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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.6
5
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6* Python scripting
7
8 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
9
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10* New targets
11
12Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
13Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
42059f0e 14Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
a1217d97 15
bd712aed 16* New commands:
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17catch rethrow
18 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
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19maint check-psymtabs
20 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
21maint check-symtabs
22 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
23maint expand-symtabs
24 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
b340913d 25
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26show configuration
27 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
28
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29maint set|show per-command
30maint set|show per-command space
31maint set|show per-command time
32maint set|show per-command symtab
33 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
34
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35* New options
36
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37set print raw frame-arguments
38show print raw frame-arguments
39 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
40 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
41
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42set remote trace-status-packet
43show remote trace-status-packet
44 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
45
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46set debug nios2
47show debug nios2
48 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
49
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50set range-stepping
51show range-stepping
52 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
53
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54* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
55 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
56 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
57 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
58 "set height 0".
59
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60* New command-line options
61--configuration
62 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
63
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64* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
65 buffer in Common Trace Format.
66
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67* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
68 GDB command gcore.
69
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70* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
71
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72* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
73 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
74
75* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
76 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
77
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78* MI changes
79
80 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
81 Trace Format now.
82
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83 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
84
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85 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
86 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
87 are displayed.
88
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89 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
90 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
91
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92* New system-wide configuration scripts
93 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
94 configuration scripts for the following systems:
95 ** ElinOS
96 ** Wind River Linux
97
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98* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
99 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
100 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
101 below.
102
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103* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
104 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
105
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106* New remote packets
107
108vCont;r
109
110 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
111 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
112 involvemement at each single-step.
113
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114qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
115 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
116 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
117 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
118 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
119 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
120 speedup.
121
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122* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
123
124 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
125 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
126
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127 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
128 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
129 trace state variables.
130
2d450646 131*** Changes in GDB 7.6
80c8d323 132
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133* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
134 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
135 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
136 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
137
138set|show record full insn-number-max
139set|show record full stop-at-limit
140set|show record full memory-query
141
142* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
143 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
144 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
145 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
146 This new recording method can be enabled using:
147
148record btrace
149
150 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
151 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
152
153* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
154 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
155 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
156
157record instruction-history prints the execution history at
158 instruction granularity
159
160record function-call-history prints the execution history at
161 function granularity
162
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163* New native configurations
164
51d66578 165ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 166FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4f4352f7 167x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 168Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 169
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170* New targets
171
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172ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
173ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 174Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 175x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 176Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249729c4 177
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178* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
179 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
180 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
181 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
182 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
183 --data-directory command-line option.
184
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185* New command line options:
186
187-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
188 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
189
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190* Removed command line options
191
192-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
193 Emacs.
194
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195* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
196 type formatting.
197
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198* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
199
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200* Python scripting
201
202 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
203
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204 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
205
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206 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
207
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208 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
209
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210 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
211 of architecture in the Python API.
212
213 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
214 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
215
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216* New Python-based convenience functions:
217
218 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
219 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
220 ** $_strlen(str)
221 ** $_regex(str, regex)
222
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223* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
224 given an argument.
225
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226* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
227 default for GCC since November 2000.
228
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229* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
230
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231* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
232 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
233
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234* New configure options
235
236--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
237 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
238 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
239 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
240 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
241 options allow the user to override that default.
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242--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
243 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
244 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
23a80689 245
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246* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
247
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248catch signal
249 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
250 conditions to be attached.
251
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252maint info bfds
253 List the BFDs known to GDB.
254
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255python-interactive [command]
256pi [command]
257 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
258 and print the result of expressions.
259
260py [command]
261 "py" is a new alias for "python".
262
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263enable type-printer [name]...
264disable type-printer [name]...
265 Enable or disable type printers.
266
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267* Removed commands
268
269 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
270 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
271 instead.
