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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
3b2f13ff 4*** Changes since GDB 7.9
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5=======
6
7* GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
8 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
9 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
10 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
11 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
12 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
13 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
3b2f13ff 14
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15* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
16 cpu information :
17 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
18
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19* GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
20 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
21 remote serial I/O.
22
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23* The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
24 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
25 and may include things like its command line arguments.
26
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27* Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
28 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
29 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
30 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
31 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
32 backward compatibility.
33
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34* Python Scripting
35
36 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
37 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
38 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
d11916aa 39 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
3a8b707a 40
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41* New commands
42
43maint print symbol-cache
44 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
45
46maint print symbol-cache-statistics
47 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
48
49maint flush-symbol-cache
50 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
51
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52record btrace bts
53record bts
54 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
55
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56* New options
57
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58set max-completions
59show max-completions
60 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
61 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
62 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
63 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
64
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65maint set symbol-cache-size
66maint show symbol-cache-size
67 Control the size of the symbol cache.
68
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69set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
70 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
71 BTS format.
72 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
73 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
74
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75* The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
76 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
77
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78* Python/Guile scripting
79
80 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
81 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
82
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83* New remote packets
84
85qXfer:btrace-conf:read
86 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
87
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88Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
89 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
90
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91swbreak stop reason
92 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
93 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
94 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
95 mode operation.
96
97hwbreak stop reason
98 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
99 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
100
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101vFile:fstat:
102 Return information about files on the remote system.
103
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104* The info record command now shows the recording format and the
105 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
106 the btrace record target.
107 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
108
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109* GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
110 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
111
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112* GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
113 targets.
114
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115* Removed command line options
116
117-xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
118
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119* Removed targets and native configurations
120
121HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
122Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
123
3b2f13ff 124*** Changes in GDB 7.9
919b9a93 125
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126* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
127
5f3b99cf 128* Python Scripting
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129
130 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
131 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
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132 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
133 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
a0be3e44 134 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
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135 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
136 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
86e4ed39 137 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
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138 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
139 selecting a new file to debug.
02be9a71 140 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
6dddd6a5 141 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
5f3b99cf 142
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143 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
144 inferior.
145
146 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
147 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
148 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
149 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
150
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151* New Python-based convenience functions:
152
153 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
154 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
155 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
156 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
157
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158* GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
159 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
160 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
161 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
162 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
163 interface with this new feature are:
164
165 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
166 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
167
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168* New commands
169
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170demangle [-l language] [--] name
171 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
172 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
173 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
174 as "maint demangler-warning".
175
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176queue-signal signal-name-or-number
177 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
178
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179add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
180 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
181 scripts.
182
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183maint print user-registers
184 List all currently available "user" registers.
185
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186compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
187 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
188 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
189
190compile file [-r|-raw] filename
191 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
192 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
193 provided.
194
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195* On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
196 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
197 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
198 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
199 at resume time.
200
201* Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
202 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
203 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
204 switched threads meanwhile.
205
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206* "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
207
208 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
209 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
210 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
211 is now the default mode.
212
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213* New options
214
215set debug symbol-lookup
216show debug symbol-lookup
217 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
218
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219* MI changes
220
221 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
222 inferiors that have exited.
223
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224* New targets
225
226MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
227
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228* Removed targets
229
230Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
231
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232Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
233SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
234SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
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235VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
236VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
3831839c 237
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238* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
239 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
240 its alias "share", instead.
241
919b9a93 242*** Changes in GDB 7.8
e9475ead 243
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244* New command line options
245
246-D data-directory
247 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
248
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249* GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
250 as specified in ISO C99.
251
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252* The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
253 with or without disassembly.
b7bba001 254
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255* Guile scripting
256
257 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
258 available is determined at configure time.
259 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
260 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
261
262* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
263
264guile [code]
265gu [code]
266 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
267
268guile-repl
269gr
270 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
271
272info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
273 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
274
275* The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
276 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
277
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278* New options
279
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280set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
281show print symbol-loading
282 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
283 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
284 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
285 becomes less useful.
286
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287set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
288show guile print-stack
289 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
290
291set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
292show auto-load guile-scripts
293 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
294
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295maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
296maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
297 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
298 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
299 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
300 usage of this option.
301
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302set auto-connect-native-target
303
304 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
305 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
306 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
307
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308set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
309show record btrace replay-memory-access
310 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
311
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312maint set target-async (on|off)
313maint show target-async
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314 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
315 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
329ea579 316 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
5784b3ca 317 occurring only in synchronous mode.
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318
319set mi-async (on|off)
320show mi-async
321 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
322 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
323
324* "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
325 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
326
327* Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
328 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
329 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
330 "set target-async on" command.
331
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332* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
333
334 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
335 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
336 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
337 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
338 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
339
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340* The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
341 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
342 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
343
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344* The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
345 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
346 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
347 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
348 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
349 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
350 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
351
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352* The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
353 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
354
066ce621 355* The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
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356 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
357 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
066ce621 358
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359* The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
360 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
361 memory or registers.
362
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363* The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
364
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365* The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
366 remote. It now works with all targets.
367
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368* All native targets are now consistently called "native".
369 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
370 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
371 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
372 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
373 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
374 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
375 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
376 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
377 target-stack".
378
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379* The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
380 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
381 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
382
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383* GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
384
385* Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
386 Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers
387 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
388
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389* New remote packets
390
391qXfer:btrace:read's annex
392 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
393 branch trace incrementally.
394
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395* Python Scripting
396
397 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
398 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
399 available.
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400 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
401 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
402 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
403 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
404 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
f7bd0f78 405
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406* New targets
407PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
408
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409* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
410 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
411 its alias "share", instead.
412
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413* The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
414 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
415 instead.
416
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417* MI changes
418
419 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
420 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
421 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
422 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
423 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
424 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
425 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
426 commands and CLI execution commands.
427
b7bba001 428*** Changes in GDB 7.7
2d450646 429
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430* Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
431 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
432 recording has been added.
433
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434* GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
435
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436* GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
437 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
438
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439* New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
440 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
441 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
442 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
443 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
444 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
445 "void".
446
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447* The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
448
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449* The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
450
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451* GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
452 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
453 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
454 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
455
456 (gdb) p $rax
457 $1 = <not saved>
458
459 (gdb) info registers rax
460 rax <not saved>
461
462 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
463 "*value not available*".
464
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465* New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
466 to binaries.
467
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468* Python scripting
469
470 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
f76c27b5 471 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
bc79de95 472 ** Line tables representation has been added.
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473 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
474 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
c0d48811 475 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1e611234 476
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477* New targets
478
479Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
480Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
42059f0e 481Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
a1217d97 482
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483* Removed native configurations
484
485Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
486been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
487
488arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
489i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
490i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
491i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
492m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
493sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
494vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
495
bd712aed 496* New commands:
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497catch rethrow
498 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
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499maint check-psymtabs
500 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
501maint check-symtabs
502 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
503maint expand-symtabs
504 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
b340913d 505
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506show configuration
507 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
508
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509maint set|show per-command
510maint set|show per-command space
511maint set|show per-command time
512maint set|show per-command symtab
513 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
514
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515remove-symbol-file FILENAME
516remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
517 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
518 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
519 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
520
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521info exceptions
522info exceptions REGEXP
523 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
524 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
525 are listed.
526
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527* New options
528
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529set debug symfile off|on
530show debug symfile
531 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
532 symbol tables within those files
533
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534set print raw frame-arguments
535show print raw frame-arguments
536 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
537 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
538
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539set remote trace-status-packet
540show remote trace-status-packet
541 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
542
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543set debug nios2
544show debug nios2
545 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
546
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547set range-stepping
548show range-stepping
549 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
550
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551set startup-with-shell
552show startup-with-shell
553 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
554 directly.
555
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556set code-cache
557show code-cache
558 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
559 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
560
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561* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
562 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
563 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
564 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
565 "set height 0".
566
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567* The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
568 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
569 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
570
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571* New command-line options
572--configuration
573 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
574
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575* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
576 buffer in Common Trace Format.
577
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578* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
579 GDB command gcore.
580
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581* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
582
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583* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
584 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
585
586* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
587 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
588
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589* The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
590 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
591 due to an uncaught signal.
592
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593* MI changes
594
403cb6b1 595 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
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596 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
597 command, which should contain "language-option".
403cb6b1 598
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599 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
600 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
601
2ea126fa
JB
602 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
603 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
604 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
605 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
606 "undefined-command-error-code".
607
d0353e76
YQ
608 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
609 Trace Format now.
610
c5867ab6
HZ
611 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
612
c898adb7
YQ
613 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
614 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
615 are displayed.
616
dc673c81
YQ
617 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
618 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
619
6211c335
YQ
620 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
621 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
622 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
623
5713b9b5
JB
624 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
625 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
626 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
72bfa06c
JB
627 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
628 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
629 "exec-run-start-option".
5713b9b5 630
40555925
JB
631 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
632 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
633
58d06528
JB
634 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
635 the new "info exceptions" command.
636
0201faac
JB
637* New system-wide configuration scripts
638 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
639 configuration scripts for the following systems:
640 ** ElinOS
641 ** Wind River Linux
642
c1e36e3e
PA
643* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
644 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
645 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
646 below.
647
28a93511
YQ
648* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
649 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
650
4ac33720
UW
651* On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
652 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
653 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
654
c1e36e3e
PA
655* New remote packets
656
657vCont;r
658
659 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
660 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
661 involvemement at each single-step.
662
7f91dbec
GB
663qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
664 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
665 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
666 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
667 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
668 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
669 speedup.
670
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PA
671* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
672
673 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
674 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
675
28a93511
YQ
676 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
677 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
678 trace state variables.
679
7a60ad40
YQ
680 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
681 target.
682
6fbe845e
AB
683* New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
684 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
685
9058cc3a
TG
686* GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
687
0d12017b
JB
688* The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
689 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
690 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
691 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
692
2d450646 693*** Changes in GDB 7.6
80c8d323 694
59ea5688
MM
695* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
696 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
697 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
698 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
699
700set|show record full insn-number-max
701set|show record full stop-at-limit
702set|show record full memory-query
703
704* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
705 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
706 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
707 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
708 This new recording method can be enabled using:
709
710record btrace
711
712 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
713 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
714
715* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
716 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
717 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
718
719record instruction-history prints the execution history at
720 instruction granularity
721
722record function-call-history prints the execution history at
723 function granularity
724
543bf33d
AT
725* New native configurations
726
51d66578 727ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 728FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4f4352f7 729x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 730Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 731
249729c4
JB
732* New targets
733
51d66578
MS
734ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
735ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 736Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 737x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 738Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249729c4 739
e64e0392
DE
740* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
741 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
742 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
743 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
744 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
745 --data-directory command-line option.
746
07540c15
DE
747* New command line options:
748
749-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
750 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
751
e93a8774
TT
752* Removed command line options
753
754-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
755 Emacs.
756
53342f27
TT
757* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
758 type formatting.
759
451b7c33
TT
760* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
761
a72c3253
DE
762* Python scripting
763
764 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
765
d7de8e3c
TT
766 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
767
18a9fc12
TT
768 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
769
9a27f2c6
PK
770 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
771
bea883fd
SCR
772 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
773 of architecture in the Python API.
