 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1910 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1911 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1912 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1913
1914* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1915 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1916 conditions of the form:
1917
1918 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1919
1920 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1921 interface mentioned above.
1922
bfbf3774 1923*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 1924
4eef138c
TT
1925* C++ Improvements
1926
1927 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
1928
1929 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1930 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1931 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1932 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1933 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1934
4eef138c
TT
1935 ** Bug Fixes
1936
1937 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1938 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1939 qualified name.
1940
1941 ** Cast Operators
1942
1943 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1944 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1945
2d1c1221
ME
1946* New targets
1947
1948Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 1949Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
1950
1951* New Simulators
1952
1953Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 1954Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 1955
6c95b8df
PA
1956* Multi-program debugging.
1957
1958 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1959 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1960 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1961 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1962 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1963 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1964 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1965 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1966
d5551862
SS
1967* New tracing features
1968
1969 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1970
1971 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
1972
1973 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1974 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1975 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1976 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1977 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1978 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1979 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1980 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1981 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1982 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 1983
d5551862 1984 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
1985
1986 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1987 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1988 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1989 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1990 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1991 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1992 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1993 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1994 the regular trace command.
1995
d5551862
SS
1996 ** Disconnected tracing
1997
1998 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1999 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2000 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2001 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2002 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2003
00bf0b85
SS
2004 ** Trace files
2005
2006 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2007 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2008 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2009 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2010 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2011 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2012 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
2013
2014 ** Circular trace buffer
2015
2016 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2017 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2018 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2019 not be available for all target agents.
2020
21a0512e
PP
2021* Changed commands
2022
2023disassemble
2024 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2025 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2026
0fe7935b
DJ
2027info variables
2028 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2029 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2030
fb2e7cb4
JB
2031source
2032 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2033 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2034 support.
2035
2036 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2037 "set script-extension" (see below).
2038
6c95b8df
PA
2039* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2040
399cd161
MS
2041record save [<FILENAME>]
2042 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2043 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2044
2045record restore <FILENAME>
2046 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2047 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2048
6c95b8df
PA
2049add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2050 Add a new inferior.
2051
2052clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2053 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2054 inferior has loaded.
2055
2056remove-inferior ID
2057 Remove an inferior.
2058
2059maint info program-spaces
2060 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2061
9a7071a8
JB
2062set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2063show remote interrupt-sequence
2064 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2065 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2066 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2067 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2068 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2069
2070set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2071show remote interrupt-on-connect
2072 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2073 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2074 Linux kernel.
2075
2076set remotebreak [on | off]
2077show remotebreak
2078Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2079
f61e138d
SS
2080tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2081 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2082
2083info tvariables
2084 List trace state variables and their values.
2085
2086delete tvariable $NAME ...
2087 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2088
6da95a67
SS
2089teval EXPR, ...
2090 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2091 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2092
7a697b8d
SS
2093ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2094 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2095
b0f02ee9
JK
2096* New expression syntax
2097
2098 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2099 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2100
6c95b8df
PA
2101* New options
2102
2103set follow-exec-mode new|same
2104show follow-exec-mode
2105 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2106 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2107 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2108
236f1d4d
SS
2109set default-collect EXPR, ...
2110show default-collect
2111 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2112 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2113 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2114
d5551862
SS
2115set disconnected-tracing
2116show disconnected-tracing
2117 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2118 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2119 upon disconnection.
2120
4daf5ac0
SS
2121set circular-trace-buffer
2122show circular-trace-buffer
2123 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2124 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2125 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2126 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2127
fb2e7cb4
JB
2128set script-extension off|soft|strict
2129show script-extension
2130 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2131 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2132 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2133 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2134 evaluation failed.
2135 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2136
2b71fc8e
JB
2137set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2138show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2139 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2140 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2141 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2142 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2143 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2144 is on.
2145
de2e5182
TT
2146* Python API Improvements
2147
2148 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2149 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2150 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2151
2152 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2153 `is_base_class' attribute.
2154
2155 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2156
2157 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2158 evaluate an expression.
2159
f61e138d
SS
2160* New remote packets
2161
2162QTDV
2163 Define a trace state variable.
2164
2165qTV
2166 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2167
d5551862
SS
2168QTDisconnected
2169 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2170
4daf5ac0
SS
2171QTBuffer:circular
2172 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2173
d5551862
SS
2174qTfP, qTsP
2175 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2176
2d483d34
MS
2177* Bug fixes
2178
2179Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2180
6e0e5977
JB
2181Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2182much more reliable. In particular:
2183 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2184 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2185 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2186 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2187 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2188 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2189 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2190 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2191 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2192 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2193 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2194 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2195 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2196 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2197 non-threaded programs.
2198
93c26624
JK
2199PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2200This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2201libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2202executable program.
2203
abc7453d 2204*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 2205
4efc6507
DE
2206* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2207dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2208them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2209for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2210"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2211
782b2b07
SS
2212* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2213breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2214or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2215the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2216for tracepoint actions.
2217
53a71c06
CR
2218* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2219raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2220modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 2221
e7a8dbfb
HZ
2222* Process record and replay
2223
2224 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2225 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2226 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2227 execute commands.
2228
64644d9b
MS
2229* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2230step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2231set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2232reverse execution.
2233
b9412953
DD
2234* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2235feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
22362.6.28 or later.
2237
6c7a06a3
TT
2238* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2239target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2240char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2241literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2242U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2243`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2244system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2245the installation instructions for more information.
2246
f1838a98
UW
2247* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2248remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2249with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2250the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2251
55333a84
DE
2252* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2253and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2254
7f6a6314
PM
2255* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2256now complete on file names.
2257
65d12d83
TT
2258* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2259completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2260For instance, consider:
2261
2262 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2263 # struct example variable;
2264 (gdb) p variable.
2265
2266If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2267completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2268
edb3359d
DJ
2269* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2270the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2271
2fae03e8
TT
2272* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2273operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2274macros.
2275
47a3467a 2276* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
2277the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2278implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2279
2280* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2281registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2282can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2283and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 2284
08388c79
DE
2285* New remote packets
2286
2287qSearch:memory:
2288 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2289
a6f3e723
SL
2290QStartNoAckMode
2291 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2292 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2293 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2294
d7713ae0
EZ
2295vKill
2296 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2297 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2298
07e059b5
VP
2299qXfer:osdata:read
2300 Obtains additional operating system information
2301
47a3467a
PA
2302qXfer:siginfo:read
2303qXfer:siginfo:write
2304 Read or write additional signal information.
2305
060871df
PA
2306* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2307
2308 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2309 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2310 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2311
c055b101 2312* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 2313DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
2314
2315* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
2316and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2317`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 2318
31fffb02
CS
2319* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2320with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2321
88d8a8e0
JB
2322* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2323
7f99b190
JB
2324* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2325
ccd213ac
DJ
2326* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2327which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2328
1fddbabb 2329* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 2330list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 2331
a0ef4274
DJ
2332* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2333conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2334have also been fixed.
2335
bfb8797a 2336* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
2337From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2338are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 2339
71c25dea
TT
2340* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2341example, given:
2342
2343 template<typename T> class C { };
2344 C<char const *> c;
2345
2346GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2347
2348 ptype C<char const *>
2349 ptype C<char const*>
2350 ptype C<const char *>
2351 ptype C<const char*>
2352
ccd213ac
DJ
2353* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2354
2355 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2356 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2357
7ae0e2a2
UW
2358 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2359 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2360 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2361
a6f3e723
SL
2362 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2363 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2364
da8bd9a3
DJ
2365 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2366 gdbserver.