272
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273* New options
274
275set print type methods (on|off)
276show print type methods
277 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
278 The default is to show them.
279
280set print type typedefs (on|off)
281show print type typedefs
282 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
283 The default is to show them.
284
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285set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
286show filename-display
287 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
288 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
289
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290set trace-buffer-size
291show trace-buffer-size
292 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
293
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294set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
295show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
296 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
297
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298set debug aarch64
299show debug aarch64
300 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
301 The default is off.
302
303set debug coff-pe-read
304show debug coff-pe-read
305 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
306 exported symbols.
307
308set debug mach-o
309show debug mach-o
310 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
311 processing.
312
313set debug notification
314show debug notification
315 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
316
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317* MI changes
318
319 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
320 "=cmd-param-changed".
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321 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
322 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
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323 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
324 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
325 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
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326 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
327 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
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328 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
329 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d 330 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
ec83d211 331 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
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332 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
333 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
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334 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
335 library load/unload events.
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336 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
337 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
338 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
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339 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
340 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
341 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
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342 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
343 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
5b9afe8a 344
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345* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
346 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
347 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
348 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
349
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350* New remote packets
351
352QTBuffer:size
353 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
354 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
355
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356Qbtrace:bts
357 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
358 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
359 qSupported query.
360
361Qbtrace:off
362 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
363 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
364
365qXfer:btrace:read
366 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
367 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
368
80c8d323 369*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 370
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371* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
372 for more x32 ABI info.
373
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374* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
375
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376* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
377
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378* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
379 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
380 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
381 "info os files" lists file descriptors
382 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
383 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
384 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
385 "info os msg" lists message queues
386 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
387
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388* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
389 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
390 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
391 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
392 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
393 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
394
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395* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
396 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
397 record/replay support.
398
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399* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
400
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401* Python scripting
402
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403 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
404 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
405
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406 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
407
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408 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
409 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
410
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411 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
412
413 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
414 the source at which the symbol was defined.
415
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416 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
417 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
418 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
419 symbol's value.
420
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421 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
422 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
423
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424 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
425 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
426 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
427
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428 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
429 object associated with a PC value.
430
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431 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
432 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
433
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434* Go language support.
435 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
436 language.
437
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438* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
439 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
440
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441* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
442 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
443
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444* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
445 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
446 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
447 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
448 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
449 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
450
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451* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
452 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
453 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
454 build/libcpp/expr.c.
455
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456* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
457 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
458
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459* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
460 since December 2007.
461
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462* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
463 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
464 command does. For instance:
465
466 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
467
468 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
469 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
470 created, using the "condition" command.
471
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472* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
473 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
474
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475* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
476
477* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
478 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
479 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
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480 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
481 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
482 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
483 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
484 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 485
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486 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
487 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
488 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
489 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
490 the .gdb_index section.
491
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492* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
493
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494* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
495 target.
496
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497* MI changes
498
499 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
500
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501 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
502
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503* New commands
504
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505 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
506 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
507 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
508
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509 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
510 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
511
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512 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
513 several hits.
514
57651221 515 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
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516 C++ and Java objects.
517
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518 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
519 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
520 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
521 configured with '--with-python'.
522
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523 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
524 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
525 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
526 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
527 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
528 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
529 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
530
531 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
532 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
533 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
534 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
535
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536 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
537 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
538 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
539 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
540
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541 ** "set print symbol"
542 "show print symbol"
543 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
544 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
545 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
546
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547* Deprecated commands
548
549 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
550 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
551
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552* New targets
553
554Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 555HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 556
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557* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
558 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
559 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
560 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
561 evaluates to true.
562
563* New options
564
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565set mips compression
566show mips compression
567 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
568 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
569 mips16
570 micromips
571 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
572
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573set breakpoint condition-evaluation
574show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 575 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
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576 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
577 available mode.
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578 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
579 target.