774
775 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
776 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
777
a72c3253
DE
778* New Python-based convenience functions:
779
780 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
781 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
782 ** $_strlen(str)
783 ** $_regex(str, regex)
784
f3c8a52a
JK
785* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
786 given an argument.
787
1605ef26
TT
788* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
789 default for GCC since November 2000.
790
504b36fd
YQ
791* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
792
f2a8bc8a
YQ
793* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
794 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
795
23a80689
JB
796* New configure options
797
798--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
799 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
800 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
801 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
802 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
803 options allow the user to override that default.
393fd4c3
YQ
804--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
805 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
806 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
23a80689 807
d6b28940
TT
808* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
809
ab04a2af
TT
810catch signal
811 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
812 conditions to be attached.
813
d6b28940
TT
814maint info bfds
815 List the BFDs known to GDB.
816
8315665e
YPK
817python-interactive [command]
818pi [command]
819 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
820 and print the result of expressions.
821
822py [command]
823 "py" is a new alias for "python".
824
18a9fc12
TT
825enable type-printer [name]...
826disable type-printer [name]...
827 Enable or disable type printers.
828
aa9259cc
TS
829* Removed commands
830
831 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
832 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
833 instead.
834
53342f27
TT
835* New options
836
837set print type methods (on|off)
838show print type methods
839 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
840 The default is to show them.
841
842set print type typedefs (on|off)
843show print type typedefs
844 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
845 The default is to show them.
846
1b56eb55
JK
847set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
848show filename-display
849 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
850 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
851
e9f1758d
PA
852set trace-buffer-size
853show trace-buffer-size
854 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
855
a46c1e42
PA
856set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
857show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
858 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
859
be9a8770
PA
860set debug aarch64
861show debug aarch64
862 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
863 The default is off.
864
865set debug coff-pe-read
866show debug coff-pe-read
867 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
868 exported symbols.
869
870set debug mach-o
871show debug mach-o
872 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
873 processing.
874
875set debug notification
876show debug notification
877 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
878
5b9afe8a
YQ
879* MI changes
880
881 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
882 "=cmd-param-changed".
201b4506
YQ
883 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
884 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
134a2066
YQ
885 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
886 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
887 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
82a90ccf
YQ
888 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
889 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
8de0566d
YQ
890 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
891 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d 892 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
ec83d211 893 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
62747a60
TT
894 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
895 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3fa7bf06
MG
896 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
897 library load/unload events.
f2a8bc8a
YQ
898 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
899 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
900 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
f5911ea1
HAQ
901 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
902 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
903 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
ec83d211
JK
904 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
905 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
5b9afe8a 906
608e2dbb
TT
907* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
908 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
909 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
910 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
911
f6f899bf
HAQ
912* New remote packets
913
914QTBuffer:size
915 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
916 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
917
10782d74
MM
918Qbtrace:bts
919 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
920 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
921 qSupported query.
922
923Qbtrace:off
924 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
925 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
926
927qXfer:btrace:read
928 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
929 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
930
80c8d323 931*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 932
1b3371b1
L
933* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
934 for more x32 ABI info.
935
d0e64392
MR
936* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
937
4cc0665f
MR
938* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
939
85d4a676
SS
940* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
941 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
942 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
943 "info os files" lists file descriptors
944 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
945 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
946 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
947 "info os msg" lists message queues
948 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
949
55aa24fb
SDJ
950* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
951 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
952 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
953 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
954 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
955 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
956
72508ac0
PO
957* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
958 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
959 record/replay support.
960
16899756
DE
961* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
962
4795f398
DE
963* Python scripting
964
7d74f244
DE
965 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
966 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
967
4795f398
DE
968 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
969
50897289
TT
970 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
971 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
972
64e7d9dd
TT
973 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
974
975 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
976 the source at which the symbol was defined.
977
f0823d2c
TT
978 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
979 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
980 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
981 symbol's value.
982
7b282c5a
SCR
983 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
984 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
985
a20ee7a4
SCR
986 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
987 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
988 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
989
7efc75aa
SCR
990 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
991 object associated with a PC value.
992
ee0bf529
SCR
993 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
994 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
995
a766d390
DE
996* Go language support.
997 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
998 language.
999
e0f9f062
DE
1000* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1001 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1002
217bff3e
JK
1003* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1004 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1005
cafec441
TT
1006* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
1007 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
1008 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
1009 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
1010 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
1011 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
1012
4aac40c8
TT
1013* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
1014 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
1015 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
1016 build/libcpp/expr.c.
1017
d99bd577
UW
1018* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
1019 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
1020
53fe1783
GB
1021* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
1022 since December 2007.
1023
e41eec66
JB
1024* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
1025 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
1026 command does. For instance:
1027
1028 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
1029
1030 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
1031 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
1032 created, using the "condition" command.
1033
5808517f
YQ
1034* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
1035 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
1036
481860b3
GB
1037* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
1038
1039* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
1040 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
1041 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
e615022a
DE
1042 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
1043 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
1044 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
1045 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
1046 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 1047
156942c7
DE
1048 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
1049 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
1050 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
1051 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
1052 the .gdb_index section.
1053
927fbba6
JB
1054* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1055
20388dd6
YQ
1056* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1057 target.
1058
f3e0e960
SS
1059* MI changes
1060
1061 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1062
37ce89eb
SS
1063 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1064
edcc5120
TT
1065* New commands
1066
e615022a
DE
1067 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1068 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1069 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1070
edcc5120
TT
1071 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1072 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1073
816338b5
SS
1074 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1075 several hits.
1076
57651221 1077 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
c4aeac85
TT
1078 C++ and Java objects.
1079
06fc020f 1080 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
6ea71545 1081 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
06fc020f
SCR
1082 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1083 configured with '--with-python'.
1084
bf88dd68
JK
1085 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1086 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1087 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1088 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1089 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1090 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1091 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1092
1093 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1094 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1095 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1096 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1097
e7e0cddf
SS
1098 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1099 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1100 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1101 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1102
9cb709b6
TT
1103 ** "set print symbol"
1104 "show print symbol"
1105 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1106 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1107 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1108
2d4c29c5
TS
1109* Deprecated commands
1110
1111 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1112 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1113
a58b110a
KB
1114* New targets
1115
1116Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 1117HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 1118
72895ff6
LM
1119* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1120 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1121 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1122 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1123 evaluates to true.
1124
1125* New options
1126
4cc0665f
MR
1127set mips compression
1128show mips compression
1129 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1130 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1131 mips16
1132 micromips
1133 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1134
72895ff6
LM
1135set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1136show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 1137 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
5b43fab2
JK
1138 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1139 available mode.
72895ff6
LM
1140 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1141 target.
1142
bf88dd68
JK
1143set auto-load off
1144 Disable auto-loading globally.
1145
1146show auto-load
1147 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1148
1149set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1150show auto-load gdb-scripts
1151 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1152
1153set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1154show auto-load python-scripts
1155 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1156
1157set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1158show auto-load local-gdbinit
1159 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1160
1161set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1162show auto-load libthread-db
1163 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1164
7349ff92 1165set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 1166show auto-load scripts-directory
7349ff92
JK
1167 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1168 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1169 of the directories listed by this option.
1170 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1171
bccbefd2
JK
1172set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1173show auto-load safe-path
1174 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1175 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1176
4dc84fd1
JK
1177set debug auto-load on|off
1178show debug auto-load
1179 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1180
d3ce09f5 1181set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 1182show dprintf-style
d3ce09f5
SS
1183 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1184 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1185 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1186 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
e7e0cddf
SS
1187
1188set dprintf-function <expr>
1189show dprintf-function
1190set dprintf-channel <expr>
1191show dprintf-channel
1192 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1193 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1194
d3ce09f5
SS
1195set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1196show disconnected-dprintf
1197 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1198 after GDB disconnects.
1199
6dea1fbd
JK
1200* New configure options
1201
7349ff92
JK
1202--with-auto-load-dir
1203 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1564a261
JK
1204 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1205 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1206 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1207 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 1208
6dea1fbd
JK
1209--with-auto-load-safe-path
1210 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 1211 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
6dea1fbd
JK
1212
1213--without-auto-load-safe-path
1214 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1215 security feature.
1216
72895ff6
LM
1217* New remote packets
1218
74c48cbb
PA
1219z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1220
72895ff6
LM
1221 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1222 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1223 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1224 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1225
9b224c5e
PA
1226QProgramSignals:
1227
1228 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1229 program without GDB involvement.
1230
8320cc4f
JK
1231* New command line options
1232
1233--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1234 before loading inferior.
1235--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1236 execute it before loading inferior.
1237
8837a20f
JB
1238*** Changes in GDB 7.4
1239
f8eba3c6
TT
1240* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1241 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1242 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1243 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1244 inferior changes.
1245
1bfeeb0f
JL
1246* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1247 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1248
480a3f21
PW
1249* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1250 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1251 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1252 target hardware watchpoint.
1253
1254 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1255 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1256 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1257 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1258
3a7bf607
PM
1259* Python scripting
1260
32d1c362 1261 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 1262 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
1263 existing one.
1264
3a7bf607 1265 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
1266 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1267 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1268 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1269 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1270 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 1271
baacfb07 1272 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 1273 Python API.
713389e0 1274
fa3a4f15
PM
1275 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1276 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 1277 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
fa3a4f15
PM
1278 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1279 corresponding value.
1280
5e239b84
PM
1281 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1282 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1283 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1284 on GDB start-up.
1285
9df2fbc4
PM
1286 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1287 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1288 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1289 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1290
457e09f0
DE
1291 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1292
6839b47f
KP
1293 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1294 "gdb.breakpoints".
1295
cc72b2a2
KP
1296 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1297 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1298 available in the CLI.
1299
84ad80e6
PK
1300 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1301 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1302 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1303 "some_type.items()".
1304
20c168b5
KP
1305 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1306 new object file.
1307
03c3051a
PK
1308 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1309 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1310 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1311 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1312 any anonymous fields.
1313
7376e450
TT
1314* MI changes
1315
1316 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1317 "solib-event".
1318
1319 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1320 "=breakpoint-modified".
1321
1322 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1323
98a5dd13
DE
1324* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1325 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1326 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1327 lives.
1328
1329 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1330 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1331 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1332 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1333 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1334
1335 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1336 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1337
478aac75
DE
1338* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1339 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1340 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1341 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1342 use this option to specify where to find it.
1343
9c06b0b4
TJB
1344* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1345 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1346 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1347 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1348 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1349 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1350 section in the user manual for more details.
1351
03f2bd59
JK
1352* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1353 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1354 become available after that.
1355
71eba9c2 1356* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 1357
2bda9cc5
JK
1358* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1359 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1360 gcc version 4.7.
1361
ed59ded5
DE
1362* New commands
1363
1364!SHELL COMMAND
1365 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1366 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1367
9c06b0b4
TJB
1368* Changed commands
1369
1370watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1371 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1372 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1373
dbaefcf7
DE
1374info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1375 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1376 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1377
71eba9c2 1378info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1379 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1380 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1381 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1382 name starts with a hyphen.
1383
3065dfb6
SS
1384collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1385 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1386 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1387 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1388 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1389 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1390 number of bytes that will be collected.
1391
f196051f
SS
1392tstart [NOTES]
1393 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1394 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1395 setting the variable trace-notes.