2367
d70e31dd
DE
2368 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2369 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2370
2371 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2372 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2373 as appropriate.
2374
d57a3c85
TJB
2375* Python scripting
2376
2377 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2378 available is determined at configure time.
2379
d8906c6f
TJB
2380 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2381
aadc346a
JB
2382* Ada tasking support
2383
2384 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2385 been introduced:
2386
2387 info tasks
2388 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2389 info task N
2390 Print detailed information about task number N.
2391 task
2392 Print the task number of the current task.
2393 task N
2394 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2395
adb483fe
DJ
2396* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2397add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2398
2277426b
PA
2399* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2400
2401 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2402 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2403 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2404 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2405 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2406 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2407 below.
2408
08d16641
PA
2409* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2410"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2411information.
2412
e35359c5
UW
2413* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2414to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2415architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2416See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2417more information.
2418
85e747d2
UW
2419* Multi-architecture debugging.
2420
2421 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2422 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2423 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2424 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2425 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2426
2427* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2428use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2429Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2430powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2431--enable-targets configure option.
2432
11ade57a
PA
2433* Non-stop mode debugging.
2434
2435 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2436 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2437 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2438 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2439 section in the user manual for more information.
2440
2441 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2442 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2443 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2444 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2445 extensions on linux targets.
2446
d7713ae0 2447* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 2448
a96d9b2e
SDJ
2449catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2450 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2451 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2452 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2453 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2454 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2455 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2456 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2457 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2458
08388c79
DE
2459find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2460 val1 [, val2, ...]
2461 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2462
d57a3c85
TJB
2463maint set python print-stack
2464maint show python print-stack
2465 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2466
2467python [CODE]
2468 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2469
d7713ae0
EZ
2470macro define
2471macro list
2472macro undef
2473 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2474 interactively.
2475
2476info os processes
2477 Show operating system information about processes.
2478
2277426b
PA
2479info inferiors
2480 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2481
2482inferior NUM
2483 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2484
2485detach inferior NUM
2486 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2487
2488kill inferior NUM
2489 Kill inferior number NUM.
2490
d7713ae0
EZ
2491* New options
2492
3285f3fe
UW
2493set spu stop-on-load
2494show spu stop-on-load
2495 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2496
ff1a52c6
UW
2497set spu auto-flush-cache
2498show spu auto-flush-cache
2499 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2500 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2501
d7713ae0
EZ
2502set sh calling-convention
2503show sh calling-convention
2504 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2505
e0a3ce09 2506set debug timestamp
75feb17d 2507show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
2508 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2509
2510set disassemble-next-line
2511show disassemble-next-line
2512 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2513 the debuggee stops.
2514
2515set remote noack-packet
2516show remote noack-packet
2517 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2518 under "New remote packets."
2519
2520set remote query-attached-packet
2521show remote query-attached-packet
2522 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2523
2524set remote read-siginfo-object
2525show remote read-siginfo-object
2526 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2527 packet.
2528
2529set remote write-siginfo-object
2530show remote write-siginfo-object
2531 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2532 packet.
2533
40ab02ce
MS
2534set remote reverse-continue
2535show remote reverse-continue
2536 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2537
2538set remote reverse-step
2539show remote reverse-step
2540 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2541
d7713ae0
EZ
2542set displaced-stepping
2543show displaced-stepping
2544 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2545 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2546 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2547
2548set debug displaced
2549show debug displaced
2550 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2551
2552maint set internal-error
2553maint show internal-error
2554 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2555
2556maint set internal-warning
2557maint show internal-warning
2558 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 2559
ccd213ac
DJ
2560set exec-wrapper
2561show exec-wrapper
2562unset exec-wrapper
2563 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 2564
aad4b048
JB
2565set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2566show multiple-symbols
2567 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2568 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2569 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2570
74960c60
VP
2571set breakpoint always-inserted
2572show breakpoint always-inserted
2573 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2574 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2575 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2576
0428b8f5
DJ
2577set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2578show arm fallback-mode
2579set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2580show arm force-mode
2581 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2582 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2583 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2584 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2585
10568435
JK
2586set disable-randomization
2587show disable-randomization
2588 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2589 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2590 multiple debugging sessions.
2591
d7713ae0
EZ
2592set non-stop
2593show non-stop
2594 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2595 a breakpoint.
2596
b3eb342c 2597set target-async
d7713ae0 2598show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
2599 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2600 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2601 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2602 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2603
6c7a06a3
TT
2604set target-wide-charset
2605show target-wide-charset
2606 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2607 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2608
84603566
SL
2609set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2610show tcp auto-retry
2611set tcp connect-timeout
2612show tcp connect-timeout
2613 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2614 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2615 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2616
17a37d48
PP
2617set libthread-db-search-path
2618show libthread-db-search-path
2619 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2620 libthread_db.
2621
d4db2f36
PA
2622set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2623show schedule-multiple
2624 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2625 the current process.
2626
4e5d721f
DE
2627set stack-cache
2628show stack-cache
2629 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2630 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2631 affecting correctness.
2632
910c5da8
JB
2633set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2634show interactive-mode
2635 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2636 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2637 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2638 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2639 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2640
2277426b
PA
2641* Removed commands
2642
2643info forks
2644 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2645 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2646 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2647 command.
2648
2649fork NUM
2650 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2651 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2652 alias for the `fork' command.
2653
2654process PID
2655 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2656 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2657 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2658
2659delete fork NUM
2660 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2661 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2662 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2663 fork' command.
2664
2665detach fork NUM
2666 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2667 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2668 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2669 fork' command.
2670
a80b95ba
TG
2671* New native configurations
2672
2673x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2674
b8bfd3ed
JB
2675x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2676
75a2d5e7
TT
2677* New targets
2678
c28c63d8 2679Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 2680x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 2681x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 2682S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 2683
6de3146c
PA
2684* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2685 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2686
d5cbbe6e
JB
2687* Removed commands
2688
2689catch load
2690catch unload
2691 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2692
75feb17d 2693*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 2694
af5ca30d
NH
2695* New native configurations
2696
2697NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 2698Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
2699
2700* New targets
2701
2702NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 2703Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 2704
7a404eba
PA
2705* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2706
2707 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2708 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2709 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2710 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2711
430ebac9
PA
2712* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2713(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2714
fe6fbf8b 2715* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 2716is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
2717
2718* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
2719including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2720and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 2721
10665d76
JB
2722* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2723accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2724more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2725
7cc46491
DJ
2726* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2727
d71340b8
DJ
2728* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2729registers on PowerPC targets.
2730
523c4513
DJ
2731* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2732targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2733
a6b151f1
DJ
2734* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2735commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2736
2d717e4f
DJ
2737* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2738extended-remote mode.
2739
24a836bd 2740* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
2741The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2742error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2743The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 2744
d0c678e6
UW
2745* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2746building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2747target architectures.
2748
d64a946d
TJB
2749* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2750Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2751now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2752stored in two consecutive float registers.
2753
ee163bf5
VP
2754* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2755breakpoints now.