580
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581set auto-load off
582 Disable auto-loading globally.
583
584show auto-load
585 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
586
587set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
588show auto-load gdb-scripts
589 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
590
591set auto-load python-scripts on|off
592show auto-load python-scripts
593 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
594
595set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
596show auto-load local-gdbinit
597 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
598
599set auto-load libthread-db on|off
600show auto-load libthread-db
601 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
602
7349ff92 603set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 604show auto-load scripts-directory
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JK
605 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
606 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
607 of the directories listed by this option.
608 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
609
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610set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
611show auto-load safe-path
612 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
613 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
614
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JK
615set debug auto-load on|off
616show debug auto-load
617 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
618
d3ce09f5 619set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 620show dprintf-style
d3ce09f5
SS
621 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
622 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
623 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
624 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
e7e0cddf
SS
625
626set dprintf-function <expr>
627show dprintf-function
628set dprintf-channel <expr>
629show dprintf-channel
630 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
631 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
632
d3ce09f5
SS
633set disconnected-dprintf on|off
634show disconnected-dprintf
635 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
636 after GDB disconnects.
637
6dea1fbd
JK
638* New configure options
639
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JK
640--with-auto-load-dir
641 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1564a261
JK
642 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
643 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
644 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
645 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 646
6dea1fbd
JK
647--with-auto-load-safe-path
648 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 649 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
6dea1fbd
JK
650
651--without-auto-load-safe-path
652 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
653 security feature.
654
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LM
655* New remote packets
656
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PA
657z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
658
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LM
659 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
660 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
661 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
662 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
663
9b224c5e
PA
664QProgramSignals:
665
666 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
667 program without GDB involvement.
668
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JK
669* New command line options
670
671--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
672 before loading inferior.
673--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
674 execute it before loading inferior.
675
8837a20f
JB
676*** Changes in GDB 7.4
677
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TT
678* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
679 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
680 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
681 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
682 inferior changes.
683
1bfeeb0f
JL
684* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
685 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
686
480a3f21
PW
687* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
688 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
689 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
690 target hardware watchpoint.
691
692 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
693 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
694 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
695 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
696
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697* Python scripting
698
32d1c362 699 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 700 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
701 existing one.
702
3a7bf607 703 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
704 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
705 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
706 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
707 now "message", which just prints the error message without
708 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 709
baacfb07 710 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 711 Python API.
713389e0 712
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PM
713 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
714 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 715 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
fa3a4f15
PM
716 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
717 corresponding value.
718
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PM
719 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
720 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
721 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
722 on GDB start-up.
723
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PM
724 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
725 static_block will return the global and static blocks
726 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
727 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
728
457e09f0
DE
729 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
730
6839b47f
KP
731 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
732 "gdb.breakpoints".
733
cc72b2a2
KP
734 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
735 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
736 available in the CLI.
737
84ad80e6
PK
738 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
739 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
740 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
741 "some_type.items()".
742
20c168b5
KP
743 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
744 new object file.
745
03c3051a
PK
746 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
747 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
748 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
749 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
750 any anonymous fields.
751
7376e450
TT
752* MI changes
753
754 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
755 "solib-event".
756
757 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
758 "=breakpoint-modified".
759
760 ** New command -ada-task-info.
761
98a5dd13
DE
762* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
763 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
764 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
765 lives.
766
767 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
768 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
769 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
770 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
771 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
772
773 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
774 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
775
478aac75
DE
776* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
777 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
778 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
779 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
780 use this option to specify where to find it.
781
9c06b0b4
TJB
782* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
783 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
784 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
785 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
786 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
787 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
788 section in the user manual for more details.
789
03f2bd59
JK
790* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
791 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
792 become available after that.
793
71eba9c2 794* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 795
2bda9cc5
JK
796* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
797 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
798 gcc version 4.7.
799
ed59ded5
DE
800* New commands
801
802!SHELL COMMAND
803 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
804 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
805
9c06b0b4
TJB
806* Changed commands
807
808watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
809 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
810 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
811
dbaefcf7
DE
812info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
813 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
814 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
815
71eba9c2 816info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
817 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
818 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
819 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
820 name starts with a hyphen.