1396
1397tstop [NOTES]
1398 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1399 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1400 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1401 trace-stop-notes.
1402
d248b706
KY
1403* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1404 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1405 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1406 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1407 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1408 is running.
1409
405f8e94
SS
1410* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1411 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1412 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1413
2bda9cc5
JK
1414* New options
1415
45cfd468
DE
1416set debug dwarf2-read
1417show debug dwarf2-read
1418 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1419 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1420
1421set debug symtab-create
1422show debug symtab-create
1423 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1424 creation. The default is off.
1425
baacfb07
PM
1426set extended-prompt
1427show extended-prompt
1428 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1429 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1430 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1431 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1432 prompt is displayed.
1433
2bda9cc5
JK
1434set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1435show print entry-values
1436 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1437 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1438 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1439
1440set debug entry-values
1441show debug entry-values
1442 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1443 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1444
c011a4f4
DE
1445set basenames-may-differ
1446show basenames-may-differ
1447 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1448 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1449 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1450 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1451 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1452 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1453 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1454 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1455
f196051f
SS
1456set trace-user
1457show trace-user
1458set trace-notes
1459show trace-notes
1460 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1461 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1462 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1463 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1464
1465set trace-stop-notes
1466show trace-stop-notes
1467 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1468 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1469 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1470 started by someone else.
1471
d248b706
KY
1472* New remote packets
1473
1474QTEnable
1475
1476 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1477
1478QTDisable
1479
1480 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1481
f196051f
SS
1482QTNotes
1483
1484 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1485
1486qTP
1487
1488 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1489
405f8e94
SS
1490qTMinFTPILen
1491
1492 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1493 be placed.
1494
1a532630
PP
1495* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1496 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1497
11315641
YQ
1498* New targets
1499
1500Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1501
87326c78
DD
1502* New Simulators
1503
1504Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1505
e8d56f18
JB
1506*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1507
1508* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1509
d6e00af6 1510*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 1511
60f98dde
MS
1512* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1513 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1514 matches the given regular expression.
1515
eee5b35e
DD
1516* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1517
b716877b
AB
1518* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1519 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1520
aae1c79a
DE
1521* New command line options
1522
1523-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1524 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1525
a86caf66
DE
1526* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1527 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1528
99e7ae30
DE
1529* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1530 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1531 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1532
4694da01
TT
1533* GDB now understands thread names.
1534
1535 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1536 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1537
1538 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1539 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1540
f4b8a18d
KW
1541* OpenCL C
1542 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1543 has been integrated into GDB.
1544
585d1eb8
PM
1545* Python scripting
1546
da5d4055
PM
1547 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1548 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1549 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1550
9a6f1302
PM
1551 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1552 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1553 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1554 and allows for more dynamic content.
1555
29703da4
PM
1556 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1557 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1558 have an is_valid method.
1559
350c6c65
PM
1560 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1561 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1562 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1563
6e6fbe60
DE
1564 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1565
585d1eb8
PM
1566 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1567 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1568 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1569 that function like so:
1570
1571 result = some_value (10,20)
1572
0e3509db
DE
1573 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1574 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1575 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1576
7b51bc51
DE
1577 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1578 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1579 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1580 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1581 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1582
1583 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1584 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1585
99e7ae30
DE
1586 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1587
d8e22779
TT
1588 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1589 selected thread.
1590
4694da01
TT
1591 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1592 holds the thread's name.
1593
505500db
SW
1594 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1595 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 1596 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
1597 The following events are currently supported:
1598 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1599 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1600 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1601
def98928
TT
1602* C++ Improvements:
1603
1604 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1605 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1606
1607 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1608
1609 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1610 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1611 was added to GCC 4.5.
1612
66cb8159
TT
1613 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1614 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1615 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1616 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1617 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1618 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1619
4aac0db7
UW
1620* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1621 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1622 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1623 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1624 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1625
283e6a52
TT
1626* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1627 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1628 execution to a label.
1629
1630* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1631 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1632 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1633 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1634
b56df873 1635* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 1636 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
1637 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1638 of scope.
1639
ae53ffa4
PA
1640* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1641
1642 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1643 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1644 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1645 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1646 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1647 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1648
1649 (gdb) info threads
1650 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1651
1652 While now you see this:
1653
1654 (gdb) info threads
1655 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1656
1657 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1658 dumps.
1659
1660 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1661 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1662 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1663 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1664
f1310107
TJB
1665* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1666 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1667 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1668 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1669 section in the user manual for more details.
1670
248c9dbc
JB
1671* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1672
1aee7009
JB
1673 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1674 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 1675
eb826dc6
MF
1676 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1677
44603653
JB
1678* New native configurations
1679
1680ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1681
91021223
MF
1682* New targets:
1683
1684Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1685
6e1bb179
JB
1686* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1687 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1688 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1689 in the GDB user manual.
1690
50c97f38
TT
1691* Guile support was removed.
1692
448a92bf
MF
1693* New features in the GNU simulator
1694
1695 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1696
66ee2731
MF
1697 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1698
76b8507d 1699*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 1700
ba25b921
PA
1701* Shared library support for remote targets by default
1702
1703 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1704 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1705 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1706 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1707 was always disabled for such configurations.
1708
4656f5c6
SW
1709* C++ Improvements:
1710
1711 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1712
1713 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1714 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1715 For example:
1716 namespace A
1717 {
1718 class B { };
1719 void foo (B) { }
1720 }
1721 ...
1722 A::B b
1723 foo(b)
1724 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1725 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1726 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1727
1728 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1729
1730 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1731 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1732 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1733 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1734 entry.
1735 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1736 mentioned flavors of operators.
1737
254e6b9e
DE
1738 ** static const class members
1739
1740 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1741 class definition has been fixed.
1742
711e434b
PM
1743* Windows Thread Information Block access.
1744
1745 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1746 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1747 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1748 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1749 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1750 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1751
0fb4aa4b
PA
1752* Static tracepoints
1753
1754 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1755 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1756 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1757 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1758 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1759 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1760 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1761 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1762 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1763 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1764 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1765 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1766 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1767 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1768 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1769 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1770 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1771 the "New remote packets" section below.
1772
ca11e899
SS
1773* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1774
1775 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1776 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1777 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1778 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1779
1780* Observer mode
1781
1782 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1783 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1784 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1785 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1786 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1787 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1788 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1789
1790* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1791 current thread.
1792
711e434b
PM
1793* New remote packets
1794
1795qGetTIBAddr
1796
1797 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1798
dde08ee1
PA
1799qRelocInsn
1800
1801 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1802 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1803 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1804 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1805 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1806 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1807
0fb4aa4b
PA
1808qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1809
1810 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1811
1812qTSTMat
1813
1814 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1815 program.
1816
1817qXfer:statictrace:read
1818
1819 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1820 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1821 to gdb's qSupported query.
1822
ca11e899
SS
1823QAllow
1824
1825 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1826
1827QTDPsrc
1828
1829 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1830 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1831
3f7b2faa
DE
1832* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1833 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1834 a directory.
1835
d337e9f0
PA
1836* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1837
0fb4aa4b
PA
1838 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1839 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1840 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1841 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1842
1843 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1844 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1845 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1846 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1847 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1848 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1849 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1850
1851 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1852 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 1853
c24d0242
PM
1854 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1855
c8d5aac9
L
1856* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1857 it understands register description.
1858
7c953934
TT
1859* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1860
8685c86f
L
1861* X86 general purpose registers
1862
1863 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1864 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1865 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1866 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1867 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1868
95a42b64 1869* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
1870 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1871 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1872 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1873 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1874 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 1875
8bd10a10
CM
1876* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1877 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1878 in the specified file.
1879
ab38a727
PA
1880* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1881 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1882 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1883 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1884 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1885 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1886 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1887 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1888 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1889 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1890
6149aea9
PA
1891* New commands
1892
f1421989
HZ
1893eval template, expressions...
1894 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1895 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1896
ab38a727
PA
1897set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1898show target-file-system-kind
1899 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1900 names.
1901
6149aea9
PA
1902save breakpoints <filename>
1903 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1904 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1905 definitions, use the `source' command.
1906
1907`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1908is now deprecated.
1909
0fb4aa4b
PA
1910info static-tracepoint-markers
1911 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1912
1913strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1914 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1915 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1916
ca11e899
SS
1917set observer on|off
1918show observer
1919 Enable and disable observer mode.
1920
1921set may-write-registers on|off
1922set may-write-memory on|off
1923set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1924set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1925set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1926set may-interrupt on|off
1927 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1928 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1929 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1930 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1931 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1932 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1933 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1934
1935set record memory-query on|off
1936show record memory-query
1937 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1938 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1939
53a71c06
CR
1940* Changed commands
1941
1942disassemble
1943 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1944
f3e9a817
PM
1945* Python scripting
1946
9279c692
JB
1947** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1948 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1949 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1950 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1951 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1952
adc36818 1953** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
1954 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1955 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1956 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 1957
fa33c3cd 1958** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
1959 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1960
1961** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
1962
1963** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 1964
967cf477
DE
1965** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1966
8a1ea21f
DE
1967** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1968 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1969 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1970
a7bdde9e
VP
1971* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1972there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1973tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1974regular breakpoints.
1975
05071a4d
PA
1976* New targets
1977
1978ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1979
6aecb9c2
JB
1980* D language support.
1981 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1982 language.
1983
431e49aa
TJB
1984* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1985 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1986 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1987 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1988 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1989
1990* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1991 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1992 conditions of the form:
1993
1994 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1995
1996 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1997 interface mentioned above.
1998
bfbf3774 1999*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 2000
4eef138c
TT
2001* C++ Improvements
2002
2003 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
2004
2005 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
2006 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
2007 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
2008 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
2009 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
2010
4eef138c
TT
2011 ** Bug Fixes
2012
2013 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
2014 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
2015 qualified name.
2016
2017 ** Cast Operators
2018
2019 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
2020 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
2021
2d1c1221
ME
2022* New targets
2023
2024Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 2025Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
2026
2027* New Simulators
2028
2029Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 2030Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 2031
6c95b8df
PA
2032* Multi-program debugging.
2033
2034 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
2035 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
2036 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
2037 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
2038 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
2039 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
2040 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
2041 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
2042
d5551862
SS
2043* New tracing features
2044
2045 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
2046
2047 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
2048
2049 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
2050 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
2051 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
2052 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2053 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2054 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2055 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2056 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2057 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2058 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 2059
d5551862 2060 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
2061
2062 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2063 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2064 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2065 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2066 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2067 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2068 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2069 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2070 the regular trace command.
2071
d5551862
SS
2072 ** Disconnected tracing
2073
2074 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2075 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2076 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2077 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2078 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2079
00bf0b85
SS
2080 ** Trace files
2081
2082 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2083 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2084 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2085 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2086 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2087 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2088 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
2089
2090 ** Circular trace buffer
2091
2092 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2093 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2094 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2095 not be available for all target agents.
2096
21a0512e
PP
2097* Changed commands
2098
2099disassemble
2100 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2101 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2102
0fe7935b
DJ
2103info variables
2104 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2105 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2106
fb2e7cb4
JB
2107source
2108 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2109 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2110 support.
2111
2112 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2113 "set script-extension" (see below).