2756
b93b6ca7 2757* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
2758Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2759include:
b93b6ca7
JB
2760 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2761 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2762 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2763 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2764 of an assignment
2765 - Improved command completion in Ada
2766 - Several bug fixes
2767
d001be7a
DJ
2768* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2769process.
2770
a6b151f1
DJ
2771* New commands
2772
6d53d0af
JB
2773set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2774show print frame-arguments
2775 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2776 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2777
a6b151f1
DJ
2778remote put
2779remote get
2780remote delete
2781 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2782
2783* New MI commands
2784
2785-target-file-put
2786-target-file-get
2787-target-file-delete
2788 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2789
2790* New remote packets
2791
2792vFile:open:
2793vFile:close:
2794vFile:pread:
2795vFile:pwrite:
2796vFile:unlink:
2797 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 2798
2d717e4f
DJ
2799vAttach
2800 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2801 mode.
2802
2803vRun
2804 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2805
8d5f9c6f 2806*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 2807
19d378fc
MS
2808* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2809bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2810Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2811
3a40aaa0
UW
2812* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2813symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2814-Bsymbolic linker option.
2815
a6ec25f2
BW
2816* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2817recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2818is not supported.
2819
6dd09645
JB
2820* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2821frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2822
c9bb8148
DJ
2823* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
282432-bit or 64-bit register values.
2825
0d5de010
DJ
2826* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2827
23181151
DJ
2828* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2829target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2830a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2831
ea37ba09
DJ
2832* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2833automatically displayed as character or string data.
2834
2835* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2836arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2837as strings.
e1f48ead 2838
123dc839
DJ
2839* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2840for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 2841only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 2842
05a4558a
DJ
2843* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2844iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 2845
7c963485
PA
2846* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2847ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2848has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2849
b18be20d
DJ
2850* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2851
0ca420ce
UW
2852* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2853
31d99776
DJ
2854* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2855layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2856segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2857
a4642986
MR
2858* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2859immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2860
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2861* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2862"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2863packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2864where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2865Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
2866
2867* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2868(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
2869
2870* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2871according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 2872
c9bb8148
DJ
2873* New commands
2874
23776285
MR
2875set remoteflow
2876show remoteflow
2877 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2878 when debugging using remote targets.
2879
c9bb8148
DJ
2880set mem inaccessible-by-default
2881show mem inaccessible-by-default
2882 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2883 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2884 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2885 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2886 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2887
2888set breakpoint auto-hw
2889show breakpoint auto-hw
2890 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2891 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2892 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2893 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2894 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2895 including "next" and "finish".
2896
0e420bd8
JB
2897catch exception
2898catch exception unhandled
2899 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2900
2901catch assert
2902 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2903
f822c95b
DJ
2904set sysroot
2905show sysroot
2906 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2907 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2908 an alias to "set sysroot".
2909
83cc5c53
UW
2910info spu
2911 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2912 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2913 architecture.
2914
bd372731
MK
2915* New native configurations
2916
2917OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2918
23181151
DJ
2919set tdesc filename
2920unset tdesc filename
2921show tdesc filename
2922 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2923 not query the target for its built-in description.
2924
c9bb8148
DJ
2925* New targets
2926
54fe9172 2927OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 2928MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 2929Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 2930
6dd09645
JB
2931* New remote packets
2932
2933QPassSignals:
2934 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2935 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2936
23181151
DJ
2937qXfer:features:read:
2938 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2939 features.
6dd09645 2940
83cc5c53
UW
2941qXfer:spu:read:
2942qXfer:spu:write:
2943 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2944 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2945
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2946qXfer:libraries:read:
2947 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2948 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2949 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2950 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2951
483367ee
DJ
2952* Removed targets
2953
2954Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2955
d08950c4
UW
2956alpha*-*-osf1*
2957alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 2958d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
2959hppa*-*-hiux*
2960i[34567]86-ncr-*
2961i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2962i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2963i[34567]86-*-netware*
2964i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2965i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2966i[34567]86-*-sco*
2967i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2968i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2969i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2970i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2971i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2972i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2973i[34567]86-*-isc*
2974m68*-cisco*-*
2975m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 2976mips*-*-pe
483367ee 2977rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 2978sh*-*-pe
483367ee 2979
7ce59000
DJ
2980* Other removed features
2981
2982target abug
2983target cpu32bug
2984target est
2985target rom68k
2986
2987 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2988
ea35711c
DJ
2989target hms
2990target e7000
2991target sh3
2992target sh3e
2993
2994 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2995 H8/300.
2996
2997target ocd
2998
2999 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3000 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3001 interfaces.
3002
7ce59000
DJ
3003DWARF 1 support
3004
3005 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3006 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3007
54d61198
DJ
3008Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3009
3010 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3011 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3012 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3013 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3014
ea35711c
DJ
3015MIPS ".pdr" sections
3016
3017 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3018 in debugging information.
3019
3020Scheme support
3021
3022 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3023 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3024
1a69e1e4
DJ
3025set mips stack-arg-size
3026set mips saved-gpreg-size
3027
3028 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3029
6dd09645 3030*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 3031
ca3bf3bd
DJ
3032* New targets
3033
3034Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 3035Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 3036
6aec2e11
DJ
3037* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3038(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3039running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3040
3041* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3042Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3043supported.
3044
17218d91
DJ
3045* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3046broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3047
9ebce043
DJ
3048* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3049stub provides the required support.
3050
7d3d3ece
DJ
3051* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3052longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3053
4f8253f3
JB
3054* New commands
3055
3056set substitute-path
3057unset substitute-path
3058show substitute-path
3059 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3060 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3061 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3062 between compilation and debugging.
3063
9fa66fd7
AS
3064set trace-commands
3065show trace-commands
3066 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3067 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3068 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3069
1f5befc1
DJ
3070* REMOVED features
3071
3072The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3073
2ec3381a
DJ
3074Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3075an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3076
3d00d119
DJ
3077The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3078
be2a5f71
DJ
3079* New remote packets
3080
3081qSupported:
3082 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3083 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3084 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3085 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3086 target.
3087
0876f84a
DJ
3088qXfer:auxv:read:
3089 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3090 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3091
9ebce043
DJ
3092qXfer:memory-map:read:
3093 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3094 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3095
3096vFlashErase:
3097vFlashWrite:
3098vFlashDone:
3099 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3100
0876f84a
DJ
3101* Removed remote packets
3102
3103qPart:auxv:read:
3104 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3105 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3106
e374b601 3107*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 3108
96309189
MS
3109* New targets
3110
3111Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3112
3113Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3114
53e5f3cf
AS
3115* New commands
3116
3117init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3118 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3119
ac264b3b
MS
3120The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3121
3122checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3123
3124restart <n> Return the program state to a
3125 previously saved state.
3126
3127info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3128
3129delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3130
3131set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3132 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3133
3134info forks List forks of the user program that
3135 are available to be debugged.
3136
3137fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3138 forks of the user program that are
3139 available to be debugged.
3140
3141delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3142 that are available to be debugged (and
3143 kill the forked process).
3144
3145detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3146 that are available to be debugged (and
3147 allow the process to continue).
3148
3950dc3f
NS
3149* New architecture
3150
3151Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3152
0ea3f30e
DJ
3153* Improved Windows host support
3154
3155GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3156native console support, and remote communications using either
3157network sockets or serial ports.