821
3065dfb6
SS
822collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
823 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
824 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
825 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
826 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
827 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
828 number of bytes that will be collected.
829
f196051f
SS
830tstart [NOTES]
831 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
832 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
833 setting the variable trace-notes.
834
835tstop [NOTES]
836 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
837 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
838 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
839 trace-stop-notes.
840
d248b706
KY
841* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
842 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
843 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
844 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
845 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
846 is running.
847
405f8e94
SS
848* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
849 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
850 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
851
2bda9cc5
JK
852* New options
853
45cfd468
DE
854set debug dwarf2-read
855show debug dwarf2-read
856 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
857 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
858
859set debug symtab-create
860show debug symtab-create
861 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
862 creation. The default is off.
863
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PM
864set extended-prompt
865show extended-prompt
866 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
867 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
868 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
869 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
870 prompt is displayed.
871
2bda9cc5
JK
872set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
873show print entry-values
874 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
875 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
876 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
877
878set debug entry-values
879show debug entry-values
880 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
881 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
882
c011a4f4
DE
883set basenames-may-differ
884show basenames-may-differ
885 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
886 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
887 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
888 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
889 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
890 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
891 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
892 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
893
f196051f
SS
894set trace-user
895show trace-user
896set trace-notes
897show trace-notes
898 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
899 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
900 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
901 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
902
903set trace-stop-notes
904show trace-stop-notes
905 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
906 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
907 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
908 started by someone else.
909
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KY
910* New remote packets
911
912QTEnable
913
914 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
915
916QTDisable
917
918 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
919
f196051f
SS
920QTNotes
921
922 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
923
924qTP
925
926 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
927
405f8e94
SS
928qTMinFTPILen
929
930 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
931 be placed.
932
1a532630
PP
933* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
934 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
935
11315641
YQ
936* New targets
937
938Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
939
87326c78
DD
940* New Simulators
941
942Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
943
e8d56f18
JB
944*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
945
946* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
947
d6e00af6 948*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 949
60f98dde
MS
950* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
951 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
952 matches the given regular expression.
953
eee5b35e
DD
954* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
955
b716877b
AB
956* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
957 dumping the instruction opcodes.
958
aae1c79a
DE
959* New command line options
960
961-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
962 This is mostly for testing purposes.
963
a86caf66
DE
964* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
965 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
966
99e7ae30
DE
967* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
968 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
969 source path list instead of augmenting it.
970
4694da01
TT
971* GDB now understands thread names.
972
973 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
974 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
975
976 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
977 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
978
f4b8a18d
KW
979* OpenCL C
980 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
981 has been integrated into GDB.
982
585d1eb8
PM
983* Python scripting
984
da5d4055
PM
985 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
986 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
987 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
988
9a6f1302
PM
989 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
990 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
991 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
992 and allows for more dynamic content.
993
29703da4
PM
994 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
995 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
996 have an is_valid method.
997
350c6c65
PM
998 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
999 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1000 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1001
6e6fbe60
DE
1002 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1003
585d1eb8
PM
1004 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1005 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1006 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1007 that function like so:
1008
1009 result = some_value (10,20)
1010
0e3509db
DE
1011 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1012 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1013 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1014
7b51bc51
DE
1015 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1016 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1017 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1018 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1019 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1020
1021 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1022 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1023
99e7ae30
DE
1024 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1025
d8e22779
TT
1026 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1027 selected thread.
1028
4694da01
TT
1029 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1030 holds the thread's name.
1031
505500db
SW
1032 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1033 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 1034 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
1035 The following events are currently supported:
1036 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1037 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1038 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1039
def98928
TT
1040* C++ Improvements:
1041
1042 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1043 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1044
1045 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1046
1047 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1048 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1049 was added to GCC 4.5.