2114
6c95b8df
PA
2115* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2116
399cd161
MS
2117record save [<FILENAME>]
2118 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2119 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2120
2121record restore <FILENAME>
2122 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2123 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2124
6c95b8df
PA
2125add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2126 Add a new inferior.
2127
2128clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2129 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2130 inferior has loaded.
2131
2132remove-inferior ID
2133 Remove an inferior.
2134
2135maint info program-spaces
2136 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2137
9a7071a8
JB
2138set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2139show remote interrupt-sequence
2140 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2141 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2142 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2143 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2144 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2145
2146set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2147show remote interrupt-on-connect
2148 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2149 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2150 Linux kernel.
2151
2152set remotebreak [on | off]
2153show remotebreak
2154Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2155
f61e138d
SS
2156tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2157 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2158
2159info tvariables
2160 List trace state variables and their values.
2161
2162delete tvariable $NAME ...
2163 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2164
6da95a67
SS
2165teval EXPR, ...
2166 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2167 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2168
7a697b8d
SS
2169ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2170 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2171
b0f02ee9
JK
2172* New expression syntax
2173
2174 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2175 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2176
6c95b8df
PA
2177* New options
2178
2179set follow-exec-mode new|same
2180show follow-exec-mode
2181 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2182 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2183 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2184
236f1d4d
SS
2185set default-collect EXPR, ...
2186show default-collect
2187 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2188 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2189 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2190
d5551862
SS
2191set disconnected-tracing
2192show disconnected-tracing
2193 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2194 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2195 upon disconnection.
2196
4daf5ac0
SS
2197set circular-trace-buffer
2198show circular-trace-buffer
2199 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2200 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2201 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2202 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2203
fb2e7cb4
JB
2204set script-extension off|soft|strict
2205show script-extension
2206 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2207 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2208 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2209 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2210 evaluation failed.
2211 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2212
2b71fc8e
JB
2213set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2214show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2215 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2216 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2217 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2218 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2219 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2220 is on.
2221
de2e5182
TT
2222* Python API Improvements
2223
2224 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2225 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2226 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2227
2228 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2229 `is_base_class' attribute.
2230
2231 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2232
2233 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2234 evaluate an expression.
2235
f61e138d
SS
2236* New remote packets
2237
2238QTDV
2239 Define a trace state variable.
2240
2241qTV
2242 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2243
d5551862
SS
2244QTDisconnected
2245 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2246
4daf5ac0
SS
2247QTBuffer:circular
2248 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2249
d5551862
SS
2250qTfP, qTsP
2251 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2252
2d483d34
MS
2253* Bug fixes
2254
2255Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2256
6e0e5977
JB
2257Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2258much more reliable. In particular:
2259 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2260 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2261 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2262 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2263 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2264 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2265 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2266 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2267 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2268 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2269 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2270 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2271 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2272 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2273 non-threaded programs.
2274
93c26624
JK
2275PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2276This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2277libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2278executable program.
2279
abc7453d 2280*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 2281
4efc6507
DE
2282* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2283dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2284them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2285for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2286"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2287
782b2b07
SS
2288* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2289breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2290or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2291the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2292for tracepoint actions.
2293
53a71c06
CR
2294* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2295raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2296modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 2297
e7a8dbfb
HZ
2298* Process record and replay
2299
2300 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2301 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2302 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2303 execute commands.
2304
64644d9b
MS
2305* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2306step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2307set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2308reverse execution.
2309
b9412953
DD
2310* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2311feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
23122.6.28 or later.
2313
6c7a06a3
TT
2314* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2315target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2316char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2317literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2318U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2319`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2320system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2321the installation instructions for more information.
2322
f1838a98
UW
2323* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2324remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2325with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2326the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2327
55333a84
DE
2328* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2329and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2330
7f6a6314
PM
2331* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2332now complete on file names.
2333
65d12d83
TT
2334* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2335completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2336For instance, consider:
2337
2338 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2339 # struct example variable;
2340 (gdb) p variable.
2341
2342If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2343completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2344
edb3359d
DJ
2345* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2346the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2347
2fae03e8
TT
2348* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2349operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2350macros.
2351
47a3467a 2352* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
2353the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2354implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2355
2356* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2357registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2358can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2359and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 2360
08388c79
DE
2361* New remote packets
2362
2363qSearch:memory:
2364 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2365
a6f3e723
SL
2366QStartNoAckMode
2367 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2368 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2369 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2370
d7713ae0
EZ
2371vKill
2372 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2373 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2374
07e059b5
VP
2375qXfer:osdata:read
2376 Obtains additional operating system information
2377
47a3467a
PA
2378qXfer:siginfo:read
2379qXfer:siginfo:write
2380 Read or write additional signal information.
2381
060871df
PA
2382* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2383
2384 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2385 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2386 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2387
c055b101 2388* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 2389DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
2390
2391* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
2392and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2393`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 2394
31fffb02
CS
2395* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2396with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2397
88d8a8e0
JB
2398* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2399
7f99b190
JB
2400* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2401
ccd213ac
DJ
2402* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2403which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2404
1fddbabb 2405* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 2406list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 2407
a0ef4274
DJ
2408* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2409conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2410have also been fixed.
2411
bfb8797a 2412* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
2413From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2414are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 2415
71c25dea
TT
2416* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2417example, given:
2418
2419 template<typename T> class C { };
2420 C<char const *> c;
2421
2422GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2423
2424 ptype C<char const *>
2425 ptype C<char const*>
2426 ptype C<const char *>
2427 ptype C<const char*>
2428
ccd213ac
DJ
2429* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2430
2431 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2432 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2433
7ae0e2a2
UW
2434 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2435 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2436 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2437
a6f3e723
SL
2438 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2439 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2440
da8bd9a3
DJ
2441 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2442 gdbserver.
2443
d70e31dd
DE
2444 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2445 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2446
2447 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2448 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2449 as appropriate.
2450
d57a3c85
TJB
2451* Python scripting
2452
2453 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2454 available is determined at configure time.
2455
d8906c6f
TJB
2456 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2457
aadc346a
JB
2458* Ada tasking support
2459
2460 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2461 been introduced:
2462
2463 info tasks
2464 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2465 info task N
2466 Print detailed information about task number N.
2467 task
2468 Print the task number of the current task.
2469 task N
2470 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2471
adb483fe
DJ
2472* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2473add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2474
2277426b
PA
2475* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2476
2477 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2478 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2479 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2480 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2481 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2482 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2483 below.
2484
08d16641
PA
2485* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2486"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2487information.
2488
e35359c5
UW
2489* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2490to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2491architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2492See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2493more information.
2494
85e747d2
UW
2495* Multi-architecture debugging.
2496
2497 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2498 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2499 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2500 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2501 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2502
2503* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2504use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2505Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2506powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2507--enable-targets configure option.
2508
11ade57a
PA
2509* Non-stop mode debugging.
2510
2511 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2512 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2513 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2514 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2515 section in the user manual for more information.
2516
2517 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2518 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2519 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2520 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2521 extensions on linux targets.
2522
d7713ae0 2523* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 2524
a96d9b2e
SDJ
2525catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2526 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2527 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2528 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2529 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2530 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2531 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2532 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2533 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2534
08388c79
DE
2535find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2536 val1 [, val2, ...]
2537 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2538
d57a3c85
TJB
2539maint set python print-stack
2540maint show python print-stack
2541 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2542
2543python [CODE]
2544 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2545
d7713ae0
EZ
2546macro define
2547macro list
2548macro undef
2549 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2550 interactively.
2551
2552info os processes
2553 Show operating system information about processes.
2554
2277426b
PA
2555info inferiors
2556 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2557
2558inferior NUM
2559 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2560
2561detach inferior NUM
2562 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2563
2564kill inferior NUM
2565 Kill inferior number NUM.
2566
d7713ae0
EZ
2567* New options
2568
3285f3fe
UW
2569set spu stop-on-load
2570show spu stop-on-load
2571 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2572
ff1a52c6
UW
2573set spu auto-flush-cache
2574show spu auto-flush-cache
2575 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2576 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2577
d7713ae0
EZ
2578set sh calling-convention
2579show sh calling-convention
2580 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2581
e0a3ce09 2582set debug timestamp
75feb17d 2583show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
2584 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2585
2586set disassemble-next-line
2587show disassemble-next-line
2588 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2589 the debuggee stops.
2590
2591set remote noack-packet
2592show remote noack-packet
2593 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2594 under "New remote packets."
2595
2596set remote query-attached-packet
2597show remote query-attached-packet
2598 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2599
2600set remote read-siginfo-object
2601show remote read-siginfo-object
2602 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2603 packet.
2604
2605set remote write-siginfo-object
2606show remote write-siginfo-object
2607 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2608 packet.
2609
40ab02ce
MS
2610set remote reverse-continue
2611show remote reverse-continue
2612 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2613
2614set remote reverse-step
2615show remote reverse-step
2616 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2617
d7713ae0
EZ
2618set displaced-stepping
2619show displaced-stepping
2620 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2621 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2622 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2623
2624set debug displaced
2625show debug displaced
2626 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2627
2628maint set internal-error
2629maint show internal-error
2630 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2631
2632maint set internal-warning
2633maint show internal-warning
2634 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 2635
ccd213ac
DJ
2636set exec-wrapper
2637show exec-wrapper
2638unset exec-wrapper
2639 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 2640
aad4b048
JB
2641set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2642show multiple-symbols
2643 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2644 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2645 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2646
74960c60
VP
2647set breakpoint always-inserted
2648show breakpoint always-inserted
2649 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2650 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2651 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2652
0428b8f5
DJ
2653set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2654show arm fallback-mode
2655set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2656show arm force-mode
2657 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2658 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2659 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2660 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2661
10568435
JK
2662set disable-randomization
2663show disable-randomization
2664 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2665 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2666 multiple debugging sessions.
2667
d7713ae0
EZ
2668set non-stop
2669show non-stop
2670 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2671 a breakpoint.
2672
b3eb342c 2673set target-async
d7713ae0 2674show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
2675 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2676 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2677 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2678 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2679
6c7a06a3
TT
2680set target-wide-charset
2681show target-wide-charset
2682 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2683 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2684
84603566
SL
2685set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2686show tcp auto-retry
2687set tcp connect-timeout
2688show tcp connect-timeout
2689 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2690 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2691 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2692
17a37d48
PP
2693set libthread-db-search-path
2694show libthread-db-search-path
2695 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2696 libthread_db.
2697
d4db2f36
PA
2698set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2699show schedule-multiple
2700 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2701 the current process.
2702
4e5d721f
DE
2703set stack-cache
2704show stack-cache
2705 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2706 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2707 affecting correctness.
2708
910c5da8
JB
2709set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2710show interactive-mode
2711 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2712 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2713 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2714 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2715 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2716
2277426b
PA
2717* Removed commands
2718
2719info forks
2720 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2721 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2722 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2723 command.
2724
2725fork NUM
2726 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2727 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2728 alias for the `fork' command.
2729
2730process PID
2731 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2732 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2733 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2734
2735delete fork NUM
2736 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2737 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2738 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2739 fork' command.
2740
2741detach fork NUM
2742 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2743 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2744 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2745 fork' command.
