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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
8d5b6c2b 4*** Changes since GDB 7.4
d6e00af6 5
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6* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
7 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
8
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9*** Changes in GDB 7.4
10
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11* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
12 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
13 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
14 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
15 inferior changes.
16
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17* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
18 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
19
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20* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
21 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
22 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
23 target hardware watchpoint.
24
25 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
26 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
27 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
28 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
29
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30* Python scripting
31
32d1c362 32 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 33 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
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34 existing one.
35
3a7bf607 36 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
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37 removed. A new command: "set python print-stack
38 none|full|message" has replaced it. Additionally, the default
39 for "print-stack" is now "message", which just prints the error
40 message without the stack trace.
3a7bf607 41
baacfb07 42 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 43 Python API.
713389e0 44
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45 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
46 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 47 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
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48 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
49 corresponding value.
50
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51 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
52 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
53 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
54 on GDB start-up.
55
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56 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
57 static_block will return the global and static blocks
58 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
59 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
60
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61 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
62
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63 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
64 "gdb.breakpoints".
65
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66 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
67 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
68 available in the CLI.
69
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70 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
71 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
72 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
73 "some_type.items()".
74
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75 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
76 new object file.
77
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78 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
79 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
80 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
81 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
82 any anonymous fields.
83
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84* MI changes
85
86 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
87 "solib-event".
88
89 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
90 "=breakpoint-modified".
91
92 ** New command -ada-task-info.
93
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94* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
95 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
96 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
97 lives.
98
99 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
100 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
101 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
102 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
103 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
104
105 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
106 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
107
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108* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
109 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
110 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
111 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
112 use this option to specify where to find it.
113
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114* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
115 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
116 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
117 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
118 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
119 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
120 section in the user manual for more details.
121
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122* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
123 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
124 become available after that.
125
71eba9c2 126* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 127
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128* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
129 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
130 gcc version 4.7.
131
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132* New commands
133
134!SHELL COMMAND
135 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
136 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
137
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138* Changed commands
139
140watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
141 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
142 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
143
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144info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
145 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
146 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
147
71eba9c2 148info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
149 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
150 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
151 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
152 name starts with a hyphen.
153
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154collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
155 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
156 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
157 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
158 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
159 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
160 number of bytes that will be collected.
161
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162tstart [NOTES]
163 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
164 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
165 setting the variable trace-notes.
166
167tstop [NOTES]
168 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
169 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
170 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
171 trace-stop-notes.
172
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173* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
174 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
175 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
176 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
177 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
178 is running.
179
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180* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
181 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
182 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
183
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184* New options
185
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186set extended-prompt
187show extended-prompt
188 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
189 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
190 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
191 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
192 prompt is displayed.
193
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194set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
195show print entry-values
196 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
197 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
198 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
199
200set debug entry-values
201show debug entry-values
202 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
203 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
204
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205set basenames-may-differ
206show basenames-may-differ
207 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
208 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
209 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
210 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
211 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
212 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
213 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
214 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
215
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216set trace-user
217show trace-user
218set trace-notes
219show trace-notes
220 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
221 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
222 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
223 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
224
225set trace-stop-notes
226show trace-stop-notes
227 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
228 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
229 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
230 started by someone else.
231
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232* New remote packets
233
234QTEnable
235
236 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
237
238QTDisable
239
240 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
241
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242QTNotes
243
244 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
245
246qTP
247
248 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
249
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250qTMinFTPILen
251
252 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
253 be placed.
254
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255* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
256 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
257
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258* New targets
259
260Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
261
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262* New Simulators
263
264Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
265
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266*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
267
268* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
269
d6e00af6 270*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 271
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272* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
273 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
274 matches the given regular expression.
275
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276* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
277
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278* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
279 dumping the instruction opcodes.
280
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281* New command line options
282
283-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
284 This is mostly for testing purposes.
285
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286* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
287 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
288
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289* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
290 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
291 source path list instead of augmenting it.
292
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293* GDB now understands thread names.
294
295 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
296 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
297
298 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
299 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
300
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301* OpenCL C
302 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
303 has been integrated into GDB.
304
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305* Python scripting
306
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307 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
308 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
309 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
310
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311 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
312 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
313 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
314 and allows for more dynamic content.
315
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316 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
317 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
318 have an is_valid method.
319
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320 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
321 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
322 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
323
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324 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
325
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326 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
327 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
328 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
329 that function like so:
330
331 result = some_value (10,20)
332
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333 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
334 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
335 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
336
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337 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
338 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
339 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
340 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
341 New function: register_pretty_printer.
342
343 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
344 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
345
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346 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
347
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348 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
349 selected thread.
350
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351 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
352 holds the thread's name.
353
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354 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
355 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 356 occurring in the process being debugged.
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357 The following events are currently supported:
358 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
359 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
360 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
361
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362* C++ Improvements:
363
364 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
365 instantiation. For example, if you have:
366
367 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
368
369 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
370 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
371 was added to GCC 4.5.
372
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373 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
374 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
375 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
376 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
377 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
378 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
379
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380* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
381 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
382 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
383 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
384 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
385
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386* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
387 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
388 execution to a label.
389
390* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
391 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
392 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
393 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
394
b56df873 395* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 396 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
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397 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
398 of scope.
399
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400* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
401
402 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
403 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
404 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
405 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
406 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
407 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
408
409 (gdb) info threads
410 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
411
412 While now you see this:
413
414 (gdb) info threads
415 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
416
417 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
418 dumps.
419
420 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
421 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
422 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
423 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
424
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425* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
426 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
427 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
428 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
429 section in the user manual for more details.
430
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431* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
432
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433 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
434 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 435
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436 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
437
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438* New native configurations
439
440ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
441
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442* New targets:
443
444Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
445
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446* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
447 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
448 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
449 in the GDB user manual.
450
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451* Guile support was removed.
452
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453* New features in the GNU simulator
454
455 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
456
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457 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
458
76b8507d 459*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 460
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461* Shared library support for remote targets by default
462
463 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
464 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
465 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
466 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
467 was always disabled for such configurations.
468
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469* C++ Improvements:
470
471 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
472
473 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
474 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
475 For example:
476 namespace A
477 {
478 class B { };
479 void foo (B) { }
480 }
481 ...
482 A::B b
483 foo(b)
484 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
485 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
486 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
487
488 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
489
490 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
491 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
492 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
493 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
494 entry.
495 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
496 mentioned flavors of operators.
497
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498 ** static const class members
499
500 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
501 class definition has been fixed.
502
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503* Windows Thread Information Block access.
504
505 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
506 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
507 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
508 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
509 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
510 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
511
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512* Static tracepoints
513
514 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
515 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
516 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
517 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
518 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
519 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
520 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
521 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
522 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
523 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
524 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
525 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
526 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
527 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
528 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
529 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
530 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
531 the "New remote packets" section below.
532
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533* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
534
535 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
536 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
537 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
538 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
539
540* Observer mode
541
542 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
543 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
544 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
545 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
546 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
547 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
548 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
549
550* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
551 current thread.
552
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553* New remote packets
554
555qGetTIBAddr
556
557 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
558
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559qRelocInsn
560
561 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
562 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
563 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
564 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
565 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
566 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
567
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568qTfSTM, qTsSTM
569
570 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
571
572qTSTMat
573
574 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
575 program.
576
577qXfer:statictrace:read
578
579 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
580 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
581 to gdb's qSupported query.
582
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583QAllow
584
585 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
586
587QTDPsrc
588
589 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
590 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
591
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592* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
593 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
594 a directory.
595
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596* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
597
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598 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
599 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
600 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
601 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
602
603 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
604 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
605 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
606 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
607 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
608 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
609 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
610
611 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
612 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 613
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614 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
615
c8d5aac9
L
616* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
617 it understands register description.
618
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TT
619* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
620
8685c86f
L
621* X86 general purpose registers
622
623 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
624 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
625 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
626 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
627 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
628
95a42b64 629* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
630 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
631 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
632 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
633 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
634 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 635
8bd10a10
CM
636* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
637 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
638 in the specified file.
639
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PA
640* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
641 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
642 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
643 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
644 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
645 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
646 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
647 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
648 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
649 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
650
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PA
651* New commands
652
f1421989
HZ
653eval template, expressions...
654 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
655 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
656
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PA
657set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
658show target-file-system-kind
659 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
660 names.
661
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PA
662save breakpoints <filename>
663 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
664 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
665 definitions, use the `source' command.