1050
66cb8159
TT
1051 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1052 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1053 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1054 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1055 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1056 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1057
4aac0db7
UW
1058* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1059 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1060 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1061 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1062 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1063
283e6a52
TT
1064* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1065 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1066 execution to a label.
1067
1068* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1069 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1070 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1071 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1072
b56df873 1073* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 1074 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
1075 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1076 of scope.
1077
ae53ffa4
PA
1078* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1079
1080 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1081 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1082 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1083 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1084 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1085 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1086
1087 (gdb) info threads
1088 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1089
1090 While now you see this:
1091
1092 (gdb) info threads
1093 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1094
1095 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1096 dumps.
1097
1098 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1099 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1100 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1101 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1102
f1310107
TJB
1103* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1104 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1105 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1106 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1107 section in the user manual for more details.
1108
248c9dbc
JB
1109* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1110
1aee7009
JB
1111 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1112 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 1113
eb826dc6
MF
1114 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1115
44603653
JB
1116* New native configurations
1117
1118ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1119
91021223
MF
1120* New targets:
1121
1122Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1123
6e1bb179
JB
1124* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1125 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1126 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1127 in the GDB user manual.
1128
50c97f38
TT
1129* Guile support was removed.
1130
448a92bf
MF
1131* New features in the GNU simulator
1132
1133 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1134
66ee2731
MF
1135 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1136
76b8507d 1137*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 1138
ba25b921
PA
1139* Shared library support for remote targets by default
1140
1141 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1142 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1143 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1144 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1145 was always disabled for such configurations.
1146
4656f5c6
SW
1147* C++ Improvements:
1148
1149 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1150
1151 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1152 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1153 For example:
1154 namespace A
1155 {
1156 class B { };
1157 void foo (B) { }
1158 }
1159 ...
1160 A::B b
1161 foo(b)
1162 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1163 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1164 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1165
1166 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1167
1168 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1169 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1170 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1171 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1172 entry.
1173 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1174 mentioned flavors of operators.
1175
254e6b9e
DE
1176 ** static const class members
1177
1178 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1179 class definition has been fixed.
1180
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PM
1181* Windows Thread Information Block access.
1182
1183 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1184 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1185 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1186 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1187 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1188 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1189
0fb4aa4b
PA
1190* Static tracepoints
1191
1192 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1193 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1194 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1195 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1196 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1197 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1198 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1199 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1200 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1201 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1202 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1203 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1204 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1205 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1206 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1207 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1208 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1209 the "New remote packets" section below.
1210
ca11e899
SS
1211* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1212
1213 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1214 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1215 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1216 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1217
1218* Observer mode
1219
1220 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1221 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1222 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1223 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1224 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1225 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1226 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1227
1228* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1229 current thread.
1230
711e434b
PM
1231* New remote packets
1232
1233qGetTIBAddr
1234
1235 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1236
dde08ee1
PA
1237qRelocInsn
1238
1239 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1240 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1241 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1242 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1243 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1244 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1245
0fb4aa4b
PA
1246qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1247
1248 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1249
1250qTSTMat
1251
1252 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1253 program.
1254
1255qXfer:statictrace:read
1256
1257 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1258 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1259 to gdb's qSupported query.
1260
ca11e899
SS
1261QAllow
1262
1263 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1264
1265QTDPsrc
1266
1267 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1268 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1269
3f7b2faa
DE
1270* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1271 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1272 a directory.
1273
d337e9f0
PA
1274* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1275
0fb4aa4b
PA
1276 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1277 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1278 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1279 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1280
1281 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1282 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1283 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1284 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1285 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1286 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1287 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1288
1289 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1290 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 1291
c24d0242
PM
1292 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1293
c8d5aac9
L
1294* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1295 it understands register description.