3158
f79daebb
GM
3159* Improved Modula-2 language support
3160
3161GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3162basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3163pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3164printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3165written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3166GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3167
acab6ab2
MM
3168* REMOVED features
3169
3170The ARM rdi-share module.
3171
f4267320
DJ
3172The Netware NLM debug server.
3173
53e5f3cf 3174*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 3175
e0ecbda1
MK
3176* New native configurations
3177
02a677ac 3178OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
3179OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3180
d64a6579
KB
3181* New targets
3182
3183Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3184
b33a6190
AS
3185* New command line options
3186
3187--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3188--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3189 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3190--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3191 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3192 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3193 with the --command (-x) option.
3194
11dced61
AC
3195* Deprecated commands removed
3196
3197The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3198removed:
3199
3200 Command Replacement
3201 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3202 othernames set arm disassembler
3203 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3204 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3205 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3206 regs info registers
3207
6fe85783
MK
3208* New BSD user-level threads support
3209
3210It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3211library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3212configurations are:
3213
3214FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3215FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3216OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3217
3218Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3219are not yet supported.
3220
5260ca71
MS
3221* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3222(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3223
e84ecc99
AC
3224* REMOVED configurations and files
3225
3226VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 3227Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 3228National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 3229
31e35378
JB
3230* New "set print array-indexes" command
3231
3232After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3233when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3234behavior.
3235
e85e5c83
MK
3236* VAX floating point support
3237
3238GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3239
d91e9901
AS
3240* User-defined command support
3241
3242In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3243to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3244section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3245
f2cb65ca
MC
3246*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3247
f47b1503
AS
3248* New command line option
3249
3250GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3251debugging.
3252
f2cb65ca
MC
3253* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3254
3255GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3256information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3257by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3258proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3259to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 3260
d08c0230
AC
3261* Internationalization
3262
3263When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3264internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3265continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3266
117ea3cf
PH
3267* Ada
3268
3269Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3270implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3271into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3272
d08c0230
AC
3273* New native configurations
3274
3275GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3276
3277* Remote 'p' packet
3278
3279GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3280packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3281
3282* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3283
3284GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3285The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3286features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3287i386 application).
3288
3289GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3290compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3291continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3292configurations:
3293
3294hppa-*-hpux
3295ia64-*-aix
3296mips-*-irix*
3297*-*-lynx
3298mips-*-linux-gnu
3299sds protocol
3300xdr protocol
3301powerpc bdm protocol
3302
3303Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3304made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3305
3306* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3307
3308Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3309been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3310configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3311permanently REMOVED.
3312
3313h8300-*-*
3314mcore-*-*
3315mn10300-*-*
3316ns32k-*-*
3317sh64-*-*
3318v850-*-*
3319
ebb7c577
AC
3320*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3321
3322* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3323
3324When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3325heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3326been fixed.
3327
3328* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3329
3330When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3331fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3332IRIX long double values).
3333
3334* VAX and "next"
3335
3336A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3337command. This problem has been fixed.
3338
860660cb 3339*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 3340
0dea2468
AC
3341* Fix for ``many threads''
3342
3343On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3344rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3345error message:
3346
3347 ptrace: No such process.
3348 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3349
3350This problem has been fixed.
3351
2c07db7a
AC
3352* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3353
3354Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3355GDB to dump core).
3356
c23968a2
JB
3357* New ``start'' command.
3358
3359This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3360
71009278
MK
3361* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3362
3363Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3364live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3365platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3366
3367FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3368FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3369NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3370NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3371NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3372OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3373OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3374OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3375OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3376
3c0b7db2
AC
3377* Signal trampoline code overhauled
3378
3379Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3380These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3381of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3382call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3383signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3384
73cc75f3
AC
3385Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3386features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3387include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 3388
7243600a
BF
3389* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3390
6f606e1c
MK
3391* New native configurations
3392
97dc871c 3393GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 3394OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
3395OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3396OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 3397OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3398NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 3399OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3400
a1b461bf
AC
3401* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3402
3403GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3404The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3405including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3406migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3407compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3408work, was also included.
3409
3410GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3411module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3412
3413h8300-*-*
3414mcore-*-*
3415mn10300-*-*
3416ns32k-*-*
3417sh64-*-*
3418v850-*-*
3419xstormy16-*-*
3420
3421Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3422made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3423
3c7012f5
AC
3424* REMOVED configurations and files
3425
3426Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3427Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3428Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3429Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3430Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3431AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3432Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3433decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3434riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3435sonymips mips-sony-*
3436sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3437
e5fe55f7
AC
3438*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3439
3440* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3441
3442The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3443GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3444command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3445program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3446with GDB".
3447
3448* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3449
3450Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3451libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3452cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3453GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3454shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3455the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3456are created.
3457
3458Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3459
3460* Fixed ISO-C build problems
3461
3462The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3463non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3464compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3465
3466* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3467
3468Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3469wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3470
3471* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3472
3473The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3474permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3475systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3476
3477* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3478
3479Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3480has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3481
3482* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3483
3484GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3485its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3486panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3487
3488* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3489
3490When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3491by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3492not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3493
faae5abe 3494*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 3495
9175c9a3
MC
3496* Removed --with-mmalloc
3497
3498Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3499conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3500
3cc87ec0
MK
3501* Changes in AMD64 configurations
3502
3503The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3504the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3505and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3506you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3507
f0424ef6
MK
3508* Revised SPARC target
3509
3510The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3511FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
3512support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3513from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3514(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 3515
59659be2
ILT
3516* New C++ demangler
3517
3518GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3519names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3520with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3521programs.
3522
9e08b29b
DJ
3523* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3524
3525GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3526arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3527encountered these.
3528
8dfe8985
DC
3529* C++ nested types and namespaces
3530
3531GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3532improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3533is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3534Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3535namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3536"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3537frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3538if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3539GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3540
cced5e27
MK
3541* New native configurations
3542
3543NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 3544OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 3545OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
3546OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3547OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 3548
b4b4b794
KI
3549* New debugging protocols
3550
3551M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3552
7989c619
AC
3553* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3554
3555The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3556and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3557tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3558
5994185b
AC
3559* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3560
3561Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3562been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3563configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3564permanently REMOVED.
3565
3566Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3567Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3568Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3569Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3570Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3571AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3572Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
3573decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3574riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3575sonymips mips-sony-*
3576sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 3577
0ddabb4c
AC
3578* REMOVED configurations and files
3579
3580SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3581SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
3582Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3583Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3584H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3585HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3586HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3587HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3588PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 3589386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
3590Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3591 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3592 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
3593SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3594SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
3595Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3596Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 3597
c7f1390e
DJ
3598*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3599
1fe43d45
AC
3600* Objective-C
3601
3602Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3603integrated into GDB.
3604
e6beb428
AC
3605* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3606
3607DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3608information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3609By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3610backtraces.
3611
3612The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3613have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3614DWARF 2 CFI support.
3615
3616* Hosted file I/O.
3617
3618GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3619file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3620remote protocol documentation for details.
3621
3622* All targets using the new architecture framework.
3623
3624All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3625architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3626to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3627ppc32 on ppc64).
3628
3629* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3630
3631GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3632per-thread variables.
3633
3634* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3635
3636GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3637GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3638
3639* Separate debug info.