666
667`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
668is now deprecated.
669
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PA
670info static-tracepoint-markers
671 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
672
673strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
674 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
675 function, line, address, or marker ID.
676
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SS
677set observer on|off
678show observer
679 Enable and disable observer mode.
680
681set may-write-registers on|off
682set may-write-memory on|off
683set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
684set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
685set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
686set may-interrupt on|off
687 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
688 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
689 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
690 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
691 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
692 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
693 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
694
695set record memory-query on|off
696show record memory-query
697 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
698 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
699
53a71c06
CR
700* Changed commands
701
702disassemble
703 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
704
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PM
705* Python scripting
706
9279c692
JB
707** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
708 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
709 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
710 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
711 GDB using Python' in the manual.
712
adc36818 713** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
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PM
714 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
715 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
716 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 717
fa33c3cd 718** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
719 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
720
721** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
722
723** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 724
967cf477
DE
725** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
726
8a1ea21f
DE
727** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
728 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
729 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
730
a7bdde9e
VP
731* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
732there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
733tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
734regular breakpoints.
735
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PA
736* New targets
737
738ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
739
6aecb9c2
JB
740* D language support.
741 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
742 language.
743
431e49aa
TJB
744* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
745 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
746 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
747 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
748 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
749
750* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
751 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
752 conditions of the form:
753
754 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
755
756 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
757 interface mentioned above.
758
bfbf3774 759*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 760
4eef138c
TT
761* C++ Improvements
762
763 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
764
765 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
766 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
767 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
768 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
769 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
770
4eef138c
TT
771 ** Bug Fixes
772
773 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
774 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
775 qualified name.
776
777 ** Cast Operators
778
779 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
780 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
781
2d1c1221
ME
782* New targets
783
784Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 785Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
786
787* New Simulators
788
789Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 790Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 791
6c95b8df
PA
792* Multi-program debugging.
793
794 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
795 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
796 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
797 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
798 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
799 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
800 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
801 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
802
d5551862
SS
803* New tracing features
804
805 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
806
807 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
808
809 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
810 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
811 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
812 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
813 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
814 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
815 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
816 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
817 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
818 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 819
d5551862 820 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
821
822 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
823 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
824 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
825 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
826 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
827 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
828 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
829 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
830 the regular trace command.
831
d5551862
SS
832 ** Disconnected tracing
833
834 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
835 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
836 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
837 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
838 connection is lost unexpectedly.
839
00bf0b85
SS
840 ** Trace files
841
842 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
843 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
844 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
845 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
846 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
847 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
848 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
849
850 ** Circular trace buffer
851
852 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
853 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
854 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
855 not be available for all target agents.
856
21a0512e
PP
857* Changed commands
858
859disassemble
860 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
861 the arguments to be comma-separated.
862
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DJ
863info variables
864 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
865 which only declare a variable are not shown.
866
fb2e7cb4
JB
867source
868 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
869 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
870 support.
871
872 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
873 "set script-extension" (see below).
874
6c95b8df
PA
875* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
876
399cd161
MS
877record save [<FILENAME>]
878 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
879 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
880
881record restore <FILENAME>
882 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
883 earlier time, for replay debugging.
884
6c95b8df
PA
885add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
886 Add a new inferior.
887
888clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
889 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
890 inferior has loaded.
891
892remove-inferior ID
893 Remove an inferior.
894
895maint info program-spaces
896 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
897
9a7071a8
JB
898set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
899show remote interrupt-sequence
900 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
901 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
902 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
903 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
904 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
905
906set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
907show remote interrupt-on-connect
908 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
909 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
910 Linux kernel.
911
912set remotebreak [on | off]
913show remotebreak
914Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
915
f61e138d
SS
916tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
917 Create or modify a trace state variable.
918
919info tvariables
920 List trace state variables and their values.
921
922delete tvariable $NAME ...
923 Delete one or more trace state variables.
924
6da95a67
SS
925teval EXPR, ...
926 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
927 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
928
7a697b8d
SS
929ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
930 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
931
b0f02ee9
JK
932* New expression syntax
933
934 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
935 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
936
6c95b8df
PA
937* New options
938
939set follow-exec-mode new|same
940show follow-exec-mode
941 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
942 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
943 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
944
236f1d4d
SS
945set default-collect EXPR, ...
946show default-collect
947 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
948 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
949 such as registers or a critical global variable.
950
d5551862
SS
951set disconnected-tracing
952show disconnected-tracing
953 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
954 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
955 upon disconnection.
956
4daf5ac0
SS
957set circular-trace-buffer
958show circular-trace-buffer
959 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
960 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
961 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
962 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
963
fb2e7cb4
JB
964set script-extension off|soft|strict
965show script-extension
966 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
967 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
968 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
969 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
970 evaluation failed.
971 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
972
2b71fc8e
JB
973set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
974show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
975 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
976 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
977 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
978 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
979 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
980 is on.
981
de2e5182
TT
982* Python API Improvements
983
984 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
985 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
986 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
987
988 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
989 `is_base_class' attribute.
990
991 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
992
993 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
994 evaluate an expression.
995
f61e138d
SS
996* New remote packets
997
998QTDV
999 Define a trace state variable.
1000
1001qTV
1002 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1003
d5551862
SS
1004QTDisconnected
1005 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1006
4daf5ac0
SS
1007QTBuffer:circular
1008 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1009
d5551862
SS
1010qTfP, qTsP
1011 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1012
2d483d34
MS
1013* Bug fixes
1014
1015Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1016
6e0e5977
JB
1017Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1018much more reliable. In particular:
1019 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1020 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1021 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1022 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1023 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1024 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1025 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1026 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1027 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1028 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1029 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1030 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1031 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1032 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1033 non-threaded programs.
1034
93c26624
JK
1035PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1036This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1037libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1038executable program.
1039
abc7453d 1040*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 1041
4efc6507
DE
1042* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1043dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1044them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1045for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1046"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1047
782b2b07
SS
1048* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1049breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1050or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1051the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1052for tracepoint actions.
1053
53a71c06
CR
1054* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1055raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1056modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 1057
e7a8dbfb
HZ
1058* Process record and replay
1059
1060 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1061 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1062 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1063 execute commands.
1064
64644d9b
MS
1065* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1066step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1067set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1068reverse execution.
1069
b9412953
DD
1070* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1071feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
10722.6.28 or later.
1073
6c7a06a3
TT
1074* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1075target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1076char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1077literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1078U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1079`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1080system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1081the installation instructions for more information.
1082
f1838a98
UW
1083* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1084remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1085with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1086the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1087
55333a84
DE
1088* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1089and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1090
7f6a6314
PM
1091* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1092now complete on file names.
1093
65d12d83
TT
1094* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1095completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1096For instance, consider:
1097
1098 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1099 # struct example variable;
1100 (gdb) p variable.
1101
1102If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1103completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1104
edb3359d
DJ
1105* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1106the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1107
2fae03e8
TT
1108* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1109operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1110macros.
1111
47a3467a 1112* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
1113the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1114implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1115
1116* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1117registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1118can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1119and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 1120
08388c79
DE
1121* New remote packets
1122
1123qSearch:memory:
1124 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1125
a6f3e723
SL
1126QStartNoAckMode
1127 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1128 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1129 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1130
d7713ae0
EZ
1131vKill
1132 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1133 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1134
07e059b5
VP
1135qXfer:osdata:read
1136 Obtains additional operating system information
1137
47a3467a
PA
1138qXfer:siginfo:read
1139qXfer:siginfo:write
1140 Read or write additional signal information.
1141
060871df
PA
1142* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1143
1144 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1145 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1146 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1147
c055b101 1148* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 1149DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
1150
1151* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
1152and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1153`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 1154
31fffb02
CS
1155* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1156with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1157
88d8a8e0
JB
1158* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1159
7f99b190
JB
1160* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1161
ccd213ac
DJ
1162* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1163which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1164
1fddbabb 1165* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 1166list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 1167
a0ef4274
DJ
1168* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1169conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1170have also been fixed.
1171
bfb8797a 1172* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
1173From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1174are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 1175
71c25dea
TT
1176* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1177example, given:
1178
1179 template<typename T> class C { };
1180 C<char const *> c;
1181
1182GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1183
1184 ptype C<char const *>
1185 ptype C<char const*>
1186 ptype C<const char *>
1187 ptype C<const char*>
1188
ccd213ac
DJ
1189* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1190
1191 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1192 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1193
7ae0e2a2
UW
1194 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1195 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1196 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1197
a6f3e723
SL
1198 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1199 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1200
da8bd9a3
DJ
1201 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1202 gdbserver.