1296
7c953934
TT
1297* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1298
8685c86f
L
1299* X86 general purpose registers
1300
1301 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1302 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1303 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1304 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1305 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1306
95a42b64 1307* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
1308 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1309 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1310 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1311 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1312 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 1313
8bd10a10
CM
1314* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1315 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1316 in the specified file.
1317
ab38a727
PA
1318* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1319 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1320 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1321 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1322 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1323 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1324 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1325 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1326 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1327 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1328
6149aea9
PA
1329* New commands
1330
f1421989
HZ
1331eval template, expressions...
1332 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1333 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1334
ab38a727
PA
1335set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1336show target-file-system-kind
1337 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1338 names.
1339
6149aea9
PA
1340save breakpoints <filename>
1341 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1342 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1343 definitions, use the `source' command.
1344
1345`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1346is now deprecated.
1347
0fb4aa4b
PA
1348info static-tracepoint-markers
1349 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1350
1351strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1352 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1353 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1354
ca11e899
SS
1355set observer on|off
1356show observer
1357 Enable and disable observer mode.
1358
1359set may-write-registers on|off
1360set may-write-memory on|off
1361set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1362set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1363set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1364set may-interrupt on|off
1365 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1366 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1367 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1368 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1369 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1370 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1371 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1372
1373set record memory-query on|off
1374show record memory-query
1375 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1376 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1377
53a71c06
CR
1378* Changed commands
1379
1380disassemble
1381 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1382
f3e9a817
PM
1383* Python scripting
1384
9279c692
JB
1385** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1386 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1387 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1388 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1389 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1390
adc36818 1391** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
1392 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1393 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1394 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 1395
fa33c3cd 1396** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
1397 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1398
1399** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
1400
1401** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 1402
967cf477
DE
1403** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1404
8a1ea21f
DE
1405** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1406 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1407 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1408
a7bdde9e
VP
1409* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1410there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1411tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1412regular breakpoints.
1413
05071a4d
PA
1414* New targets
1415
1416ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1417
6aecb9c2
JB
1418* D language support.
1419 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1420 language.
1421
431e49aa
TJB
1422* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1423 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1424 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1425 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1426 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1427
1428* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1429 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1430 conditions of the form:
1431
1432 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1433
1434 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1435 interface mentioned above.
1436
bfbf3774 1437*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 1438
4eef138c
TT
1439* C++ Improvements
1440
1441 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
1442
1443 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1444 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1445 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1446 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1447 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1448
4eef138c
TT
1449 ** Bug Fixes
1450
1451 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1452 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1453 qualified name.
1454
1455 ** Cast Operators
1456
1457 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1458 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1459
2d1c1221
ME
1460* New targets
1461
1462Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 1463Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
1464
1465* New Simulators
1466
1467Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 1468Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 1469
6c95b8df
PA
1470* Multi-program debugging.
1471
1472 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1473 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1474 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1475 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1476 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1477 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1478 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1479 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1480
d5551862
SS
1481* New tracing features
1482
1483 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1484
1485 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
1486
1487 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1488 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1489 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1490 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1491 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1492 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1493 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1494 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1495 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1496 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 1497
d5551862 1498 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
1499
1500 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1501 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1502 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1503 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1504 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1505 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1506 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1507 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1508 the regular trace command.
1509
d5551862
SS
1510 ** Disconnected tracing
1511
1512 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1513 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1514 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1515 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1516 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1517
00bf0b85
SS
1518 ** Trace files
1519
1520 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1521 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1522 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1523 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1524 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1525 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1526 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
1527
1528 ** Circular trace buffer
1529
1530 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1531 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1532 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1533 not be available for all target agents.
1534
21a0512e
PP
1535* Changed commands
1536
1537disassemble
1538 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1539 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1540
0fe7935b
DJ
1541info variables
1542 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1543 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1544
fb2e7cb4
JB
1545source
1546 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1547 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1548 support.
1549
1550 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1551 "set script-extension" (see below).