2746
a80b95ba
TG
2747* New native configurations
2748
2749x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2750
b8bfd3ed
JB
2751x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2752
75a2d5e7
TT
2753* New targets
2754
c28c63d8 2755Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 2756x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 2757x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 2758S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 2759
6de3146c
PA
2760* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2761 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2762
d5cbbe6e
JB
2763* Removed commands
2764
2765catch load
2766catch unload
2767 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2768
75feb17d 2769*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 2770
af5ca30d
NH
2771* New native configurations
2772
2773NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 2774Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
2775
2776* New targets
2777
2778NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 2779Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 2780
7a404eba
PA
2781* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2782
2783 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2784 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2785 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2786 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2787
430ebac9
PA
2788* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2789(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2790
fe6fbf8b 2791* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 2792is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
2793
2794* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
2795including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2796and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 2797
10665d76
JB
2798* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2799accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2800more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2801
7cc46491
DJ
2802* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2803
d71340b8
DJ
2804* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2805registers on PowerPC targets.
2806
523c4513
DJ
2807* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2808targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2809
a6b151f1
DJ
2810* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2811commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2812
2d717e4f
DJ
2813* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2814extended-remote mode.
2815
24a836bd 2816* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
2817The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2818error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2819The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 2820
d0c678e6
UW
2821* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2822building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2823target architectures.
2824
d64a946d
TJB
2825* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2826Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2827now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2828stored in two consecutive float registers.
2829
ee163bf5
VP
2830* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2831breakpoints now.
2832
b93b6ca7 2833* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
2834Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2835include:
b93b6ca7
JB
2836 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2837 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2838 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2839 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2840 of an assignment
2841 - Improved command completion in Ada
2842 - Several bug fixes
2843
d001be7a
DJ
2844* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2845process.
2846
a6b151f1
DJ
2847* New commands
2848
6d53d0af
JB
2849set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2850show print frame-arguments
2851 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2852 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2853
a6b151f1
DJ
2854remote put
2855remote get
2856remote delete
2857 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2858
2859* New MI commands
2860
2861-target-file-put
2862-target-file-get
2863-target-file-delete
2864 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2865
2866* New remote packets
2867
2868vFile:open:
2869vFile:close:
2870vFile:pread:
2871vFile:pwrite:
2872vFile:unlink:
2873 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 2874
2d717e4f
DJ
2875vAttach
2876 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2877 mode.
2878
2879vRun
2880 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2881
8d5f9c6f 2882*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 2883
19d378fc
MS
2884* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2885bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2886Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2887
3a40aaa0
UW
2888* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2889symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2890-Bsymbolic linker option.
2891
a6ec25f2
BW
2892* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2893recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2894is not supported.
2895
6dd09645
JB
2896* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2897frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2898
c9bb8148
DJ
2899* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
290032-bit or 64-bit register values.
2901
0d5de010
DJ
2902* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2903
23181151
DJ
2904* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2905target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2906a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2907
ea37ba09
DJ
2908* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2909automatically displayed as character or string data.
2910
2911* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2912arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2913as strings.
e1f48ead 2914
123dc839
DJ
2915* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2916for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 2917only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 2918
05a4558a
DJ
2919* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2920iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 2921
7c963485
PA
2922* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2923ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2924has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2925
b18be20d
DJ
2926* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2927
0ca420ce
UW
2928* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2929
31d99776
DJ
2930* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2931layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2932segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2933
a4642986
MR
2934* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2935immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2936
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2937* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2938"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2939packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2940where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2941Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
2942
2943* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2944(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
2945
2946* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2947according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 2948
c9bb8148
DJ
2949* New commands
2950
23776285
MR
2951set remoteflow
2952show remoteflow
2953 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2954 when debugging using remote targets.
2955
c9bb8148
DJ
2956set mem inaccessible-by-default
2957show mem inaccessible-by-default
2958 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2959 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2960 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2961 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2962 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2963
2964set breakpoint auto-hw
2965show breakpoint auto-hw
2966 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2967 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2968 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2969 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2970 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2971 including "next" and "finish".
2972
0e420bd8
JB
2973catch exception
2974catch exception unhandled
2975 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2976
2977catch assert
2978 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2979
f822c95b
DJ
2980set sysroot
2981show sysroot
2982 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2983 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2984 an alias to "set sysroot".
2985
83cc5c53
UW
2986info spu
2987 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2988 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2989 architecture.
2990
bd372731
MK
2991* New native configurations
2992
2993OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2994
23181151
DJ
2995set tdesc filename
2996unset tdesc filename
2997show tdesc filename
2998 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2999 not query the target for its built-in description.
3000
c9bb8148
DJ
3001* New targets
3002
54fe9172 3003OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 3004MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 3005Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 3006
6dd09645
JB
3007* New remote packets
3008
3009QPassSignals:
3010 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
3011 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
3012
23181151
DJ
3013qXfer:features:read:
3014 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
3015 features.
6dd09645 3016
83cc5c53
UW
3017qXfer:spu:read:
3018qXfer:spu:write:
3019 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
3020 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
3021
cfa9d6d9
DJ
3022qXfer:libraries:read:
3023 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
3024 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
3025 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
3026 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
3027
483367ee
DJ
3028* Removed targets
3029
3030Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3031
d08950c4
UW
3032alpha*-*-osf1*
3033alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 3034d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
3035hppa*-*-hiux*
3036i[34567]86-ncr-*
3037i[34567]86-*-dgux*
3038i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
3039i[34567]86-*-netware*
3040i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
3041i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
3042i[34567]86-*-sco*
3043i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
3044i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
3045i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
3046i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
3047i[34567]86-*-unixware*
3048i[34567]86-*-sysv*
3049i[34567]86-*-isc*
3050m68*-cisco*-*
3051m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 3052mips*-*-pe
483367ee 3053rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 3054sh*-*-pe
483367ee 3055
7ce59000
DJ
3056* Other removed features
3057
3058target abug
3059target cpu32bug
3060target est
3061target rom68k
3062
3063 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3064
ea35711c
DJ
3065target hms
3066target e7000
3067target sh3
3068target sh3e
3069
3070 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3071 H8/300.
3072
3073target ocd
3074
3075 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3076 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3077 interfaces.
3078
7ce59000
DJ
3079DWARF 1 support
3080
3081 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3082 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3083
54d61198
DJ
3084Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3085
3086 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3087 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3088 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3089 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3090
ea35711c
DJ
3091MIPS ".pdr" sections
3092
3093 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3094 in debugging information.
3095
3096Scheme support
3097
3098 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3099 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3100
1a69e1e4
DJ
3101set mips stack-arg-size
3102set mips saved-gpreg-size
3103
3104 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3105
6dd09645 3106*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 3107
ca3bf3bd
DJ
3108* New targets
3109
3110Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 3111Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 3112
6aec2e11
DJ
3113* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3114(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3115running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3116
3117* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3118Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3119supported.
3120
17218d91
DJ
3121* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3122broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3123
9ebce043
DJ
3124* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3125stub provides the required support.
3126
7d3d3ece
DJ
3127* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3128longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3129
4f8253f3
JB
3130* New commands
3131
3132set substitute-path
3133unset substitute-path
3134show substitute-path
3135 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3136 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3137 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3138 between compilation and debugging.
3139
9fa66fd7
AS
3140set trace-commands
3141show trace-commands
3142 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3143 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3144 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3145
1f5befc1
DJ
3146* REMOVED features
3147
3148The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3149
2ec3381a
DJ
3150Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3151an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3152
3d00d119
DJ
3153The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3154
be2a5f71
DJ
3155* New remote packets
3156
3157qSupported:
3158 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3159 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3160 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3161 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3162 target.
3163
0876f84a
DJ
3164qXfer:auxv:read:
3165 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3166 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3167
9ebce043
DJ
3168qXfer:memory-map:read:
3169 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3170 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3171
3172vFlashErase:
3173vFlashWrite:
3174vFlashDone:
3175 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3176
0876f84a
DJ
3177* Removed remote packets
3178
3179qPart:auxv:read:
3180 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3181 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3182
e374b601 3183*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 3184
96309189
MS
3185* New targets
3186
3187Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3188
3189Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3190
53e5f3cf
AS
3191* New commands
3192
3193init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3194 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3195
ac264b3b
MS
3196The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3197
3198checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3199
3200restart <n> Return the program state to a
3201 previously saved state.
3202
3203info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3204
3205delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3206
3207set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3208 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3209
3210info forks List forks of the user program that
3211 are available to be debugged.
3212
3213fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3214 forks of the user program that are
3215 available to be debugged.
3216
3217delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3218 that are available to be debugged (and
3219 kill the forked process).
3220
3221detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3222 that are available to be debugged (and
3223 allow the process to continue).
3224
3950dc3f
NS
3225* New architecture
3226
3227Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3228
0ea3f30e
DJ
3229* Improved Windows host support
3230
3231GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3232native console support, and remote communications using either
3233network sockets or serial ports.
3234
f79daebb
GM
3235* Improved Modula-2 language support
3236
3237GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3238basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3239pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3240printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3241written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3242GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3243
acab6ab2
MM
3244* REMOVED features
3245
3246The ARM rdi-share module.
3247
f4267320
DJ
3248The Netware NLM debug server.
3249
53e5f3cf 3250*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 3251
e0ecbda1
MK
3252* New native configurations
3253
02a677ac 3254OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
3255OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3256
d64a6579
KB
3257* New targets
3258
3259Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3260
b33a6190
AS
3261* New command line options
3262
3263--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3264--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3265 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3266--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3267 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3268 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3269 with the --command (-x) option.
3270
11dced61
AC
3271* Deprecated commands removed
3272
3273The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3274removed:
3275
3276 Command Replacement
3277 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3278 othernames set arm disassembler
3279 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3280 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3281 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3282 regs info registers
3283
6fe85783
MK
3284* New BSD user-level threads support
3285
3286It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3287library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3288configurations are:
3289
3290FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3291FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3292OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3293
3294Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3295are not yet supported.
3296
5260ca71
MS
3297* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3298(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3299
e84ecc99
AC
3300* REMOVED configurations and files
3301
3302VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 3303Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 3304National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 3305
31e35378
JB
3306* New "set print array-indexes" command
3307
3308After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3309when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3310behavior.
3311
e85e5c83
MK
3312* VAX floating point support
3313
3314GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3315
d91e9901
AS
3316* User-defined command support
3317
3318In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3319to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3320section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3321
f2cb65ca
MC
3322*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3323
f47b1503
AS
3324* New command line option
3325
3326GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3327debugging.
3328
f2cb65ca
MC
3329* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3330
3331GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3332information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3333by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3334proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3335to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 3336
d08c0230
AC
3337* Internationalization
3338
3339When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3340internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3341continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3342
117ea3cf
PH
3343* Ada
3344
3345Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3346implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3347into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3348
d08c0230
AC
3349* New native configurations
3350
3351GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3352
3353* Remote 'p' packet
3354
3355GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3356packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3357
3358* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3359
3360GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3361The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3362features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3363i386 application).
3364
3365GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3366compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3367continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3368configurations:
3369
3370hppa-*-hpux
3371ia64-*-aix
3372mips-*-irix*
3373*-*-lynx
3374mips-*-linux-gnu
3375sds protocol
3376xdr protocol
3377powerpc bdm protocol
3378
3379Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3380made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3381
3382* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3383
3384Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3385been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3386configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3387permanently REMOVED.