1203
d70e31dd
DE
1204 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1205 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1206
1207 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1208 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1209 as appropriate.
1210
d57a3c85
TJB
1211* Python scripting
1212
1213 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1214 available is determined at configure time.
1215
d8906c6f
TJB
1216 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1217
aadc346a
JB
1218* Ada tasking support
1219
1220 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1221 been introduced:
1222
1223 info tasks
1224 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1225 info task N
1226 Print detailed information about task number N.
1227 task
1228 Print the task number of the current task.
1229 task N
1230 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1231
adb483fe
DJ
1232* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1233add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1234
2277426b
PA
1235* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1236
1237 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1238 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1239 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1240 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1241 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1242 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1243 below.
1244
08d16641
PA
1245* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1246"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1247information.
1248
e35359c5
UW
1249* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1250to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1251architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1252See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1253more information.
1254
85e747d2
UW
1255* Multi-architecture debugging.
1256
1257 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1258 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1259 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1260 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1261 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1262
1263* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1264use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1265Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1266powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1267--enable-targets configure option.
1268
11ade57a
PA
1269* Non-stop mode debugging.
1270
1271 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1272 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1273 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1274 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1275 section in the user manual for more information.
1276
1277 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1278 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1279 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1280 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1281 extensions on linux targets.
1282
d7713ae0 1283* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 1284
a96d9b2e
SDJ
1285catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1286 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1287 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1288 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1289 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1290 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1291 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1292 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1293 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1294
08388c79
DE
1295find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1296 val1 [, val2, ...]
1297 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1298
d57a3c85
TJB
1299maint set python print-stack
1300maint show python print-stack
1301 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1302
1303python [CODE]
1304 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1305
d7713ae0
EZ
1306macro define
1307macro list
1308macro undef
1309 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1310 interactively.
1311
1312info os processes
1313 Show operating system information about processes.
1314
2277426b
PA
1315info inferiors
1316 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1317
1318inferior NUM
1319 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1320
1321detach inferior NUM
1322 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1323
1324kill inferior NUM
1325 Kill inferior number NUM.
1326
d7713ae0
EZ
1327* New options
1328
3285f3fe
UW
1329set spu stop-on-load
1330show spu stop-on-load
1331 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1332
ff1a52c6
UW
1333set spu auto-flush-cache
1334show spu auto-flush-cache
1335 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1336 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1337
d7713ae0
EZ
1338set sh calling-convention
1339show sh calling-convention
1340 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1341
e0a3ce09 1342set debug timestamp
75feb17d 1343show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
1344 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1345
1346set disassemble-next-line
1347show disassemble-next-line
1348 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1349 the debuggee stops.
1350
1351set remote noack-packet
1352show remote noack-packet
1353 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1354 under "New remote packets."
1355
1356set remote query-attached-packet
1357show remote query-attached-packet
1358 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1359
1360set remote read-siginfo-object
1361show remote read-siginfo-object
1362 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1363 packet.
1364
1365set remote write-siginfo-object
1366show remote write-siginfo-object
1367 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1368 packet.
1369
40ab02ce
MS
1370set remote reverse-continue
1371show remote reverse-continue
1372 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1373
1374set remote reverse-step
1375show remote reverse-step
1376 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1377
d7713ae0
EZ
1378set displaced-stepping
1379show displaced-stepping
1380 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1381 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1382 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1383
1384set debug displaced
1385show debug displaced
1386 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1387
1388maint set internal-error
1389maint show internal-error
1390 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1391
1392maint set internal-warning
1393maint show internal-warning
1394 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 1395
ccd213ac
DJ
1396set exec-wrapper
1397show exec-wrapper
1398unset exec-wrapper
1399 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 1400
aad4b048
JB
1401set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1402show multiple-symbols
1403 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1404 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1405 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1406
74960c60
VP
1407set breakpoint always-inserted
1408show breakpoint always-inserted
1409 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1410 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1411 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1412
0428b8f5
DJ
1413set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1414show arm fallback-mode
1415set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1416show arm force-mode
1417 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1418 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1419 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1420 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1421
10568435
JK
1422set disable-randomization
1423show disable-randomization
1424 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1425 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1426 multiple debugging sessions.
1427
d7713ae0
EZ
1428set non-stop
1429show non-stop
1430 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1431 a breakpoint.
1432
b3eb342c 1433set target-async
d7713ae0 1434show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
1435 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1436 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1437 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1438 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1439
6c7a06a3
TT
1440set target-wide-charset
1441show target-wide-charset
1442 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1443 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1444
84603566
SL
1445set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1446show tcp auto-retry
1447set tcp connect-timeout
1448show tcp connect-timeout
1449 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1450 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1451 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1452
17a37d48
PP
1453set libthread-db-search-path
1454show libthread-db-search-path
1455 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1456 libthread_db.
1457
d4db2f36
PA
1458set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1459show schedule-multiple
1460 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1461 the current process.
1462
4e5d721f
DE
1463set stack-cache
1464show stack-cache
1465 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1466 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1467 affecting correctness.
1468
910c5da8
JB
1469set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1470show interactive-mode
1471 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1472 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1473 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1474 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1475 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1476
2277426b
PA
1477* Removed commands
1478
1479info forks
1480 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1481 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1482 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1483 command.
1484
1485fork NUM
1486 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1487 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1488 alias for the `fork' command.
1489
1490process PID
1491 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1492 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1493 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1494
1495delete fork NUM
1496 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1497 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1498 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1499 fork' command.
1500
1501detach fork NUM
1502 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1503 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1504 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1505 fork' command.
1506
a80b95ba
TG
1507* New native configurations
1508
1509x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1510
b8bfd3ed
JB
1511x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1512
75a2d5e7
TT
1513* New targets
1514
c28c63d8 1515Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 1516x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 1517x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 1518S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 1519
6de3146c
PA
1520* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1521 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1522
d5cbbe6e
JB
1523* Removed commands
1524
1525catch load
1526catch unload
1527 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1528
75feb17d 1529*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 1530
af5ca30d
NH
1531* New native configurations
1532
1533NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 1534Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
1535
1536* New targets
1537
1538NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 1539Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 1540
7a404eba
PA
1541* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1542
1543 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1544 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1545 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1546 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1547
430ebac9
PA
1548* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1549(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1550
fe6fbf8b 1551* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 1552is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
1553
1554* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
1555including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1556and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 1557
10665d76
JB
1558* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1559accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1560more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1561
7cc46491
DJ
1562* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1563
d71340b8
DJ
1564* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1565registers on PowerPC targets.
1566
523c4513
DJ
1567* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1568targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1569
a6b151f1
DJ
1570* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1571commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1572
2d717e4f
DJ
1573* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1574extended-remote mode.
1575
24a836bd 1576* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
1577The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1578error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1579The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 1580
d0c678e6
UW
1581* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1582building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1583target architectures.
1584
d64a946d
TJB
1585* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1586Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1587now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1588stored in two consecutive float registers.
1589
ee163bf5
VP
1590* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1591breakpoints now.
1592
b93b6ca7 1593* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
1594Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1595include:
b93b6ca7
JB
1596 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1597 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1598 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1599 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1600 of an assignment
1601 - Improved command completion in Ada
1602 - Several bug fixes
1603
d001be7a
DJ
1604* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1605process.
1606
a6b151f1
DJ
1607* New commands
1608
6d53d0af
JB
1609set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1610show print frame-arguments
1611 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1612 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1613
a6b151f1
DJ
1614remote put
1615remote get
1616remote delete
1617 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1618
1619* New MI commands
1620
1621-target-file-put
1622-target-file-get
1623-target-file-delete
1624 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1625
1626* New remote packets
1627
1628vFile:open:
1629vFile:close:
1630vFile:pread:
1631vFile:pwrite:
1632vFile:unlink:
1633 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 1634
2d717e4f
DJ
1635vAttach
1636 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1637 mode.
1638
1639vRun
1640 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1641
8d5f9c6f 1642*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 1643
19d378fc
MS
1644* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1645bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1646Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1647
3a40aaa0
UW
1648* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1649symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1650-Bsymbolic linker option.
1651
a6ec25f2
BW
1652* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1653recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1654is not supported.