3640
3641GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3642automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3643of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3644system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3645and optional debug files.
3646
3647* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3648
3649DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3650describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3651debugger.
3652
3653GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3654for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3655
3656* Java
3657
3658A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3659Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3660considered "useable".
3661
85f8f974
DJ
3662* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3663
3664The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3665commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3666kernel.
3667
0fac0b41
DJ
3668* GDB supports logging output to a file
3669
3670There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3671used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 3672
6ad8ae5c
DJ
3673* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3674
3675The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3676disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3677command.
3678
e286caf2 3679* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
3680
3681The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3682registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3683
d28f9cdf
DJ
3684* Profiling support
3685
3686A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3687be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3688session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3689"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3690data, for more informative profiling results.
3691
da0f9dcd
AC
3692* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3693
3694The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3695option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 3696"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
3697
3698Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3699removed.
3700
fb9b6b35
JJ
3701Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3702Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3703Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3704 in a subsequent -var-update.
3705
954a4db8
MK
3706* New native configurations.
3707
3708FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3709
6760f9e6
JB
3710* Multi-arched targets.
3711
b4263afa 3712HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 3713Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 3714
1b831c93
AC
3715* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3716
3717Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3718been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3719configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3720permanently REMOVED.
3721
8b0e5691 3722Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 3723Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 3724H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
3725HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3726HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3727HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 3728PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
3729Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3730 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3731 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
3732Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3733Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 3734
5835abe7
NC
3735* REMOVED configurations and files
3736
3737V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
3738Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3739IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3740i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3741i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3742i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3743HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3744 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3745 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3746Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3747Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3748Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3749OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3750I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 3751
a094c6fb
AC
3752* MIPS $fp behavior changed
3753
3754The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3755the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3756context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3757address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3758The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3759
299ffc64 3760*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 3761
46248966
AC
3762* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3763
3764When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3765`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3766in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3767library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3768shared libs like mad''.
3769
b9d14705 3770* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 3771
b9d14705
DJ
3772Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3773the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3774arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3775powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 3776
e0e9281e
JB
3777* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3778
3779GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3780and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3781they expand.
3782
dd73b9bb
AC
3783The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3784invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3785
3786The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3787macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3788
e0e9281e
JB
3789Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3790information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3791your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3792information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3793
2250ee0c
CV
3794* Multi-arched targets.
3795
6e3ba3b8
JT
3796DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3797DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 3798NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 3799National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
3800Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3801Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 3802
cd9bfe15 3803* New targets.
e33ce519 3804
456f8b9d
DB
3805Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3806
e33ce519 3807
da8ca43d
JT
3808* New native configurations
3809
3810Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 3811SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 3812MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 3813UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 3814
cd9bfe15
AC
3815* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3816
3817Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3818been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3819configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3820permanently REMOVED.
3821
92eb23c5 3822Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 3823OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 3824IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 3825Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 3826Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 3827Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
3828i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3829i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3830i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
3831HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3832 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3833 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 3834I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 3835
db034ac5
AC
3836* OBSOLETE languages
3837
3838CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3839
cd9bfe15
AC
3840* REMOVED configurations and files
3841
3842AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3843A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3844AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3845AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3846AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3847
3848testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3849
20f01a46
DH
3850* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3851
3852This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3853commands. The default is 1024.
3854
a5941fbf
MK
3855* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3856
3857Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3858
89743e04
MS
3859* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3860
3861These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3862to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3863from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 3864
9fb14e79
JB
3865* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3866
3867The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3868including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3869of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3870
2037aebb
AC
3871*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3872
3873* New targets.
3874
3875Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3876
3877* Bug fixes
3878
3879gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3880mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3881Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3882
3883gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3884dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3885Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3886
3887Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3888Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3889By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3890
3891i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3892avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3893By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3894
37057839 3895*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 3896
1a703748
MS
3897* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3898
3899This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3900really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3901In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3902target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3903This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3904(notably embedded) targets.
3905
cefd4ef5
MS
3906* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3907
55241689
AC
3908This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3909process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3910GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3911hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 3912
352ed7b4
MS
3913* New command line option
3914
3915GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3916
3917* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3918
3919There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3920command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3921a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3922be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3923open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3924issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3925a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3926it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3927GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3928is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3929
fe419ffc
RE
3930* Changes in ARM configurations.
3931
3932Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3933configuration is fully multi-arch.
3934
eb7cedd9
MK
3935* New native configurations
3936
fe419ffc 3937ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 3938x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 3939AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 3940Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 3941
c9f63e6b
CV
3942* New targets
3943
3944Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3945
9b4ff276
AC
3946* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3947
3948Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3949been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3950configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3951permanently REMOVED.
3952
3953AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3954A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3955AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3956AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3957AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3958
b4ceaee6 3959testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 3960
e2caac18
AC
3961* REMOVED configurations and files
3962
3963TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 3964WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
3965PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3966PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3967PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 3968Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
3969Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3970 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 3971SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 3972Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
3973Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3974ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 3975Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 3976
c2a727fa
TT
3977* Changes to command line processing
3978
3979The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3980for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3981
467d8519
TT
3982* Changes to key bindings
3983
3984There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3985
7072a954
AC
3986*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3987
3988Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3989
3990Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3991corrupted.
3992
3993Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3994
3995Numerous documentation fixes.
3996
3997Numerous testsuite fixes.
3998
34f47bc4 3999*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
4000
4001* New native configurations
4002
4003Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4004x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 4005MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
4006MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4007ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 4008s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 4009
bf64bfd6
AC
4010* New targets
4011
def90278 4012Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 4013CRIS cris-axis
55241689 4014UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 4015
17e78a56 4016* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
4017
4018x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 4019Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
4020Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4021 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
4022TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4023WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 4024Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
4025PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4026PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4027PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 4028SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
4029Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4030ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 4031Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 4032
17e78a56
AC
4033stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4034kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4035
7fcca85b
AC
4036Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4037been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4038configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4039permanently REMOVED.
4040
a196c81c 4041* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
4042
4043Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4044Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4045Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4046ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4047Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 4048ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 4049
6d6b80e5 4050* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 4051
6d6b80e5 4052GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
4053sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4054present.
4055
bf64bfd6
AC
4056* Other news:
4057
e23194cb
EZ
4058* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4059
4060* The MI enabled by default.
4061
4062The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4063revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4064engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4065using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4066which is now deprecated.
4067
4068* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4069
4070GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4071main features are supported:
4072
4073 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4074
4075 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4076 extension;
4077
4078 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4079
4080 - a Pascal expression parser.
4081
4082However, some important features are not yet supported.
4083
4084 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4085
4086 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4087
4088 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4089 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4090
4091 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4092
4093 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4094
4095* Changes in completion.
4096
4097Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4098to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4099users expect at the shell prompt.
4100
4101Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4102`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4103program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4104files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4105be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4106considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4107name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4108
4109`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4110
4111* New platform-independent commands:
4112
4113It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4114hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4115documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4116
4117* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4118
d7275149
MK
4119Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4120revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4121many threads as your system allows you to have.
4122
e23194cb
EZ
4123Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4124
d7275149
MK
4125Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4126multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
4127
4128* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
4129
4130Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4131
e23194cb
EZ
4132GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4133debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4134supported.)
4135
4136* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4137
4138Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4139breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4140implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4141put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4142and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4143registers.
4144
4145The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4146debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4147watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4148
4149* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4150
4151New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4152the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4153
4154New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4155display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4156IDT.