1552
6c95b8df
PA
1553* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1554
399cd161
MS
1555record save [<FILENAME>]
1556 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1557 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1558
1559record restore <FILENAME>
1560 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1561 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1562
6c95b8df
PA
1563add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1564 Add a new inferior.
1565
1566clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1567 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1568 inferior has loaded.
1569
1570remove-inferior ID
1571 Remove an inferior.
1572
1573maint info program-spaces
1574 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1575
9a7071a8
JB
1576set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1577show remote interrupt-sequence
1578 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1579 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1580 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1581 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1582 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1583
1584set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1585show remote interrupt-on-connect
1586 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1587 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1588 Linux kernel.
1589
1590set remotebreak [on | off]
1591show remotebreak
1592Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1593
f61e138d
SS
1594tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1595 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1596
1597info tvariables
1598 List trace state variables and their values.
1599
1600delete tvariable $NAME ...
1601 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1602
6da95a67
SS
1603teval EXPR, ...
1604 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1605 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1606
7a697b8d
SS
1607ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1608 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1609
b0f02ee9
JK
1610* New expression syntax
1611
1612 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1613 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1614
6c95b8df
PA
1615* New options
1616
1617set follow-exec-mode new|same
1618show follow-exec-mode
1619 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1620 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1621 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1622
236f1d4d
SS
1623set default-collect EXPR, ...
1624show default-collect
1625 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1626 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1627 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1628
d5551862
SS
1629set disconnected-tracing
1630show disconnected-tracing
1631 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1632 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1633 upon disconnection.
1634
4daf5ac0
SS
1635set circular-trace-buffer
1636show circular-trace-buffer
1637 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1638 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1639 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1640 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1641
fb2e7cb4
JB
1642set script-extension off|soft|strict
1643show script-extension
1644 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1645 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1646 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1647 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1648 evaluation failed.
1649 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1650
2b71fc8e
JB
1651set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1652show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1653 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1654 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1655 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1656 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1657 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1658 is on.
1659
de2e5182
TT
1660* Python API Improvements
1661
1662 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1663 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1664 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1665
1666 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1667 `is_base_class' attribute.
1668
1669 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1670
1671 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1672 evaluate an expression.
1673
f61e138d
SS
1674* New remote packets
1675
1676QTDV
1677 Define a trace state variable.
1678
1679qTV
1680 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1681
d5551862
SS
1682QTDisconnected
1683 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1684
4daf5ac0
SS
1685QTBuffer:circular
1686 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1687
d5551862
SS
1688qTfP, qTsP
1689 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1690
2d483d34
MS
1691* Bug fixes
1692
1693Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1694
6e0e5977
JB
1695Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1696much more reliable. In particular:
1697 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1698 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1699 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1700 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1701 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1702 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1703 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1704 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1705 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1706 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1707 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1708 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1709 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1710 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1711 non-threaded programs.
1712
93c26624
JK
1713PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1714This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1715libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1716executable program.
1717
abc7453d 1718*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 1719
4efc6507
DE
1720* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1721dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1722them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1723for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1724"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1725
782b2b07
SS
1726* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1727breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1728or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1729the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1730for tracepoint actions.
1731
53a71c06
CR
1732* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1733raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1734modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 1735
e7a8dbfb
HZ
1736* Process record and replay
1737
1738 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1739 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1740 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1741 execute commands.
1742
64644d9b
MS
1743* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1744step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1745set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1746reverse execution.
1747
b9412953
DD
1748* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1749feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
17502.6.28 or later.
1751
6c7a06a3
TT
1752* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1753target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1754char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1755literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1756U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1757`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1758system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1759the installation instructions for more information.
1760
f1838a98
UW
1761* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1762remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1763with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1764the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1765
55333a84
DE
1766* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1767and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1768
7f6a6314
PM
1769* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1770now complete on file names.