1655
6dd09645
JB
1656* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1657frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1658
c9bb8148
DJ
1659* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
166032-bit or 64-bit register values.
1661
0d5de010
DJ
1662* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1663
23181151
DJ
1664* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1665target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1666a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1667
ea37ba09
DJ
1668* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1669automatically displayed as character or string data.
1670
1671* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1672arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1673as strings.
e1f48ead 1674
123dc839
DJ
1675* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1676for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1677only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1678
05a4558a
DJ
1679* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1680iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1681
7c963485
PA
1682* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1683ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1684has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1685
b18be20d
DJ
1686* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1687
0ca420ce
UW
1688* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1689
31d99776
DJ
1690* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1691layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1692segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1693
a4642986
MR
1694* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1695immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1696
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1697* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1698"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1699packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1700where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1701Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1702
1703* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1704(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1705
1706* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1707according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1708
c9bb8148
DJ
1709* New commands
1710
23776285
MR
1711set remoteflow
1712show remoteflow
1713 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1714 when debugging using remote targets.
1715
c9bb8148
DJ
1716set mem inaccessible-by-default
1717show mem inaccessible-by-default
1718 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1719 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1720 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1721 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1722 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1723
1724set breakpoint auto-hw
1725show breakpoint auto-hw
1726 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1727 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1728 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1729 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1730 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1731 including "next" and "finish".
1732
0e420bd8
JB
1733catch exception
1734catch exception unhandled
1735 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1736
1737catch assert
1738 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1739
f822c95b
DJ
1740set sysroot
1741show sysroot
1742 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1743 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1744 an alias to "set sysroot".
1745
83cc5c53
UW
1746info spu
1747 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1748 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1749 architecture.
1750
bd372731
MK
1751* New native configurations
1752
1753OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1754
23181151
DJ
1755set tdesc filename
1756unset tdesc filename
1757show tdesc filename
1758 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1759 not query the target for its built-in description.
1760
c9bb8148
DJ
1761* New targets
1762
54fe9172 1763OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1764MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1765Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1766
6dd09645
JB
1767* New remote packets
1768
1769QPassSignals:
1770 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1771 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1772
23181151
DJ
1773qXfer:features:read:
1774 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1775 features.
6dd09645 1776
83cc5c53
UW
1777qXfer:spu:read:
1778qXfer:spu:write:
1779 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1780 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1781
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1782qXfer:libraries:read:
1783 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1784 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1785 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1786 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1787
483367ee
DJ
1788* Removed targets
1789
1790Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1791
d08950c4
UW
1792alpha*-*-osf1*
1793alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1794d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1795hppa*-*-hiux*
1796i[34567]86-ncr-*
1797i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1798i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1799i[34567]86-*-netware*
1800i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1801i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1802i[34567]86-*-sco*
1803i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1804i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1805i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1806i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1807i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1808i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1809i[34567]86-*-isc*
1810m68*-cisco*-*
1811m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1812mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1813rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1814sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1815
7ce59000
DJ
1816* Other removed features
1817
1818target abug
1819target cpu32bug
1820target est
1821target rom68k
1822
1823 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1824
ea35711c
DJ
1825target hms
1826target e7000
1827target sh3
1828target sh3e
1829
1830 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1831 H8/300.
1832
1833target ocd
1834
1835 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1836 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1837 interfaces.
1838
7ce59000
DJ
1839DWARF 1 support
1840
1841 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1842 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1843
54d61198
DJ
1844Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1845
1846 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1847 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1848 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1849 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1850
ea35711c
DJ
1851MIPS ".pdr" sections
1852
1853 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1854 in debugging information.
1855
1856Scheme support
1857
1858 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1859 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1860
1a69e1e4
DJ
1861set mips stack-arg-size
1862set mips saved-gpreg-size
1863
1864 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1865
6dd09645 1866*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 1867
ca3bf3bd
DJ
1868* New targets
1869
1870Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 1871Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 1872
6aec2e11
DJ
1873* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1874(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1875running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1876
1877* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1878Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1879supported.
1880
17218d91
DJ
1881* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1882broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1883
9ebce043
DJ
1884* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1885stub provides the required support.
1886
7d3d3ece
DJ
1887* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1888longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1889
4f8253f3
JB
1890* New commands
1891
1892set substitute-path
1893unset substitute-path
1894show substitute-path
1895 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1896 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1897 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1898 between compilation and debugging.
1899
9fa66fd7
AS
1900set trace-commands
1901show trace-commands
1902 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1903 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1904 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1905
1f5befc1
DJ
1906* REMOVED features
1907
1908The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1909
2ec3381a
DJ
1910Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1911an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1912
3d00d119
DJ
1913The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1914
be2a5f71
DJ
1915* New remote packets
1916
1917qSupported:
1918 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1919 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1920 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1921 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1922 target.
1923
0876f84a
DJ
1924qXfer:auxv:read:
1925 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1926 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1927
9ebce043
DJ
1928qXfer:memory-map:read:
1929 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1930 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1931
1932vFlashErase:
1933vFlashWrite:
1934vFlashDone:
1935 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1936
0876f84a
DJ
1937* Removed remote packets
1938
1939qPart:auxv:read:
1940 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1941 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1942
e374b601 1943*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 1944
96309189
MS
1945* New targets
1946
1947Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1948
1949Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1950
53e5f3cf
AS
1951* New commands
1952
1953init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1954 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1955
ac264b3b
MS
1956The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1957
1958checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1959
1960restart <n> Return the program state to a
1961 previously saved state.
1962
1963info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1964
1965delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1966
1967set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1968 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1969
1970info forks List forks of the user program that
1971 are available to be debugged.
1972
1973fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1974 forks of the user program that are
1975 available to be debugged.
1976
1977delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1978 that are available to be debugged (and
1979 kill the forked process).
1980
1981detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1982 that are available to be debugged (and
1983 allow the process to continue).
1984
3950dc3f
NS
1985* New architecture
1986
1987Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1988
0ea3f30e
DJ
1989* Improved Windows host support
1990
1991GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1992native console support, and remote communications using either
1993network sockets or serial ports.
1994
f79daebb
GM
1995* Improved Modula-2 language support
1996
1997GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1998basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1999pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2000printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2001written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2002GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2003
acab6ab2
MM
2004* REMOVED features
2005
2006The ARM rdi-share module.
2007
f4267320
DJ
2008The Netware NLM debug server.
2009
53e5f3cf 2010*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 2011
e0ecbda1
MK
2012* New native configurations
2013
02a677ac 2014OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
2015OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2016
d64a6579
KB
2017* New targets
2018
2019Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2020
b33a6190
AS
2021* New command line options
2022
2023--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2024--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2025 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2026--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2027 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2028 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2029 with the --command (-x) option.
2030
11dced61
AC
2031* Deprecated commands removed
2032
2033The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2034removed:
2035
2036 Command Replacement
2037 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2038 othernames set arm disassembler
2039 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2040 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2041 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2042 regs info registers
2043
6fe85783
MK
2044* New BSD user-level threads support
2045
2046It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2047library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2048configurations are:
2049
2050FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2051FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2052OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2053
2054Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2055are not yet supported.
2056
5260ca71
MS
2057* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2058(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2059
e84ecc99
AC
2060* REMOVED configurations and files
2061
2062VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 2063Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 2064National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 2065
31e35378
JB
2066* New "set print array-indexes" command
2067
2068After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2069when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2070behavior.
2071
e85e5c83
MK
2072* VAX floating point support
2073
2074GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2075
d91e9901
AS
2076* User-defined command support
2077
2078In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2079to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2080section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2081
f2cb65ca
MC
2082*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2083
f47b1503
AS
2084* New command line option
2085
2086GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2087debugging.
2088
f2cb65ca
MC
2089* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2090
2091GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2092information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2093by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2094proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2095to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 2096
d08c0230
AC
2097* Internationalization
2098
2099When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2100internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2101continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2102
117ea3cf
PH
2103* Ada
2104
2105Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2106implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2107into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2108
d08c0230
AC
2109* New native configurations
2110
2111GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2112
2113* Remote 'p' packet
2114
2115GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2116packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2117
2118* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2119
2120GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2121The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2122features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2123i386 application).
2124
2125GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2126compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2127continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2128configurations:
2129
2130hppa-*-hpux
2131ia64-*-aix
2132mips-*-irix*
2133*-*-lynx
2134mips-*-linux-gnu
2135sds protocol
2136xdr protocol
2137powerpc bdm protocol
2138
2139Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2140made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2141
2142* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2143
2144Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2145been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2146configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2147permanently REMOVED.