3388
3389h8300-*-*
3390mcore-*-*
3391mn10300-*-*
3392ns32k-*-*
3393sh64-*-*
3394v850-*-*
3395
ebb7c577
AC
3396*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3397
3398* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3399
3400When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3401heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3402been fixed.
3403
3404* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3405
3406When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3407fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3408IRIX long double values).
3409
3410* VAX and "next"
3411
3412A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3413command. This problem has been fixed.
3414
860660cb 3415*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 3416
0dea2468
AC
3417* Fix for ``many threads''
3418
3419On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3420rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3421error message:
3422
3423 ptrace: No such process.
3424 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3425
3426This problem has been fixed.
3427
2c07db7a
AC
3428* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3429
3430Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3431GDB to dump core).
3432
c23968a2
JB
3433* New ``start'' command.
3434
3435This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3436
71009278
MK
3437* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3438
3439Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3440live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3441platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3442
3443FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3444FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3445NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3446NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3447NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3448OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3449OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3450OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3451OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3452
3c0b7db2
AC
3453* Signal trampoline code overhauled
3454
3455Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3456These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3457of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3458call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3459signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3460
73cc75f3
AC
3461Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3462features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3463include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 3464
7243600a
BF
3465* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3466
6f606e1c
MK
3467* New native configurations
3468
97dc871c 3469GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 3470OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
3471OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3472OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 3473OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3474NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 3475OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3476
a1b461bf
AC
3477* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3478
3479GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3480The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3481including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3482migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3483compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3484work, was also included.
3485
3486GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3487module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3488
3489h8300-*-*
3490mcore-*-*
3491mn10300-*-*
3492ns32k-*-*
3493sh64-*-*
3494v850-*-*
3495xstormy16-*-*
3496
3497Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3498made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3499
3c7012f5
AC
3500* REMOVED configurations and files
3501
3502Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3503Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3504Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3505Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3506Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3507AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3508Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3509decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3510riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3511sonymips mips-sony-*
3512sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3513
e5fe55f7
AC
3514*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3515
3516* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3517
3518The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3519GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3520command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3521program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3522with GDB".
3523
3524* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3525
3526Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3527libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3528cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3529GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3530shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3531the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3532are created.
3533
3534Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3535
3536* Fixed ISO-C build problems
3537
3538The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3539non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3540compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3541
3542* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3543
3544Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3545wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3546
3547* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3548
3549The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3550permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3551systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3552
3553* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3554
3555Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3556has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3557
3558* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3559
3560GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3561its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3562panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3563
3564* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3565
3566When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3567by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3568not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3569
faae5abe 3570*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 3571
9175c9a3
MC
3572* Removed --with-mmalloc
3573
3574Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3575conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3576
3cc87ec0
MK
3577* Changes in AMD64 configurations
3578
3579The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3580the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3581and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3582you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3583
f0424ef6
MK
3584* Revised SPARC target
3585
3586The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3587FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
3588support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3589from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3590(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 3591
59659be2
ILT
3592* New C++ demangler
3593
3594GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3595names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3596with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3597programs.
3598
9e08b29b
DJ
3599* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3600
3601GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3602arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3603encountered these.
3604
8dfe8985
DC
3605* C++ nested types and namespaces
3606
3607GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3608improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3609is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3610Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3611namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3612"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3613frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3614if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3615GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3616
cced5e27
MK
3617* New native configurations
3618
3619NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 3620OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 3621OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
3622OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3623OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 3624
b4b4b794
KI
3625* New debugging protocols
3626
3627M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3628
7989c619
AC
3629* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3630
3631The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3632and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3633tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3634
5994185b
AC
3635* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3636
3637Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3638been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3639configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3640permanently REMOVED.
3641
3642Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3643Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3644Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3645Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3646Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3647AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3648Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
3649decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3650riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3651sonymips mips-sony-*
3652sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 3653
0ddabb4c
AC
3654* REMOVED configurations and files
3655
3656SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3657SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
3658Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3659Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3660H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3661HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3662HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3663HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3664PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 3665386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
3666Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3667 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3668 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
3669SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3670SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
3671Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3672Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 3673
c7f1390e
DJ
3674*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3675
1fe43d45
AC
3676* Objective-C
3677
3678Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3679integrated into GDB.
3680
e6beb428
AC
3681* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3682
3683DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3684information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3685By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3686backtraces.
3687
3688The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3689have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3690DWARF 2 CFI support.
3691
3692* Hosted file I/O.
3693
3694GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3695file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3696remote protocol documentation for details.
3697
3698* All targets using the new architecture framework.
3699
3700All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3701architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3702to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3703ppc32 on ppc64).
3704
3705* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3706
3707GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3708per-thread variables.
3709
3710* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3711
3712GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3713GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3714
3715* Separate debug info.
3716
3717GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3718automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3719of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3720system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3721and optional debug files.
3722
3723* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3724
3725DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3726describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3727debugger.
3728
3729GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3730for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3731
3732* Java
3733
3734A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3735Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3736considered "useable".
3737
85f8f974
DJ
3738* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3739
3740The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3741commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3742kernel.
3743
0fac0b41
DJ
3744* GDB supports logging output to a file
3745
3746There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3747used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 3748
6ad8ae5c
DJ
3749* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3750
3751The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3752disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3753command.
3754
e286caf2 3755* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
3756
3757The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3758registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3759
d28f9cdf
DJ
3760* Profiling support
3761
3762A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3763be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3764session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3765"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3766data, for more informative profiling results.
3767
da0f9dcd
AC
3768* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3769
3770The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3771option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 3772"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
3773
3774Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3775removed.
3776
fb9b6b35
JJ
3777Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3778Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3779Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3780 in a subsequent -var-update.
3781
954a4db8
MK
3782* New native configurations.
3783
3784FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3785
6760f9e6
JB
3786* Multi-arched targets.
3787
b4263afa 3788HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 3789Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 3790
1b831c93
AC
3791* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3792
3793Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3794been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3795configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3796permanently REMOVED.
3797
8b0e5691 3798Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 3799Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 3800H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
3801HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3802HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3803HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 3804PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
3805Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3806 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3807 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
3808Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3809Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 3810
5835abe7
NC
3811* REMOVED configurations and files
3812
3813V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
3814Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3815IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3816i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3817i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3818i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3819HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3820 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3821 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3822Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3823Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3824Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3825OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3826I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 3827
a094c6fb
AC
3828* MIPS $fp behavior changed
3829
3830The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3831the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3832context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3833address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3834The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3835
299ffc64 3836*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 3837
46248966
AC
3838* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3839
3840When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3841`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3842in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3843library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3844shared libs like mad''.
3845
b9d14705 3846* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 3847
b9d14705
DJ
3848Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3849the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3850arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3851powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 3852
e0e9281e
JB
3853* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3854
3855GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3856and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3857they expand.
3858
dd73b9bb
AC
3859The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3860invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3861
3862The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3863macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3864
e0e9281e
JB
3865Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3866information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3867your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3868information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3869
2250ee0c
CV
3870* Multi-arched targets.
3871
6e3ba3b8
JT
3872DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3873DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 3874NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 3875National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
3876Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3877Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 3878
cd9bfe15 3879* New targets.
e33ce519 3880
456f8b9d
DB
3881Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3882
e33ce519 3883
da8ca43d
JT
3884* New native configurations
3885
3886Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 3887SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 3888MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 3889UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 3890
cd9bfe15
AC
3891* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3892
3893Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3894been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3895configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3896permanently REMOVED.
3897
92eb23c5 3898Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 3899OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 3900IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 3901Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 3902Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 3903Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
3904i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3905i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3906i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
3907HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3908 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3909 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 3910I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 3911
db034ac5
AC
3912* OBSOLETE languages
3913
3914CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3915
cd9bfe15
AC
3916* REMOVED configurations and files
3917
3918AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3919A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3920AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3921AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3922AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3923
3924testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3925
20f01a46
DH
3926* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3927
3928This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3929commands. The default is 1024.
3930
a5941fbf
MK
3931* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3932
3933Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3934
89743e04
MS
3935* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3936
3937These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3938to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3939from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 3940
9fb14e79
JB
3941* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3942
3943The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3944including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3945of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3946
2037aebb
AC
3947*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3948
3949* New targets.
3950
3951Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3952
3953* Bug fixes
3954
3955gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3956mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3957Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3958
3959gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3960dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3961Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3962
3963Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3964Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3965By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3966
3967i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3968avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3969By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3970
37057839 3971*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 3972
1a703748
MS
3973* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3974
3975This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3976really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3977In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3978target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3979This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3980(notably embedded) targets.
3981
cefd4ef5
MS
3982* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3983
55241689
AC
3984This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3985process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3986GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3987hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 3988
352ed7b4
MS
3989* New command line option
3990
3991GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3992
3993* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3994
3995There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3996command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3997a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3998be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3999open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4000issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4001a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4002it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4003GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4004is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4005
fe419ffc
RE
4006* Changes in ARM configurations.
4007
4008Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
4009configuration is fully multi-arch.
4010
eb7cedd9
MK
4011* New native configurations
4012
fe419ffc 4013ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 4014x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 4015AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 4016Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 4017
c9f63e6b
CV
4018* New targets
4019
4020Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
4021
9b4ff276
AC
4022* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4023
4024Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4025been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4026configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4027permanently REMOVED.
4028
4029AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4030A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4031AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4032AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4033AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4034
b4ceaee6 4035testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 4036
e2caac18
AC
4037* REMOVED configurations and files
4038
4039TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 4040WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
4041PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4042PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4043PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 4044Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
4045Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4046 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 4047SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 4048Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
4049Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4050ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 4051Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 4052
c2a727fa
TT
4053* Changes to command line processing
4054
4055The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4056for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4057
467d8519
TT
4058* Changes to key bindings
4059
4060There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4061
7072a954
AC
4062*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4063
4064Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4065
4066Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4067corrupted.
4068
4069Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4070
4071Numerous documentation fixes.
4072
4073Numerous testsuite fixes.
4074
34f47bc4 4075*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
4076
4077* New native configurations
4078
4079Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4080x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 4081MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
4082MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4083ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 4084s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 4085
bf64bfd6
AC
4086* New targets
4087
def90278 4088Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 4089CRIS cris-axis
55241689 4090UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 4091
17e78a56 4092* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
4093
4094x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 4095Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
4096Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4097 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
4098TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4099WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 4100Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
4101PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4102PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4103PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 4104SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
4105Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4106ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 4107Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 4108
17e78a56
AC
4109stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4110kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4111
7fcca85b
AC
4112Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4113been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4114configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4115permanently REMOVED.
4116
a196c81c 4117* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
4118
4119Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4120Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4121Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4122ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4123Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 4124ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 4125
6d6b80e5 4126* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 4127
6d6b80e5 4128GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
4129sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4130present.
4131
bf64bfd6
AC
4132* Other news:
4133
e23194cb
EZ
4134* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4135
4136* The MI enabled by default.
4137
4138The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4139revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4140engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4141using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4142which is now deprecated.
4143
4144* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4145
4146GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4147main features are supported:
4148
4149 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4150
4151 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4152 extension;
4153
4154 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4155
4156 - a Pascal expression parser.
4157
4158However, some important features are not yet supported.
4159
4160 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4161
4162 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4163
4164 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4165 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4166
4167 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4168
4169 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4170
4171* Changes in completion.