4157
4158New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4159from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4160New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4161a given linear address.
4162
4163GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4164program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4165which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4166
4167DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4168
6c56c069
EZ
4169It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4170
e23194cb
EZ
4171* Changes in documentation.
4172
4173All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4174Documentation License.
4175
4176Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4177manual.
4178
4179TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4180
4181Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4182manual.
4183
4184The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4185documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4186hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4187
5d6640b1
AC
4188* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4189
4190The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4191``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4192contents of this file.
4193
1a1d8446
AC
4194* gdba.el deleted
4195
4196GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 4197
9debab2f 4198*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 4199
c63ce875
EZ
4200* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4201
4202Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4203programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4204displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4205greater level of detail.
4206
4207* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4208
4209It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4210bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4211on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4212written.
4213
4214* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4215
4216The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4217necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4218machines ``out of the box''.
4219
4220The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4221possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4222signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4223would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4224interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4225
4226It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4227standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4228even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4229and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4230terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4231
4232The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4233enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4234also works.
4235
4236DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4237GDB.
4238
4239It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4240directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4241times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4242breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4243
ed9a39eb
JM
4244* New native configurations
4245
4246ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 4247PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 4248
7a292a7a
SS
4249* New targets
4250
96baa820 4251Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
4252x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4253PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
4254TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4255
085dd6e6
JM
4256* OBSOLETE configurations
4257
4258Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4259Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 4260Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 4261ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 4262Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 4263
9debab2f
AC
4264Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4265but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4266these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4267be permanently REMOVED.
4268
5330533d
SS
4269* Gould support removed
4270
4271Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4272
bc9e5bbf
AC
4273* New features for SVR4
4274
4275On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4276without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4277load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4278
4279* Many C++ enhancements
4280
4281C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4282in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4283
adf40b2e
JM
4284* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4285
4286A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4287sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4288with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4289``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4290
4291 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4292 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4293
43e526b9
JM
4294* MIPS 64 remote protocol
4295
4296A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4297expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4298instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4299
4300The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4301added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4302
96baa820
JM
4303* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4304
4305The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4306``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4307include ``set remote P-packet''.
4308
11cf8741
JM
4309* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4310
4311The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4312accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4313``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4314
7876dd43
DB
4315* ``apropos'' command added.
4316
4317The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4318documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4319try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4320
bc9e5bbf
AC
4321* New MI interface
4322
4323A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4324interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
4325process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4326"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4327enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
4328
4329 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4330
c906108c
SS
4331*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4332
4333* New native configurations
4334
4335HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4336HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 4337M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
4338
4339* New targets
4340
4341Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4342Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4343Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4344
4345* OBSOLETE configurations
4346
4347Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4348
4349Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4350but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4351these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4352be permanently REMOVED.
4353
4354* ANSI/ISO C
4355
4356As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4357buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4358containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4359use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4360available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4361configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4362information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4363already.
4364
4365* Readline 2.2
4366
4367GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4368
4369* set extension-language
4370
4371You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4372languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4373you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4374 set extension-language .c c++
4375The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4376and their associated languages.
4377
4378* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4379
4380When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4381you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4382PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4383
4384 set processor NAME
4385
4386sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4387following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4388
4389 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4390 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4391 403 IBM PowerPC 403
4392 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4393 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4394 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4395 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4396 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4397 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4398 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4399 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4400
4401At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4402special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4403registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4404only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4405
4406* HP-UX support
4407
4408Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4409more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4410library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4411support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4412for xdb and dbx commands.
4413
4414* Catchpoints
4415
4416HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4417generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4418to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4419
4420This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4421argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4422output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4423
4424* Debugging across forks
4425
4426On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4427in the inferior.
4428
4429* TUI
4430
4431HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4432it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4433configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4434
4435* GDB remote protocol additions
4436
4437A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4438Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4439fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4440allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4441
4442For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4443full 64-bit address. The command
4444
4445 set remoteaddresssize 32
4446
4447can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4448the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4449will be discarded.
4450
4451In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4452command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4453
4454 maint packet heythere
4455
4456sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4457disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4458time.
4459
4460The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4461target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4462downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4463
4464* Tracing can collect general expressions
4465
4466You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4467further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4468doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4469
4470* mask-address variable for Mips
4471
4472For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4473a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4474of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4475
4476* Higher serial baud rates
4477
4478GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4479230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4480to achieve all of these rates.)
4481
4482* i960 simulator
4483
4484The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4485builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4486
4487
4488*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4489
4490* New native configurations
4491
4492Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4493Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4494Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4495PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4496PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4497Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4498Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4499
4500* New targets
4501
4502Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4503Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4504Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4505Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4506MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4507MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4508MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4509Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4510Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4511Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4512NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4513
4514* New debugging protocols
4515
4516ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4517M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4518DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4519PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4520PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4521Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4522
4523* DWARF 2
4524
4525All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4526format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4527information.
4528
4529* Java frontend
4530
4531GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4532only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4533
4534* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4535
4536For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4537loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4538locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4539
4540* Live range splitting
4541
4542GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4543range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4544more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4545
4546* Hurd support
4547
4548GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4549updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4550
4551* ARM Thumb support
4552
4553GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4554instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4555instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4556accordingly.
4557
4558* MIPS16 support
4559
4560GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4561instruction set.
4562
4563* Overlay support
4564
4565GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4566linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4567will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4568control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4569additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4570in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4571
4572* info symbol
4573
4574The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4575the symbol at the specified address.
4576
4577* Trace support
4578
4579The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4580asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4581extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4582includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4583file tracepoint.c for more details.
4584
4585* MIPS simulator
4586
4587Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4588by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4589of most MIPS variants.
4590
4591* Sparc simulator
4592
4593Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4594by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4595Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4596
4597* set architecture
4598
4599For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4600basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4601architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4602the possible architectures.
4603
4604*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4605
4606* New native configurations
4607
4608Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4609M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4610PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4611PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4612PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4613RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4614
4615* New targets
4616
4617ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4618I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4619MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4620MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4621PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4622Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4623Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4624
4625* PowerPC simulator
4626
4627The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4628contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4629PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4630basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4631performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4632
4633* Solaris 2.5
4634
4635GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4636
4637* Windows 95/NT native
4638
4639GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4640To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4641which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4642Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4643ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4644
4645* dont-repeat command
4646
4647If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4648command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4649useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4650extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4651
4652* Send break instead of ^C
4653
4654The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4655rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4656GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4657
4658* Remote protocol timeout
4659
4660The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4661that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4662to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4663
4664* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4665
4666By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4667loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4668stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4669when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4670in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4671
4672Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4673/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4674automatically on hpux10.
4675
4676* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4677
4678Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4679
4680* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4681
4682When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4683may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4684the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4685every character. The default value is 1050.
4686
4687* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4688
4689If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4690a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4691replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4692details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4693remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4694to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4695
4696* Speedups for remote debugging
4697
4698GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4699the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4700and more efficient S-record downloading.
4701
4702* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4703
4704GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4705Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4706
4707*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4708
4709* Psymtabs for XCOFF
4710
4711The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4712can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4713
4714* Remote targets use caching
4715
4716Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4717remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4718it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4719debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4720off' turns the the data cache off.
4721
4722* Remote targets may have threads
4723
4724The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4725in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4726gdb/remote.c for details.