2148
2149h8300-*-*
2150mcore-*-*
2151mn10300-*-*
2152ns32k-*-*
2153sh64-*-*
2154v850-*-*
2155
ebb7c577
AC
2156*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2157
2158* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2159
2160When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2161heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2162been fixed.
2163
2164* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2165
2166When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2167fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2168IRIX long double values).
2169
2170* VAX and "next"
2171
2172A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2173command. This problem has been fixed.
2174
860660cb 2175*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 2176
0dea2468
AC
2177* Fix for ``many threads''
2178
2179On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2180rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2181error message:
2182
2183 ptrace: No such process.
2184 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2185
2186This problem has been fixed.
2187
2c07db7a
AC
2188* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2189
2190Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2191GDB to dump core).
2192
c23968a2
JB
2193* New ``start'' command.
2194
2195This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2196
71009278
MK
2197* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2198
2199Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2200live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2201platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2202
2203FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2204FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2205NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2206NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2207NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2208OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2209OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2210OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2211OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2212
3c0b7db2
AC
2213* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2214
2215Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2216These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2217of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2218call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2219signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2220
73cc75f3
AC
2221Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2222features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2223include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 2224
7243600a
BF
2225* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2226
6f606e1c
MK
2227* New native configurations
2228
97dc871c 2229GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 2230OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
2231OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2232OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 2233OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2234NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 2235OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2236
a1b461bf
AC
2237* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2238
2239GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2240The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2241including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2242migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2243compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2244work, was also included.
2245
2246GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2247module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2248
2249h8300-*-*
2250mcore-*-*
2251mn10300-*-*
2252ns32k-*-*
2253sh64-*-*
2254v850-*-*
2255xstormy16-*-*
2256
2257Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2258made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2259
3c7012f5
AC
2260* REMOVED configurations and files
2261
2262Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2263Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2264Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2265Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2266Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2267AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2268Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2269decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2270riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2271sonymips mips-sony-*
2272sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2273
e5fe55f7
AC
2274*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2275
2276* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2277
2278The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2279GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2280command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2281program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2282with GDB".
2283
2284* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2285
2286Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2287libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2288cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2289GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2290shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2291the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2292are created.
2293
2294Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2295
2296* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2297
2298The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2299non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2300compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2301
2302* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2303
2304Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2305wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2306
2307* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2308
2309The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2310permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2311systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2312
2313* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2314
2315Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2316has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2317
2318* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2319
2320GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2321its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2322panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2323
2324* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2325
2326When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2327by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2328not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2329
faae5abe 2330*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 2331
9175c9a3
MC
2332* Removed --with-mmalloc
2333
2334Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2335conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2336
3cc87ec0
MK
2337* Changes in AMD64 configurations
2338
2339The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2340the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2341and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2342you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2343
f0424ef6
MK
2344* Revised SPARC target
2345
2346The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2347FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
2348support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2349from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2350(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 2351
59659be2
ILT
2352* New C++ demangler
2353
2354GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2355names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2356with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2357programs.
2358
9e08b29b
DJ
2359* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2360
2361GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2362arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2363encountered these.
2364
8dfe8985
DC
2365* C++ nested types and namespaces
2366
2367GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2368improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2369is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2370Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2371namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2372"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2373frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2374if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2375GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2376
cced5e27
MK
2377* New native configurations
2378
2379NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 2380OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 2381OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
2382OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2383OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 2384
b4b4b794
KI
2385* New debugging protocols
2386
2387M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2388
7989c619
AC
2389* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2390
2391The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2392and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2393tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2394
5994185b
AC
2395* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2396
2397Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2398been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2399configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2400permanently REMOVED.
2401
2402Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2403Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2404Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2405Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2406Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2407AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2408Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
2409decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2410riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2411sonymips mips-sony-*
2412sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 2413
0ddabb4c
AC
2414* REMOVED configurations and files
2415
2416SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2417SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
2418Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2419Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2420H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2421HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2422HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2423HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2424PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 2425386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
2426Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2427 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2428 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
2429SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2430SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
2431Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2432Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 2433
c7f1390e
DJ
2434*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2435
1fe43d45
AC
2436* Objective-C
2437
2438Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2439integrated into GDB.
2440
e6beb428
AC
2441* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2442
2443DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2444information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2445By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2446backtraces.
2447
2448The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2449have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2450DWARF 2 CFI support.
2451
2452* Hosted file I/O.
2453
2454GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2455file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2456remote protocol documentation for details.
2457
2458* All targets using the new architecture framework.
2459
2460All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2461architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2462to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2463ppc32 on ppc64).
2464
2465* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2466
2467GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2468per-thread variables.
2469
2470* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2471
2472GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2473GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2474
2475* Separate debug info.
2476
2477GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2478automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2479of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2480system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2481and optional debug files.
2482
2483* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2484
2485DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2486describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2487debugger.
2488
2489GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2490for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2491
2492* Java
2493
2494A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2495Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2496considered "useable".
2497
85f8f974
DJ
2498* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2499
2500The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2501commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2502kernel.
2503
0fac0b41
DJ
2504* GDB supports logging output to a file
2505
2506There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2507used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 2508
6ad8ae5c
DJ
2509* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2510
2511The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2512disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2513command.
2514
e286caf2 2515* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
2516
2517The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2518registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2519
d28f9cdf
DJ
2520* Profiling support
2521
2522A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2523be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2524session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2525"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2526data, for more informative profiling results.
2527
da0f9dcd
AC
2528* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2529
2530The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2531option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 2532"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
2533
2534Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2535removed.
2536
fb9b6b35
JJ
2537Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2538Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2539Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2540 in a subsequent -var-update.
2541
954a4db8
MK
2542* New native configurations.
2543
2544FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2545
6760f9e6
JB
2546* Multi-arched targets.
2547
b4263afa 2548HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 2549Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 2550
1b831c93
AC
2551* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2552
2553Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2554been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2555configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2556permanently REMOVED.
2557
8b0e5691 2558Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 2559Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 2560H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
2561HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2562HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2563HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 2564PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
2565Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2566 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2567 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
2568Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2569Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 2570
5835abe7
NC
2571* REMOVED configurations and files
2572
2573V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
2574Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2575IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2576i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2577i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2578i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2579HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2580 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2581 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2582Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2583Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2584Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2585OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2586I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 2587
a094c6fb
AC
2588* MIPS $fp behavior changed
2589
2590The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2591the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2592context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2593address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2594The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2595
299ffc64 2596*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 2597
46248966
AC
2598* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2599
2600When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2601`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2602in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2603library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2604shared libs like mad''.
2605
b9d14705 2606* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 2607
b9d14705
DJ
2608Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2609the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2610arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2611powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 2612
e0e9281e
JB
2613* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2614
2615GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2616and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2617they expand.
2618
dd73b9bb
AC
2619The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2620invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2621
2622The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2623macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2624
e0e9281e
JB
2625Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2626information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2627your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2628information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2629
2250ee0c
CV
2630* Multi-arched targets.
2631
6e3ba3b8
JT
2632DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2633DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 2634NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 2635National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
2636Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2637Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 2638
cd9bfe15 2639* New targets.
e33ce519 2640
456f8b9d
DB
2641Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2642
e33ce519 2643
da8ca43d
JT
2644* New native configurations
2645
2646Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 2647SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 2648MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 2649UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 2650
cd9bfe15
AC
2651* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2652
2653Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2654been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2655configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2656permanently REMOVED.
2657
92eb23c5 2658Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 2659OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 2660IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 2661Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 2662Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 2663Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
2664i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2665i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2666i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
2667HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2668 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2669 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2670I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2671
db034ac5
AC
2672* OBSOLETE languages
2673
2674CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2675
cd9bfe15
AC
2676* REMOVED configurations and files
2677
2678AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2679A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2680AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2681AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2682AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2683
2684testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2685
20f01a46
DH
2686* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2687
2688This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2689commands. The default is 1024.
2690
a5941fbf
MK
2691* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2692
2693Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2694
89743e04
MS
2695* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2696
2697These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2698to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2699from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2700
9fb14e79
JB
2701* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2702
2703The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2704including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2705of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2706
2037aebb
AC
2707*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2708
2709* New targets.
2710
2711Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2712
2713* Bug fixes
2714
2715gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2716mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2717Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2718
2719gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2720dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2721Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2722
2723Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2724Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2725By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2726
2727i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2728avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2729By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2730
37057839 2731*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2732
1a703748
MS
2733* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2734
2735This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2736really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2737In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2738target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2739This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2740(notably embedded) targets.