4172
4173Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4174to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4175users expect at the shell prompt.
4176
4177Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4178`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4179program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4180files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4181be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4182considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4183name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4184
4185`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4186
4187* New platform-independent commands:
4188
4189It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4190hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4191documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4192
4193* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4194
d7275149
MK
4195Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4196revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4197many threads as your system allows you to have.
4198
e23194cb
EZ
4199Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4200
d7275149
MK
4201Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4202multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
4203
4204* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
4205
4206Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4207
e23194cb
EZ
4208GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4209debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4210supported.)
4211
4212* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4213
4214Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4215breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4216implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4217put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4218and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4219registers.
4220
4221The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4222debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4223watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4224
4225* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4226
4227New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4228the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4229
4230New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4231display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4232IDT.
4233
4234New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4235from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4236New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4237a given linear address.
4238
4239GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4240program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4241which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4242
4243DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4244
6c56c069
EZ
4245It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4246
e23194cb
EZ
4247* Changes in documentation.
4248
4249All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4250Documentation License.
4251
4252Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4253manual.
4254
4255TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4256
4257Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4258manual.
4259
4260The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4261documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4262hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4263
5d6640b1
AC
4264* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4265
4266The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4267``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4268contents of this file.
4269
1a1d8446
AC
4270* gdba.el deleted
4271
4272GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 4273
9debab2f 4274*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 4275
c63ce875
EZ
4276* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4277
4278Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4279programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4280displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4281greater level of detail.
4282
4283* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4284
4285It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4286bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4287on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4288written.
4289
4290* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4291
4292The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4293necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4294machines ``out of the box''.
4295
4296The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4297possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4298signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4299would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4300interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4301
4302It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4303standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4304even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4305and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4306terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4307
4308The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4309enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4310also works.
4311
4312DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4313GDB.
4314
4315It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4316directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4317times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4318breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4319
ed9a39eb
JM
4320* New native configurations
4321
4322ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 4323PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 4324
7a292a7a
SS
4325* New targets
4326
96baa820 4327Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
4328x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4329PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
4330TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4331
085dd6e6
JM
4332* OBSOLETE configurations
4333
4334Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4335Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 4336Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 4337ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 4338Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 4339
9debab2f
AC
4340Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4341but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4342these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4343be permanently REMOVED.
4344
5330533d
SS
4345* Gould support removed
4346
4347Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4348
bc9e5bbf
AC
4349* New features for SVR4
4350
4351On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4352without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4353load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4354
4355* Many C++ enhancements
4356
4357C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4358in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4359
adf40b2e
JM
4360* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4361
4362A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4363sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4364with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4365``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4366
4367 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4368 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4369
43e526b9
JM
4370* MIPS 64 remote protocol
4371
4372A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4373expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4374instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4375
4376The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4377added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4378
96baa820
JM
4379* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4380
4381The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4382``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4383include ``set remote P-packet''.
4384
11cf8741
JM
4385* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4386
4387The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4388accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4389``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4390
7876dd43
DB
4391* ``apropos'' command added.
4392
4393The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4394documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4395try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4396
bc9e5bbf
AC
4397* New MI interface
4398
4399A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4400interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
4401process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4402"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4403enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
4404
4405 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4406
c906108c
SS
4407*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4408
4409* New native configurations
4410
4411HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4412HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 4413M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
4414
4415* New targets
4416
4417Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4418Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4419Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4420
4421* OBSOLETE configurations
4422
4423Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4424
4425Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4426but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4427these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4428be permanently REMOVED.
4429
4430* ANSI/ISO C
4431
4432As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4433buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4434containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4435use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4436available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4437configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4438information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4439already.
4440
4441* Readline 2.2
4442
4443GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4444
4445* set extension-language
4446
4447You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4448languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4449you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4450 set extension-language .c c++
4451The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4452and their associated languages.
4453
4454* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4455
4456When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4457you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4458PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4459
4460 set processor NAME
4461
4462sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4463following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4464
4465 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4466 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4467 403 IBM PowerPC 403
4468 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4469 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4470 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4471 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4472 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4473 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4474 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4475 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4476
4477At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4478special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4479registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4480only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4481
4482* HP-UX support
4483
4484Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4485more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4486library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4487support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4488for xdb and dbx commands.
4489
4490* Catchpoints
4491
4492HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4493generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4494to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4495
4496This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4497argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4498output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4499
4500* Debugging across forks
4501
4502On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4503in the inferior.
4504
4505* TUI
4506
4507HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4508it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4509configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4510
4511* GDB remote protocol additions
4512
4513A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4514Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4515fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4516allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4517
4518For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4519full 64-bit address. The command
4520
4521 set remoteaddresssize 32
4522
4523can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4524the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4525will be discarded.
4526
4527In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4528command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4529
4530 maint packet heythere
4531
4532sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4533disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4534time.
4535
4536The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4537target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4538downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4539
4540* Tracing can collect general expressions
4541
4542You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4543further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4544doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4545
4546* mask-address variable for Mips
4547
4548For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4549a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4550of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4551
4552* Higher serial baud rates
4553
4554GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4555230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4556to achieve all of these rates.)
4557
4558* i960 simulator
4559
4560The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4561builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4562
4563
4564*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4565
4566* New native configurations
4567
4568Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4569Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4570Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4571PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4572PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4573Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4574Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4575
4576* New targets
4577
4578Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4579Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4580Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4581Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4582MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4583MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4584MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4585Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4586Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4587Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4588NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4589
4590* New debugging protocols
4591
4592ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4593M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4594DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4595PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4596PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4597Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4598
4599* DWARF 2
4600
4601All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4602format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4603information.
4604
4605* Java frontend
4606
4607GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4608only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4609
4610* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4611
4612For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4613loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4614locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4615
4616* Live range splitting
4617
4618GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4619range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4620more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4621
4622* Hurd support
4623
4624GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4625updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4626
4627* ARM Thumb support
4628
4629GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4630instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4631instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4632accordingly.
4633
4634* MIPS16 support
4635
4636GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4637instruction set.
4638
4639* Overlay support
4640
4641GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4642linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4643will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4644control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4645additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4646in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4647
4648* info symbol
4649
4650The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4651the symbol at the specified address.
4652
4653* Trace support
4654
4655The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4656asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4657extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4658includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4659file tracepoint.c for more details.
4660
4661* MIPS simulator
4662
4663Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4664by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4665of most MIPS variants.
4666
4667* Sparc simulator
4668
4669Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4670by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4671Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4672
4673* set architecture
4674
4675For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4676basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4677architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4678the possible architectures.
4679
4680*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4681
4682* New native configurations
4683
4684Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4685M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4686PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4687PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4688PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4689RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4690
4691* New targets
4692
4693ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4694I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4695MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4696MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4697PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4698Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4699Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4700
4701* PowerPC simulator
4702
4703The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4704contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4705PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4706basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4707performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4708
4709* Solaris 2.5
4710
4711GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4712
4713* Windows 95/NT native
4714
4715GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4716To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4717which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4718Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4719ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4720
4721* dont-repeat command
4722
4723If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4724command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4725useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4726extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4727
4728* Send break instead of ^C
4729
4730The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4731rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4732GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4733
4734* Remote protocol timeout
4735
4736The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4737that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4738to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4739
4740* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4741
4742By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4743loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4744stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4745when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4746in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4747
4748Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4749/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4750automatically on hpux10.
4751
4752* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4753
4754Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4755
4756* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4757
4758When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4759may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4760the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4761every character. The default value is 1050.
4762
4763* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4764
4765If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4766a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4767replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4768details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4769remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4770to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4771
4772* Speedups for remote debugging
4773
4774GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4775the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4776and more efficient S-record downloading.
4777
4778* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4779
4780GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4781Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4782
4783*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4784
4785* Psymtabs for XCOFF
4786
4787The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4788can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4789
4790* Remote targets use caching
4791
4792Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4793remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4794it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4795debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4796off' turns the the data cache off.
4797
4798* Remote targets may have threads
4799
4800The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4801in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4802gdb/remote.c for details.
4803
4804* NetROM support
4805
4806If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4807support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4808acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4809write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4810support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4811another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4812sequence is something like
4813
4814 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4815 load <prog>
4816 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4817
4818* Macintosh host
4819
4820GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4821may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4822it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4823available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4824device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4825directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4826scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4827mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4828
4829* Autoconf
4830
4831GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4832but does simplify configuration and building.
4833
4834* hpux10
4835
4836GDB now supports hpux10.
4837
4838*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4839
4840* New native configurations
4841
4842x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4843x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4844NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4845Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4846
4847* New targets
4848
4849A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4850HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4851CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4852PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4853WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4854
4855* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4856
4857GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4858possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4859filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4860the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4861if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4862
4863* Arguments to user-defined commands
4864
4865User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4866Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4867trivial example:
4868define adder
4869 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4870
4871To execute the command use:
4872adder 1 2 3
4873
4874Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4875Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4876use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4877
4878* New `if' and `while' commands
4879
4880This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4881commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4882expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4883execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4884terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4885`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4886if the expression is zero.
4887
4888* Fortran source language mode
4889
4890GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4891Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4892variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4893with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4894Fortran compilers.
4895
4896* Better HPUX support
4897
4898Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4899running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4900processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4901for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4902that behavior do the following before running the program:
4903
4904 adb -w a.out
4905 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4906 control-d
4907
4908This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4909To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4910
4911 adb -w a.out
4912 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4913 control-d
4914
4915You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4916the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4917external linkage.
4918
4919GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4920HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4921
4922* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4923
4924You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4925commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4926current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4927"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4928associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4929configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4930
4931* New DOS host serial code
4932
4933This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4934no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4935a PC's serial port.
4936
4937*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4938
4939* New "complete" command
4940
4941This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4942were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4943
4944* Trailing space optional in prompt
4945
4946"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4947allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4948
4949* Breakpoint hit counts
4950
4951"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4952has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4953can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4954to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4955less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4956that breakpoint.
4957
4958* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4959
4960"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4961an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4962arrays actually contain only short strings.
4963
4964* Shared library breakpoints
4965
4966In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4967breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4968
4969* Hardware watchpoints
4970
4971There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4972targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4973
55241689 4974Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
4975
4976* Annotations
4977
4978Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4979and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4980
4981* Improved Irix 5 support
4982
4983GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4984
4985* Improved HPPA support
4986
4987GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4988
4989* New native configurations
4990
4991Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4992HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4993Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4994RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4995
4996* New targets
4997
4998OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4999MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5000Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
5001
5002* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5003
5004There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5005This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
5006
5007* Fixes
5008
5009As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
5010and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
5011
5012*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
5013
5014* Irix 5 is now supported
5015
5016* HPPA support
5017
5018GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
5019to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
5020GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
5021of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
5022can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
5023
5024
5025*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
5026
5027* User visible changes:
5028
5029* Remote Debugging
5030
5031The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
5032target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
5033debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
5034integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
5035debugging info for the mips target).
5036
5037* DEC Alpha native support
5038
5039GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
5040debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
5041work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
5042Alpha-specific notes.
5043
5044* Preliminary thread implementation
5045
5046GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
5047
5048* LynxOS native and target support for 386
5049
5050This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
5051to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
5052for details).
5053
5054* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5055
5056This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5057mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5058call methods, ...etc.