4727
4728* NetROM support
4729
4730If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4731support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4732acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4733write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4734support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4735another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4736sequence is something like
4737
4738 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4739 load <prog>
4740 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4741
4742* Macintosh host
4743
4744GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4745may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4746it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4747available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4748device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4749directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4750scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4751mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4752
4753* Autoconf
4754
4755GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4756but does simplify configuration and building.
4757
4758* hpux10
4759
4760GDB now supports hpux10.
4761
4762*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4763
4764* New native configurations
4765
4766x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4767x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4768NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4769Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4770
4771* New targets
4772
4773A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4774HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4775CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4776PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4777WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4778
4779* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4780
4781GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4782possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4783filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4784the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4785if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4786
4787* Arguments to user-defined commands
4788
4789User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4790Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4791trivial example:
4792define adder
4793 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4794
4795To execute the command use:
4796adder 1 2 3
4797
4798Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4799Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4800use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4801
4802* New `if' and `while' commands
4803
4804This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4805commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4806expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4807execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4808terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4809`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4810if the expression is zero.
4811
4812* Fortran source language mode
4813
4814GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4815Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4816variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4817with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4818Fortran compilers.
4819
4820* Better HPUX support
4821
4822Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4823running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4824processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4825for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4826that behavior do the following before running the program:
4827
4828 adb -w a.out
4829 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4830 control-d
4831
4832This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4833To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4834
4835 adb -w a.out
4836 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4837 control-d
4838
4839You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4840the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4841external linkage.
4842
4843GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4844HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4845
4846* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4847
4848You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4849commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4850current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4851"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4852associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4853configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4854
4855* New DOS host serial code
4856
4857This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4858no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4859a PC's serial port.
4860
4861*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4862
4863* New "complete" command
4864
4865This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4866were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4867
4868* Trailing space optional in prompt
4869
4870"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4871allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4872
4873* Breakpoint hit counts
4874
4875"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4876has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4877can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4878to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4879less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4880that breakpoint.
4881
4882* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4883
4884"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4885an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4886arrays actually contain only short strings.
4887
4888* Shared library breakpoints
4889
4890In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4891breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4892
4893* Hardware watchpoints
4894
4895There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4896targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4897
55241689 4898Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
4899
4900* Annotations
4901
4902Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4903and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4904
4905* Improved Irix 5 support
4906
4907GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4908
4909* Improved HPPA support
4910
4911GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4912
4913* New native configurations
4914
4915Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4916HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4917Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4918RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4919
4920* New targets
4921
4922OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4923MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4924Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4925
4926* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4927
4928There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4929This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4930
4931* Fixes
4932
4933As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4934and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4935
4936*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4937
4938* Irix 5 is now supported
4939
4940* HPPA support
4941
4942GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4943to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4944GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4945of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4946can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4947
4948
4949*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4950
4951* User visible changes:
4952
4953* Remote Debugging
4954
4955The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4956target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4957debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4958integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4959debugging info for the mips target).
4960
4961* DEC Alpha native support
4962
4963GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4964debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4965work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4966Alpha-specific notes.
4967
4968* Preliminary thread implementation
4969
4970GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4971
4972* LynxOS native and target support for 386
4973
4974This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4975to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4976for details).
4977
4978* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4979
4980This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4981mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4982call methods, ...etc.
4983
4984*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4985
4986 * User visible changes:
4987
4988Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4989supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4990other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4991somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4992
4993Filename completion now works.
4994
4995When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4996arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4997addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4998
4999All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5000vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5001should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5002your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5003to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5004
5005 * DEC alpha support
5006
5007This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5008cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5009
5010
5011*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5012
5013 * Testsuite
5014
5015This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5016The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5017via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5018
5019 * C++ demangling
5020
5021'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5022emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5023Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5024disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5025use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5026
5027 * Simulators
5028
5029GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5030So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5031Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5032
5033 * New targets supported
5034
5035H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5036H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5037SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5038Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5039IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5040
5041Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5042version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5043GO32 memory extender.
5044
5045 * New remote protocols
5046
5047MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5048
5049 * New source languages supported
5050
5051This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5052used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5053into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5054
5055
5056*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5057
5058 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5059
5060GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5061version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5062University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5063compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5064format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5065(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5066
5067Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5068
5069 * Faster and better demangling
5070
5071We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5072demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5073character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5074only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5075This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5076increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5077symbol lookups.
5078
5079`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5080from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5081compiler does not actually implement.
5082
5083 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5084
5085In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5086inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5087recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5088very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5089The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5090circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5091fix.
5092
5093The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5094release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5095
5096 * Improved configure script
5097
5098The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5099you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5100host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5101done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5102
5103We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5104version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5105`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5106The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5107only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5108We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5109
5110 * Documentation improvements
5111
5112There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5113produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5114before submitting changes.
5115
5116The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5117M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5118`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5119you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5120a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5121
5122*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5123We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5124been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5125or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5126`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5127around this problem.
5128
5129 * New features
5130
5131GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5132the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5133`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5134the target program.
5135
5136The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5137how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5138
5139 * New native hosts supported
5140
5141HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5142386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5143
5144 * New targets supported
5145
5146AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5147
5148 * New file formats supported
5149
5150BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5151HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5152
5153 * Major bug fixes
5154
5155Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5156
5157We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5158printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5159
5160We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5161for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5162release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5163
5164You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5165will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5166
5167We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5168for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5169especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5170libraries.
5171
5172The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5173information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5174command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5175any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5176when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5177
5178 * Internal improvements
5179
5180GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5181debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5182
5183GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5184Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5185symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5186contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5187shared code that handles any of them.
5188
5189 * New command line options
5190
5191We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5192
5193 * Mmalloc licensing
5194
5195The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5196General Public License.
5197
5198*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5199
5200 * Host/native/target split
5201
5202GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5203hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5204target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5205local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5206ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5207
5208The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5209GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5210is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5211code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5212any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5213built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5214handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5215
5216GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5217It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5218plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5219
5220 * New hosts supported
5221
5222HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5223386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5224386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5225
5226 * New targets supported
5227
5228Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
522968030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5230
5231 * New native hosts supported
5232
5233386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5234 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5235386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5236
5237 * New file formats supported
5238
5239BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5240supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5241format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5242
5243 * New commands
5244
5245`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5246`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5247These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5248
5249`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5250
5251You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5252scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5253prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5254executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5255
5256 * C++ improvements
5257
5258We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5259info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5260symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5261
5262Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5263
5264 * Major bug fixes
5265
5266The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5267fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5268by the compiler.
5269
5270We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5271support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5272
5273John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5274slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5275that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5276purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5277the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5278mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5279
5280Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5281about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5282completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5283we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5284
5285 * AMD 29k support
5286
5287A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5288specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5289calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5290usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5291in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5292
5293We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5294Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5295of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5296resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5297
5298 * Remote interfaces
5299
5300We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5301with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5302message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5303This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5304needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5305breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5306each instruction being stepped through.
5307
5308The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5309registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5310
5311There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5312find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5313Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5314processor with a serial port.
5315
5316 * Configuration
5317
5318Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5319`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5320supported, and what files each one uses.