2741
cefd4ef5
MS
2742* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2743
55241689
AC
2744This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2745process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2746GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2747hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2748
352ed7b4
MS
2749* New command line option
2750
2751GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2752
2753* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2754
2755There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2756command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2757a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2758be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2759open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2760issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2761a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2762it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2763GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2764is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2765
fe419ffc
RE
2766* Changes in ARM configurations.
2767
2768Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2769configuration is fully multi-arch.
2770
eb7cedd9
MK
2771* New native configurations
2772
fe419ffc 2773ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2774x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2775AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2776Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2777
c9f63e6b
CV
2778* New targets
2779
2780Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2781
9b4ff276
AC
2782* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2783
2784Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2785been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2786configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2787permanently REMOVED.
2788
2789AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2790A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2791AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2792AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2793AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2794
b4ceaee6 2795testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2796
e2caac18
AC
2797* REMOVED configurations and files
2798
2799TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2800WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2801PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2802PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2803PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2804Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2805Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2806 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2807SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2808Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2809Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2810ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2811Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2812
c2a727fa
TT
2813* Changes to command line processing
2814
2815The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2816for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2817
467d8519
TT
2818* Changes to key bindings
2819
2820There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2821
7072a954
AC
2822*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2823
2824Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2825
2826Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2827corrupted.
2828
2829Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2830
2831Numerous documentation fixes.
2832
2833Numerous testsuite fixes.
2834
34f47bc4 2835*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2836
2837* New native configurations
2838
2839Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2840x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2841MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2842MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2843ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2844s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2845
bf64bfd6
AC
2846* New targets
2847
def90278 2848Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2849CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2850UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2851
17e78a56 2852* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2853
2854x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2855Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2856Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2857 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2858TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2859WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2860Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2861PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2862PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2863PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2864SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
2865Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2866ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 2867Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 2868
17e78a56
AC
2869stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2870kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2871
7fcca85b
AC
2872Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2873been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2874configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2875permanently REMOVED.
2876
a196c81c 2877* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
2878
2879Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2880Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2881Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2882ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2883Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 2884ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 2885
6d6b80e5 2886* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 2887
6d6b80e5 2888GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
2889sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2890present.
2891
bf64bfd6
AC
2892* Other news:
2893
e23194cb
EZ
2894* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2895
2896* The MI enabled by default.
2897
2898The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2899revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2900engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2901using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2902which is now deprecated.
2903
2904* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2905
2906GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2907main features are supported:
2908
2909 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2910
2911 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2912 extension;
2913
2914 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2915
2916 - a Pascal expression parser.
2917
2918However, some important features are not yet supported.
2919
2920 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2921
2922 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2923
2924 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2925 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2926
2927 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2928
2929 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2930
2931* Changes in completion.
2932
2933Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2934to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2935users expect at the shell prompt.
2936
2937Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2938`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2939program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2940files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2941be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2942considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2943name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2944
2945`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2946
2947* New platform-independent commands:
2948
2949It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2950hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2951documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2952
2953* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2954
d7275149
MK
2955Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2956revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2957many threads as your system allows you to have.
2958
e23194cb
EZ
2959Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2960
d7275149
MK
2961Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2962multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
2963
2964* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
2965
2966Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2967
e23194cb
EZ
2968GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2969debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2970supported.)
2971
2972* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2973
2974Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2975breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2976implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2977put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2978and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2979registers.
2980
2981The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2982debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2983watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2984
2985* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2986
2987New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2988the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2989
2990New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2991display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2992IDT.
2993
2994New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2995from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2996New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2997a given linear address.
2998
2999GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3000program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3001which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3002
3003DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3004
6c56c069
EZ
3005It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3006
e23194cb
EZ
3007* Changes in documentation.
3008
3009All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3010Documentation License.
3011
3012Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3013manual.
3014
3015TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3016
3017Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3018manual.
3019
3020The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3021documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3022hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3023
5d6640b1
AC
3024* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3025
3026The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3027``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3028contents of this file.
3029
1a1d8446
AC
3030* gdba.el deleted
3031
3032GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 3033
9debab2f 3034*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 3035
c63ce875
EZ
3036* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3037
3038Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3039programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3040displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3041greater level of detail.
3042
3043* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3044
3045It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3046bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3047on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3048written.
3049
3050* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3051
3052The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3053necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3054machines ``out of the box''.
3055
3056The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3057possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3058signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3059would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3060interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3061
3062It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3063standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3064even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3065and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3066terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3067
3068The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3069enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3070also works.
3071
3072DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3073GDB.
3074
3075It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3076directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3077times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3078breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3079
ed9a39eb
JM
3080* New native configurations
3081
3082ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 3083PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 3084
7a292a7a
SS
3085* New targets
3086
96baa820 3087Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
3088x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3089PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
3090TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3091
085dd6e6
JM
3092* OBSOLETE configurations
3093
3094Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3095Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 3096Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 3097ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 3098Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 3099
9debab2f
AC
3100Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3101but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3102these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3103be permanently REMOVED.
3104
5330533d
SS
3105* Gould support removed
3106
3107Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3108
bc9e5bbf
AC
3109* New features for SVR4
3110
3111On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3112without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3113load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3114
3115* Many C++ enhancements
3116
3117C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3118in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3119
adf40b2e
JM
3120* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3121
3122A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3123sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3124with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3125``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3126
3127 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3128 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3129
43e526b9
JM
3130* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3131
3132A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3133expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3134instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3135
3136The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3137added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3138
96baa820
JM
3139* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3140
3141The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3142``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3143include ``set remote P-packet''.
3144
11cf8741
JM
3145* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3146
3147The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3148accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3149``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3150
7876dd43
DB
3151* ``apropos'' command added.
3152
3153The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3154documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3155try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3156
bc9e5bbf
AC
3157* New MI interface
3158
3159A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3160interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
3161process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3162"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3163enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
3164
3165 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3166
c906108c
SS
3167*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3168
3169* New native configurations
3170
3171HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3172HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 3173M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
3174
3175* New targets
3176
3177Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3178Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3179Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3180
3181* OBSOLETE configurations
3182
3183Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3184
3185Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3186but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3187these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3188be permanently REMOVED.
3189
3190* ANSI/ISO C
3191
3192As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3193buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3194containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3195use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3196available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3197configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3198information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3199already.
3200
3201* Readline 2.2
3202
3203GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3204
3205* set extension-language
3206
3207You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3208languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3209you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3210 set extension-language .c c++
3211The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3212and their associated languages.
3213
3214* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3215
3216When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3217you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3218PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3219
3220 set processor NAME
3221
3222sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3223following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3224
3225 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3226 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3227 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3228 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3229 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3230 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3231 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3232 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3233 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3234 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3235 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3236
3237At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3238special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3239registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3240only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3241
3242* HP-UX support
3243
3244Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3245more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3246library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3247support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3248for xdb and dbx commands.
3249
3250* Catchpoints
3251
3252HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3253generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3254to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3255
3256This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3257argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3258output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3259
3260* Debugging across forks
3261
3262On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3263in the inferior.
3264
3265* TUI
3266
3267HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3268it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3269configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3270
3271* GDB remote protocol additions
3272
3273A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3274Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3275fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3276allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3277
3278For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3279full 64-bit address. The command
3280
3281 set remoteaddresssize 32
3282
3283can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3284the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3285will be discarded.
3286
3287In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3288command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3289
3290 maint packet heythere
3291
3292sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3293disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3294time.
3295
3296The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3297target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3298downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3299
3300* Tracing can collect general expressions
3301
3302You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3303further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3304doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3305
3306* mask-address variable for Mips
3307
3308For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3309a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3310of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3311
3312* Higher serial baud rates
3313
3314GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3315230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3316to achieve all of these rates.)
3317
3318* i960 simulator
3319
3320The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3321builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3322
3323
3324*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3325
3326* New native configurations
3327
3328Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3329Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3330Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3331PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3332PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3333Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3334Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3335
3336* New targets
3337
3338Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3339Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3340Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3341Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3342MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3343MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3344MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3345Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3346Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3347Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3348NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3349
3350* New debugging protocols
3351
3352ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3353M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3354DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3355PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3356PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3357Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3358
3359* DWARF 2
3360
3361All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3362format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3363information.