5059
5060*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5061
5062 * User visible changes:
5063
5064Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5065supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5066other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5067somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5068
5069Filename completion now works.
5070
5071When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5072arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5073addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5074
5075All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5076vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5077should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5078your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5079to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5080
5081 * DEC alpha support
5082
5083This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5084cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5085
5086
5087*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5088
5089 * Testsuite
5090
5091This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5092The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5093via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5094
5095 * C++ demangling
5096
5097'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5098emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5099Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5100disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5101use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5102
5103 * Simulators
5104
5105GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5106So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5107Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5108
5109 * New targets supported
5110
5111H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5112H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5113SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5114Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5115IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5116
5117Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5118version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5119GO32 memory extender.
5120
5121 * New remote protocols
5122
5123MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5124
5125 * New source languages supported
5126
5127This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5128used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5129into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5130
5131
5132*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5133
5134 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5135
5136GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5137version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5138University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5139compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5140format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5141(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5142
5143Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5144
5145 * Faster and better demangling
5146
5147We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5148demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5149character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5150only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5151This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5152increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5153symbol lookups.
5154
5155`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5156from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5157compiler does not actually implement.
5158
5159 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5160
5161In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5162inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5163recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5164very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5165The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5166circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5167fix.
5168
5169The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5170release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5171
5172 * Improved configure script
5173
5174The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5175you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5176host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5177done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5178
5179We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5180version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5181`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5182The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5183only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5184We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5185
5186 * Documentation improvements
5187
5188There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5189produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5190before submitting changes.
5191
5192The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5193M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5194`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5195you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5196a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5197
5198*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5199We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5200been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5201or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5202`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5203around this problem.
5204
5205 * New features
5206
5207GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5208the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5209`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5210the target program.
5211
5212The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5213how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5214
5215 * New native hosts supported
5216
5217HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5218386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5219
5220 * New targets supported
5221
5222AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5223
5224 * New file formats supported
5225
5226BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5227HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5228
5229 * Major bug fixes
5230
5231Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5232
5233We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5234printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5235
5236We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5237for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5238release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5239
5240You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5241will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5242
5243We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5244for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5245especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5246libraries.
5247
5248The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5249information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5250command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5251any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5252when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5253
5254 * Internal improvements
5255
5256GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5257debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5258
5259GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5260Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5261symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5262contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5263shared code that handles any of them.
5264
5265 * New command line options
5266
5267We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5268
5269 * Mmalloc licensing
5270
5271The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5272General Public License.
5273
5274*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5275
5276 * Host/native/target split
5277
5278GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5279hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5280target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5281local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5282ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5283
5284The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5285GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5286is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5287code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5288any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5289built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5290handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5291
5292GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5293It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5294plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5295
5296 * New hosts supported
5297
5298HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5299386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5300386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5301
5302 * New targets supported
5303
5304Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
530568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5306
5307 * New native hosts supported
5308
5309386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5310 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5311386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5312
5313 * New file formats supported
5314
5315BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5316supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5317format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5318
5319 * New commands
5320
5321`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5322`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5323These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5324
5325`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5326
5327You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5328scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5329prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5330executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5331
5332 * C++ improvements
5333
5334We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5335info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5336symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5337
5338Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5339
5340 * Major bug fixes
5341
5342The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5343fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5344by the compiler.
5345
5346We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5347support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5348
5349John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5350slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5351that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5352purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5353the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5354mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5355
5356Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5357about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5358completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5359we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5360
5361 * AMD 29k support
5362
5363A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5364specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5365calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5366usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5367in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5368
5369We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5370Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5371of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5372resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5373
5374 * Remote interfaces
5375
5376We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5377with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5378message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5379This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5380needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5381breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5382each instruction being stepped through.
5383
5384The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5385registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5386
5387There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5388find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5389Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5390processor with a serial port.
5391
5392 * Configuration
5393
5394Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5395`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5396supported, and what files each one uses.
5397
5398 * Library changes
5399
5400There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5401disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5402Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5403disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5404
5405The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5406Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5407can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5408grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5409
5410 * Documentation
5411
5412The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5413reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5414as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5415encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5416system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5417bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5418
5419And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5420
5421
5422*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5423
5424 * Better support for C++ function names
5425
5426GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5427names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5428(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5429single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5430Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5431
5432GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5433the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5434You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5435lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5436for the list of formats.
5437
5438 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5439
5440Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5441C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5442directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5443can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5444usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5445about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5446this problem.)
5447
5448 * New 'maintenance' command
5449
5450All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5451the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5452can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5453
5454 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5455 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5456 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5457 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5458 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5459 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5460
5461The following commands are new:
5462
5463 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5464 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5465 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5466
5467 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5468
5469We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5470(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5471be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5472read after argv processing.
5473
5474 * New hosts supported
5475
5476Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5477
55241689 5478GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
5479
5480We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5481is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5482for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5483masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5484fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5485It costs extra.
5486
5487 * New targets supported
5488
5489Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5490
5491 * More smarts about finding #include files
5492
5493GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5494all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5495greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5496especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5497the one that contains your sources.
5498
5499We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5500breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5501try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5502
5503 * Interesting infernals change
5504
5505GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5506section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5507target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5508stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5509
5510 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5511
5512There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5513 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5514 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5515
5516See the ChangeLog for details.
5517
5518*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5519
5520 * New machines supported (host and target)
5521
5522IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5523
5524SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5525
5526 * New malloc package
5527
5528GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5529Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5530capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5531This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5532pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5533more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5534
5535 * info proc
5536
5537The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5538'help info proc' for details.
5539
5540 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5541
5542The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5543Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5544possible.
5545
5546 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5547
5548Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5549support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5550conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5551environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5552that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5553in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5554
5555 * Cross byte order fixes
5556
5557Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5558targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5559
5560 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5561
5562If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5563system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5564`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5565program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5566called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5567Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5568and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5569the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5570option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5571starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5572
5573You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5574the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5575information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5576slower, but makes future operations faster.
5577
5578The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5579build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5580A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5581use is:
5582
5583 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5584
5585The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5586It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5587shared across multiple host platforms.
5588
5589 * longjmp() handling
5590
5591GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5592siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5593all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5594platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5595
5596 * Solaris 2.0
5597
5598Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5599this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5600reading symbols.
5601
5602 * Bug fixes
5603
5604As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5605People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5606crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5607
5608*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5609
5610 * New machines supported (host and target)
5611
5612SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5613 (except core files)
5614BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5615Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5616
5617 * New machines supported (target)
5618
5619AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5620
5621 * C++ support
5622
5623GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5624The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5625per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5626
5627GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5628`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5629extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5630good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5631will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5632released.
5633
5634 * New features for SVR4
5635
5636GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5637shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5638only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5639
5640The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5641on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5642it prints the address mappings of the process.
5643
5644If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5645bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5646
5647 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5648
5649Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5650now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5651skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5652make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5653same code linked statically.
5654
5655 * New Getopt
5656
5657GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5658version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5659continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5660Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5661added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5662future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5663
5664 * Bugs fixed
5665
5666The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5667Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5668See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5669
5670
5671*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5672
5673 * New machines supported (host and target)
5674
5675Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5676NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5677Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5678
5679 * Almost SCO Unix support
5680
5681We had hoped to support:
5682SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5683(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5684that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5685about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5686
5687 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5688
5689GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5690debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5691is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5692send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5693reqired (if any).
5694
5695 * New Readline
5696
5697GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5698is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5699required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5700
5701 * Bugs fixed
5702
5703The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5704Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5705See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5706
5707 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5708
5709GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5710supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5711symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5712
5713Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5714mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5715debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5716mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5717version 2.
5718
5719Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5720really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5721line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5722variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5723situation somewhat.
5724
5725When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5726However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5727methods.
5728
5729We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5730DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5731encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5732
5733
5734*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5735
5736 * Improved configuration
5737
5738Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5739Porting BFD is simpler.
5740
5741 * Stepping improved
5742
5743The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5744of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5745in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5746function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5747
5748 * Bug fixing
5749
5750Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5751
5752 * New host supported (not target)
5753
5754Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5755
5756
5757*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5758
5759 * Multiple source language support
5760
5761GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5762It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5763and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5764language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5765You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5766`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5767
5768 * GDB and Modula-2
5769
5770GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5771currently under development at the State University of New York at
5772Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5773continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5774
5775Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5776debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5777symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5778
5779There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5780in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5781
5782 * set write on/off
5783
5784GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5785a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5786the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5787by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5788effect immediately.
5789
5790 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5791
5792When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5793shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5794The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5795examining core files.
5796
5797 * set listsize
5798
5799You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5800The default is 10.
5801
5802 * New machines supported (host and target)
5803
5804SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5805Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5806Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5807
5808 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5809
5810IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5811
5812 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5813
5814AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5815AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5816Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5817
5818 * New remote interfaces
5819
5820AMD 29000 Adapt
5821AMD 29000 Minimon
5822
5823
5824*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5825
5826 * New Facilities
5827
5828Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5829
5830Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5831target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5832is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5833remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5834remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5835also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5836using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5837stub on the target system.
5838
5839New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5840
5841GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5842library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5843object file types such as a.out and coff.
5844
5845There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5846refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5847
5848
5849 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5850
5851All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5852by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5853
5854For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5855``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5856Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5857
5858What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5859print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5860will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5861all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5862
5863confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5864 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5865 it is already running. Default is ON.
5866
5867editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5868 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5869 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5870 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5871 Default is ON.
5872
5873history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5874 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5875 or the value of the environment variable
5876 GDBHISTFILE.
5877
5878history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5879 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5880 HISTSIZE.
5881
5882history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5883 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5884 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5885
5886history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5887 history expansion will be performed on
5888 command line input. The default is OFF.
5889
5890radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5891 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5892 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5893
5894height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5895 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5896 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5897 variable TERM.
5898
5899width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5900 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5901 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5902 variable TERM.
5903
5904Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5905``set width'' instead.
5906
5907print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5908 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5909 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5910 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5911
5912print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5913 is OFF.
5914
5915print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5916 "raw" form if off.
5917
5918print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5919 like instructions.
5920
5921print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5922
5923
5924 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5925
5926The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5927new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5928are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5929window.
5930
5931
5932 * Support for Shared Libraries
5933
5934GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5935Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5936before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5937happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5938At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5939from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5940shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5941It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5942
5943sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5944 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5945 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5946
5947info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5948
5949
5950 * Watchpoints
5951
5952A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5953expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5954tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5955quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5956problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5957more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5958
5959watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5960
5961info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5962
5963delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5964disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5965enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5966
5967
5968 * C++ multiple inheritance
5969
5970When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5971for C++ programs.
5972
5973 * C++ exception handling
5974
5975Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5976ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5977the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5978handler's context).
5979
5980catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5981 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5982 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5983
5984info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5985 current stack frame.
5986
5987
5988 * Minor command changes
5989
5990The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5991command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5992is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5993
5994The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5995at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5996frames without printing.
5997
5998 * New directory command
5999
6000'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6001The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6002about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6003with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6004find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6005
6006 * Configuring GDB for compilation
6007
6008For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
6009for more details.
6010
6011GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
6012two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
6013Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
6014where the program that you are debugging will run.