5321
5322 * Library changes
5323
5324There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5325disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5326Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5327disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5328
5329The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5330Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5331can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5332grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5333
5334 * Documentation
5335
5336The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5337reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5338as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5339encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5340system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5341bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5342
5343And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5344
5345
5346*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5347
5348 * Better support for C++ function names
5349
5350GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5351names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5352(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5353single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5354Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5355
5356GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5357the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5358You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5359lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5360for the list of formats.
5361
5362 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5363
5364Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5365C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5366directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5367can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5368usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5369about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5370this problem.)
5371
5372 * New 'maintenance' command
5373
5374All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5375the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5376can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5377
5378 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5379 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5380 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5381 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5382 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5383 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5384
5385The following commands are new:
5386
5387 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5388 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5389 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5390
5391 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5392
5393We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5394(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5395be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5396read after argv processing.
5397
5398 * New hosts supported
5399
5400Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5401
55241689 5402GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
5403
5404We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5405is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5406for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5407masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5408fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5409It costs extra.
5410
5411 * New targets supported
5412
5413Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5414
5415 * More smarts about finding #include files
5416
5417GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5418all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5419greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5420especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5421the one that contains your sources.
5422
5423We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5424breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5425try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5426
5427 * Interesting infernals change
5428
5429GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5430section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5431target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5432stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5433
5434 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5435
5436There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5437 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5438 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5439
5440See the ChangeLog for details.
5441
5442*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5443
5444 * New machines supported (host and target)
5445
5446IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5447
5448SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5449
5450 * New malloc package
5451
5452GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5453Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5454capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5455This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5456pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5457more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5458
5459 * info proc
5460
5461The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5462'help info proc' for details.
5463
5464 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5465
5466The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5467Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5468possible.
5469
5470 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5471
5472Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5473support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5474conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5475environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5476that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5477in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5478
5479 * Cross byte order fixes
5480
5481Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5482targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5483
5484 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5485
5486If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5487system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5488`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5489program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5490called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5491Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5492and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5493the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5494option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5495starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5496
5497You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5498the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5499information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5500slower, but makes future operations faster.
5501
5502The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5503build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5504A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5505use is:
5506
5507 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5508
5509The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5510It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5511shared across multiple host platforms.
5512
5513 * longjmp() handling
5514
5515GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5516siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5517all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5518platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5519
5520 * Solaris 2.0
5521
5522Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5523this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5524reading symbols.
5525
5526 * Bug fixes
5527
5528As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5529People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5530crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5531
5532*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5533
5534 * New machines supported (host and target)
5535
5536SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5537 (except core files)
5538BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5539Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5540
5541 * New machines supported (target)
5542
5543AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5544
5545 * C++ support
5546
5547GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5548The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5549per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5550
5551GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5552`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5553extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5554good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5555will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5556released.
5557
5558 * New features for SVR4
5559
5560GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5561shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5562only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5563
5564The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5565on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5566it prints the address mappings of the process.
5567
5568If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5569bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5570
5571 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5572
5573Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5574now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5575skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5576make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5577same code linked statically.
5578
5579 * New Getopt
5580
5581GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5582version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5583continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5584Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5585added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5586future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5587
5588 * Bugs fixed
5589
5590The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5591Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5592See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5593
5594
5595*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5596
5597 * New machines supported (host and target)
5598
5599Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5600NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5601Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5602
5603 * Almost SCO Unix support
5604
5605We had hoped to support:
5606SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5607(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5608that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5609about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5610
5611 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5612
5613GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5614debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5615is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5616send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5617reqired (if any).
5618
5619 * New Readline
5620
5621GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5622is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5623required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5624
5625 * Bugs fixed
5626
5627The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5628Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5629See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5630
5631 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5632
5633GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5634supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5635symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5636
5637Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5638mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5639debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5640mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5641version 2.
5642
5643Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5644really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5645line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5646variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5647situation somewhat.
5648
5649When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5650However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5651methods.
5652
5653We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5654DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5655encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5656
5657
5658*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5659
5660 * Improved configuration
5661
5662Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5663Porting BFD is simpler.
5664
5665 * Stepping improved
5666
5667The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5668of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5669in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5670function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5671
5672 * Bug fixing
5673
5674Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5675
5676 * New host supported (not target)
5677
5678Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5679
5680
5681*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5682
5683 * Multiple source language support
5684
5685GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5686It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5687and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5688language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5689You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5690`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5691
5692 * GDB and Modula-2
5693
5694GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5695currently under development at the State University of New York at
5696Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5697continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5698
5699Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5700debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5701symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5702
5703There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5704in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5705
5706 * set write on/off
5707
5708GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5709a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5710the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5711by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5712effect immediately.
5713
5714 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5715
5716When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5717shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5718The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5719examining core files.
5720
5721 * set listsize
5722
5723You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5724The default is 10.
5725
5726 * New machines supported (host and target)
5727
5728SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5729Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5730Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5731
5732 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5733
5734IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5735
5736 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5737
5738AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5739AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5740Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5741
5742 * New remote interfaces
5743
5744AMD 29000 Adapt
5745AMD 29000 Minimon
5746
5747
5748*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5749
5750 * New Facilities
5751
5752Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5753
5754Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5755target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5756is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5757remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5758remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5759also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5760using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5761stub on the target system.
5762
5763New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5764
5765GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5766library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5767object file types such as a.out and coff.
5768
5769There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5770refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5771
5772
5773 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5774
5775All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5776by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5777
5778For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5779``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5780Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5781
5782What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5783print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5784will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5785all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5786
5787confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5788 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5789 it is already running. Default is ON.
5790
5791editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5792 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5793 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5794 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5795 Default is ON.
5796
5797history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5798 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5799 or the value of the environment variable
5800 GDBHISTFILE.
5801
5802history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5803 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5804 HISTSIZE.
5805
5806history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5807 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5808 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5809
5810history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5811 history expansion will be performed on
5812 command line input. The default is OFF.
5813
5814radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5815 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5816 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5817
5818height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5819 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5820 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5821 variable TERM.
5822
5823width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5824 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5825 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5826 variable TERM.
5827
5828Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5829``set width'' instead.
5830
5831print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5832 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5833 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5834 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5835
5836print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5837 is OFF.
5838
5839print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5840 "raw" form if off.
5841
5842print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5843 like instructions.
5844
5845print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5846
5847
5848 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5849
5850The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5851new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5852are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5853window.
5854
5855
5856 * Support for Shared Libraries
5857
5858GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5859Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5860before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5861happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5862At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5863from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5864shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5865It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5866
5867sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5868 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5869 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5870
5871info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5872
5873
5874 * Watchpoints
5875
5876A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5877expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5878tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5879quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5880problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5881more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5882
5883watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5884
5885info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5886
5887delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5888disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5889enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5890
5891
5892 * C++ multiple inheritance
5893
5894When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5895for C++ programs.
5896
5897 * C++ exception handling
5898
5899Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5900ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5901the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5902handler's context).
5903
5904catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5905 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5906 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5907
5908info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5909 current stack frame.
5910
5911
5912 * Minor command changes
5913
5914The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5915command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5916is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5917
5918The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5919at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5920frames without printing.
5921
5922 * New directory command
5923
5924'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5925The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5926about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5927with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5928find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5929
5930 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5931
5932For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5933for more details.
5934
5935GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5936two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5937Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5938where the program that you are debugging will run.