3364
3365* Java frontend
3366
3367GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3368only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3369
3370* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3371
3372For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3373loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3374locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3375
3376* Live range splitting
3377
3378GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3379range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3380more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3381
3382* Hurd support
3383
3384GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3385updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3386
3387* ARM Thumb support
3388
3389GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3390instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3391instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3392accordingly.
3393
3394* MIPS16 support
3395
3396GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3397instruction set.
3398
3399* Overlay support
3400
3401GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3402linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3403will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3404control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3405additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3406in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3407
3408* info symbol
3409
3410The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3411the symbol at the specified address.
3412
3413* Trace support
3414
3415The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3416asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3417extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3418includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3419file tracepoint.c for more details.
3420
3421* MIPS simulator
3422
3423Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3424by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3425of most MIPS variants.
3426
3427* Sparc simulator
3428
3429Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3430by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3431Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3432
3433* set architecture
3434
3435For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3436basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3437architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3438the possible architectures.
3439
3440*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3441
3442* New native configurations
3443
3444Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3445M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3446PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3447PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3448PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3449RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3450
3451* New targets
3452
3453ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3454I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3455MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3456MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3457PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3458Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3459Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3460
3461* PowerPC simulator
3462
3463The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3464contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3465PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3466basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3467performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3468
3469* Solaris 2.5
3470
3471GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3472
3473* Windows 95/NT native
3474
3475GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3476To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3477which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3478Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3479ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3480
3481* dont-repeat command
3482
3483If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3484command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3485useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3486extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3487
3488* Send break instead of ^C
3489
3490The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3491rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3492GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3493
3494* Remote protocol timeout
3495
3496The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3497that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3498to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3499
3500* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3501
3502By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3503loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3504stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3505when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3506in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3507
3508Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3509/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3510automatically on hpux10.
3511
3512* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3513
3514Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3515
3516* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3517
3518When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3519may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3520the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3521every character. The default value is 1050.
3522
3523* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3524
3525If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3526a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3527replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3528details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3529remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3530to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3531
3532* Speedups for remote debugging
3533
3534GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3535the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3536and more efficient S-record downloading.
3537
3538* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3539
3540GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3541Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3542
3543*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3544
3545* Psymtabs for XCOFF
3546
3547The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3548can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3549
3550* Remote targets use caching
3551
3552Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3553remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3554it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3555debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3556off' turns the the data cache off.
3557
3558* Remote targets may have threads
3559
3560The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3561in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3562gdb/remote.c for details.
3563
3564* NetROM support
3565
3566If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3567support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3568acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3569write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3570support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3571another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3572sequence is something like
3573
3574 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3575 load <prog>
3576 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3577
3578* Macintosh host
3579
3580GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3581may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3582it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3583available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3584device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3585directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3586scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3587mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3588
3589* Autoconf
3590
3591GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3592but does simplify configuration and building.
3593
3594* hpux10
3595
3596GDB now supports hpux10.
3597
3598*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3599
3600* New native configurations
3601
3602x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3603x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3604NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3605Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3606
3607* New targets
3608
3609A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3610HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3611CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3612PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3613WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3614
3615* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3616
3617GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3618possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3619filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3620the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3621if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3622
3623* Arguments to user-defined commands
3624
3625User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3626Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3627trivial example:
3628define adder
3629 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3630
3631To execute the command use:
3632adder 1 2 3
3633
3634Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3635Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3636use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3637
3638* New `if' and `while' commands
3639
3640This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3641commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3642expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3643execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3644terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3645`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3646if the expression is zero.
3647
3648* Fortran source language mode
3649
3650GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3651Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3652variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3653with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3654Fortran compilers.
3655
3656* Better HPUX support
3657
3658Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3659running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3660processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3661for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3662that behavior do the following before running the program:
3663
3664 adb -w a.out
3665 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3666 control-d
3667
3668This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3669To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3670
3671 adb -w a.out
3672 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3673 control-d
3674
3675You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3676the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3677external linkage.
3678
3679GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3680HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3681
3682* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3683
3684You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3685commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3686current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3687"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3688associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3689configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3690
3691* New DOS host serial code
3692
3693This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3694no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3695a PC's serial port.
3696
3697*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3698
3699* New "complete" command
3700
3701This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3702were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3703
3704* Trailing space optional in prompt
3705
3706"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3707allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3708
3709* Breakpoint hit counts
3710
3711"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3712has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3713can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3714to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3715less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3716that breakpoint.
3717
3718* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3719
3720"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3721an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3722arrays actually contain only short strings.
3723
3724* Shared library breakpoints
3725
3726In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3727breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3728
3729* Hardware watchpoints
3730
3731There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3732targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3733
55241689 3734Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3735
3736* Annotations
3737
3738Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3739and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3740
3741* Improved Irix 5 support
3742
3743GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3744
3745* Improved HPPA support
3746
3747GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3748
3749* New native configurations
3750
3751Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3752HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3753Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3754RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3755
3756* New targets
3757
3758OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3759MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3760Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3761
3762* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3763
3764There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3765This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3766
3767* Fixes
3768
3769As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3770and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3771
3772*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3773
3774* Irix 5 is now supported
3775
3776* HPPA support
3777
3778GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3779to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3780GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3781of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3782can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3783
3784
3785*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3786
3787* User visible changes:
3788
3789* Remote Debugging
3790
3791The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3792target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3793debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3794integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3795debugging info for the mips target).
3796
3797* DEC Alpha native support
3798
3799GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3800debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3801work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3802Alpha-specific notes.
3803
3804* Preliminary thread implementation
3805
3806GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3807
3808* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3809
3810This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3811to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3812for details).
3813
3814* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3815
3816This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3817mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3818call methods, ...etc.
3819
3820*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3821
3822 * User visible changes:
3823
3824Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3825supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3826other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3827somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3828
3829Filename completion now works.
3830
3831When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3832arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3833addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3834
3835All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3836vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3837should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3838your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3839to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3840
3841 * DEC alpha support
3842
3843This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3844cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3845
3846
3847*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3848
3849 * Testsuite
3850
3851This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3852The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3853via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3854
3855 * C++ demangling
3856
3857'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3858emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3859Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3860disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3861use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3862
3863 * Simulators
3864
3865GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3866So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3867Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3868
3869 * New targets supported
3870
3871H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3872H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3873SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3874Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3875IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3876
3877Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3878version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3879GO32 memory extender.
3880
3881 * New remote protocols
3882
3883MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3884
3885 * New source languages supported
3886
3887This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3888used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3889into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3890
3891
3892*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3893
3894 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3895
3896GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3897version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3898University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3899compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3900format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3901(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3902
3903Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3904
3905 * Faster and better demangling
3906
3907We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3908demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3909character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3910only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3911This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3912increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3913symbol lookups.
3914
3915`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3916from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3917compiler does not actually implement.
3918
3919 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3920
3921In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3922inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3923recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3924very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3925The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3926circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3927fix.
3928
3929The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3930release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3931
3932 * Improved configure script
3933
3934The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3935you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3936host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3937done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3938
3939We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3940version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3941`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3942The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3943only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3944We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3945
3946 * Documentation improvements
3947
3948There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3949produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3950before submitting changes.
3951
3952The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3953M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3954`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3955you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3956a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3957
3958*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3959We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3960been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3961or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3962`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3963around this problem.
3964
3965 * New features
3966
3967GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3968the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3969`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3970the target program.
3971
3972The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3973how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3974
3975 * New native hosts supported
3976
3977HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3978386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3979
3980 * New targets supported
3981
3982AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3983
3984 * New file formats supported
3985
3986BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3987HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3988
3989 * Major bug fixes
3990
3991Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3992
3993We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3994printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3995
3996We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3997for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3998release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3999
4000You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4001will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4002
4003We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4004for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4005especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4006libraries.
4007
4008The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4009information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4010command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4011any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4012when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4013
4014 * Internal improvements
4015
4016GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4017debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4018
4019GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4020Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4021symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4022contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4023shared code that handles any of them.
4024
4025 * New command line options
4026
4027We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4028
4029 * Mmalloc licensing
4030
4031The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4032General Public License.
4033
4034*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4035
4036 * Host/native/target split
4037
4038GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4039hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4040target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4041local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4042ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4043
4044The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4045GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4046is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4047code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4048any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4049built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4050handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4051
4052GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4053It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4054plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4055
4056 * New hosts supported
4057
4058HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4059386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4060386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4061
4062 * New targets supported
4063
4064Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
406568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4066
4067 * New native hosts supported
4068
4069386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4070 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4071386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4072
4073 * New file formats supported
4074
4075BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4076supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4077format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4078
4079 * New commands
4080
4081`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4082`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4083These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4084
4085`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4086
4087You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4088scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4089prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4090executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4091
4092 * C++ improvements
4093
4094We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4095info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4096symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4097
4098Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4099
4100 * Major bug fixes
4101
4102The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4103fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4104by the compiler.
4105
4106We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4107support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4108
4109John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4110slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4111that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4112purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4113the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4114mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4115
4116Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4117about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4118completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4119we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4120
4121 * AMD 29k support
4122
4123A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4124specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4125calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4126usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4127in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4128
4129We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4130Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4131of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4132resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4133
4134 * Remote interfaces
4135
4136We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4137with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4138message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4139This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4140needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4141breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4142each instruction being stepped through.
4143
4144The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4145registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4146
4147There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4148find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4149Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4150processor with a serial port.
4151
4152 * Configuration
4153
4154Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4155`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4156supported, and what files each one uses.
4157
4158 * Library changes
4159
4160There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4161disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4162Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4163disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4164
4165The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4166Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4167can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4168grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4169
4170 * Documentation
4171
4172The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4173reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4174as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4175encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4176system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4177bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4178
4179And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4180
4181
4182*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4183
4184 * Better support for C++ function names
4185
4186GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4187names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4188(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4189single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4190Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4191
4192GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4193the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4194You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4195lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4196for the list of formats.
4197
4198 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4199
4200Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4201C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4202directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4203can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4204usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4205about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4206this problem.)
4207
4208 * New 'maintenance' command
4209
4210All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4211the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4212can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4213
4214 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4215 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4216 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4217 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4218 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4219 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4220
4221The following commands are new:
4222
4223 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4224 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4225 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4226
4227 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4228
4229We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4230(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4231be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4232read after argv processing.
4233
4234 * New hosts supported
4235
4236Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4237
55241689 4238GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
4239
4240We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4241is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4242for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4243masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4244fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4245It costs extra.
4246
4247 * New targets supported
4248
4249Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4250
4251 * More smarts about finding #include files
4252
4253GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4254all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4255greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4256especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4257the one that contains your sources.
4258
4259We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4260breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4261try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4262
4263 * Interesting infernals change
4264
4265GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4266section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4267target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4268stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4269
4270 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4271
4272There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4273 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4274 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4275
4276See the ChangeLog for details.
4277
4278*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4279
4280 * New machines supported (host and target)
4281
4282IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4283
4284SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4285
4286 * New malloc package
4287
4288GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4289Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4290capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4291This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4292pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4293more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4294
4295 * info proc
4296
4297The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4298'help info proc' for details.
4299
4300 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4301
4302The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4303Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4304possible.
4305
4306 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4307
4308Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4309support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4310conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4311environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4312that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4313in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4314
4315 * Cross byte order fixes
4316
4317Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4318targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4319
4320 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4321
4322If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4323system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4324`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4325program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4326called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4327Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4328and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4329the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4330option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4331starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4332
4333You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4334the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4335information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4336slower, but makes future operations faster.
4337
4338The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4339build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4340A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4341use is:
4342
4343 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4344
4345The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4346It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4347shared across multiple host platforms.
4348
4349 * longjmp() handling
4350
4351GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4352siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4353all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4354platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4355
4356 * Solaris 2.0
4357
4358Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4359this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4360reading symbols.
4361
4362 * Bug fixes
4363
4364As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4365People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4366crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4367
4368*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4369
4370 * New machines supported (host and target)
4371
4372SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4373 (except core files)
4374BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4375Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4376
4377 * New machines supported (target)
4378
4379AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4380
4381 * C++ support
4382
4383GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4384The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4385per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4386
4387GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4388`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4389extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4390good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4391will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4392released.
4393
4394 * New features for SVR4
4395
4396GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4397shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4398only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4399
4400The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4401on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4402it prints the address mappings of the process.
4403
4404If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4405bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4406
4407 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4408
4409Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4410now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4411skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4412make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4413same code linked statically.
4414
4415 * New Getopt
4416
4417GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4418version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4419continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4420Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4421added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4422future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4423
4424 * Bugs fixed
4425
4426The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4427Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4428See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4429
4430
4431*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4432
4433 * New machines supported (host and target)
4434
4435Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4436NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4437Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4438
4439 * Almost SCO Unix support
4440
4441We had hoped to support:
4442SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4443(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4444that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4445about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4446
4447 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4448
4449GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4450debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4451is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4452send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4453reqired (if any).
4454
4455 * New Readline
4456
4457GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4458is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4459required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4460
4461 * Bugs fixed
4462
4463The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4464Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4465See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4466
4467 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4468
4469GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4470supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4471symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4472
4473Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4474mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4475debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4476mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4477version 2.
4478
4479Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4480really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4481line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4482variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4483situation somewhat.
4484
4485When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4486However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4487methods.
4488
4489We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4490DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4491encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4492
4493
4494*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4495
4496 * Improved configuration
4497
4498Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4499Porting BFD is simpler.
4500
4501 * Stepping improved
4502
4503The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4504of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4505in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4506function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4507
4508 * Bug fixing
4509
4510Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4511
4512 * New host supported (not target)
4513
4514Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4515
4516
4517*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4518
4519 * Multiple source language support
4520
4521GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4522It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4523and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4524language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4525You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4526`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4527
4528 * GDB and Modula-2
4529
4530GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4531currently under development at the State University of New York at
4532Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4533continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4534
4535Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4536debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4537symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4538
4539There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4540in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4541
4542 * set write on/off
4543
4544GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4545a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4546the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4547by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4548effect immediately.
4549
4550 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4551
4552When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4553shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4554The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4555examining core files.
4556
4557 * set listsize
4558
4559You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4560The default is 10.
4561
4562 * New machines supported (host and target)
4563
4564SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4565Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4566Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4567
4568 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4569
4570IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4571
4572 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4573
4574AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4575AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4576Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4577
4578 * New remote interfaces
4579
4580AMD 29000 Adapt
4581AMD 29000 Minimon
4582
4583
4584*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4585
4586 * New Facilities
4587
4588Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4589
4590Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4591target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4592is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4593remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4594remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4595also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4596using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4597stub on the target system.
4598
4599New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4600
4601GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4602library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4603object file types such as a.out and coff.
4604
4605There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4606refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4607
4608
4609 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4610
4611All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4612by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4613
4614For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4615``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4616Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4617
4618What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4619print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4620will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4621all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4622
4623confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4624 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4625 it is already running. Default is ON.
4626
4627editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4628 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4629 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4630 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4631 Default is ON.
4632
4633history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4634 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4635 or the value of the environment variable
4636 GDBHISTFILE.
4637
4638history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4639 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4640 HISTSIZE.
4641
4642history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4643 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4644 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4645
4646history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4647 history expansion will be performed on
4648 command line input. The default is OFF.
4649
4650radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4651 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4652 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4653
4654height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4655 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4656 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4657 variable TERM.
4658
4659width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4660 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4661 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4662 variable TERM.
4663
4664Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4665``set width'' instead.
4666
4667print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4668 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4669 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4670 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4671
4672print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4673 is OFF.
4674
4675print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4676 "raw" form if off.
4677
4678print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4679 like instructions.
4680
4681print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4682
4683
4684 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4685
4686The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4687new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4688are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4689window.
4690
4691
4692 * Support for Shared Libraries
4693
4694GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4695Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4696before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4697happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4698At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4699from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4700shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4701It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4702
4703sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4704 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4705 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4706
4707info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4708
4709
4710 * Watchpoints
4711
4712A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4713expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4714tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4715quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4716problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4717more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4718
4719watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4720
4721info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4722
4723delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4724disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4725enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4726
4727
4728 * C++ multiple inheritance
4729
4730When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4731for C++ programs.
4732
4733 * C++ exception handling
4734
4735Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4736ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4737the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4738handler's context).
4739
4740catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4741 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4742 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4743
4744info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4745 current stack frame.
4746
4747
4748 * Minor command changes
4749
4750The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4751command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4752is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4753
4754The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4755at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4756frames without printing.
4757
4758 * New directory command
4759
4760'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4761The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4762about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4763with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4764find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4765
4766 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4767
4768For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4769for more details.
4770
4771GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4772two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4773Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4774where the program that you are debugging will run.