1771
65d12d83
TT
1772* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1773completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1774For instance, consider:
1775
1776 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1777 # struct example variable;
1778 (gdb) p variable.
1779
1780If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1781completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1782
edb3359d
DJ
1783* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1784the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1785
2fae03e8
TT
1786* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1787operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1788macros.
1789
47a3467a 1790* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
1791the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1792implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1793
1794* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1795registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1796can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1797and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 1798
08388c79
DE
1799* New remote packets
1800
1801qSearch:memory:
1802 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1803
a6f3e723
SL
1804QStartNoAckMode
1805 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1806 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1807 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1808
d7713ae0
EZ
1809vKill
1810 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1811 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1812
07e059b5
VP
1813qXfer:osdata:read
1814 Obtains additional operating system information
1815
47a3467a
PA
1816qXfer:siginfo:read
1817qXfer:siginfo:write
1818 Read or write additional signal information.
1819
060871df
PA
1820* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1821
1822 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1823 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1824 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1825
c055b101 1826* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 1827DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
1828
1829* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
1830and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1831`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 1832
31fffb02
CS
1833* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1834with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1835
88d8a8e0
JB
1836* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1837
7f99b190
JB
1838* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1839
ccd213ac
DJ
1840* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1841which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1842
1fddbabb 1843* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 1844list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 1845
a0ef4274
DJ
1846* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1847conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1848have also been fixed.
1849
bfb8797a 1850* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
1851From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1852are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 1853
71c25dea
TT
1854* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1855example, given:
1856
1857 template<typename T> class C { };
1858 C<char const *> c;
1859
1860GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1861
1862 ptype C<char const *>
1863 ptype C<char const*>
1864 ptype C<const char *>
1865 ptype C<const char*>
1866
ccd213ac
DJ
1867* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1868
1869 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1870 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1871
7ae0e2a2
UW
1872 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1873 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1874 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1875
a6f3e723
SL
1876 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1877 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1878
da8bd9a3
DJ
1879 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1880 gdbserver.
1881
d70e31dd
DE
1882 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1883 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1884
1885 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1886 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1887 as appropriate.
1888
d57a3c85
TJB
1889* Python scripting
1890
1891 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1892 available is determined at configure time.
1893
d8906c6f
TJB
1894 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1895
aadc346a
JB
1896* Ada tasking support
1897
1898 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1899 been introduced:
1900
1901 info tasks
1902 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1903 info task N
1904 Print detailed information about task number N.
1905 task
1906 Print the task number of the current task.
1907 task N
1908 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1909
adb483fe
DJ
1910* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1911add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1912
2277426b
PA
1913* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1914
1915 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1916 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1917 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1918 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1919 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1920 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1921 below.
1922
08d16641
PA
1923* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1924"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1925information.
1926
e35359c5
UW
1927* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1928to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1929architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1930See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1931more information.
1932
85e747d2
UW
1933* Multi-architecture debugging.
1934
1935 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1936 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1937 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1938 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1939 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1940
1941* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1942use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1943Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1944powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1945--enable-targets configure option.
1946
11ade57a
PA
1947* Non-stop mode debugging.
1948
1949 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1950 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1951 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1952 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1953 section in the user manual for more information.
1954
1955 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1956 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1957 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1958 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1959 extensions on linux targets.
1960
d7713ae0 1961* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 1962
a96d9b2e
SDJ
1963catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1964 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1965 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1966 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1967 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1968 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1969 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1970 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1971 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1972
08388c79
DE
1973find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1974 val1 [, val2, ...]
1975 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1976
d57a3c85
TJB
1977maint set python print-stack
1978maint show python print-stack
1979 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1980
1981python [CODE]
1982 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1983
d7713ae0
EZ
1984macro define
1985macro list
1986macro undef
1987 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1988 interactively.
1989
1990info os processes
1991 Show operating system information about processes.
1992
2277426b
PA
1993info inferiors
1994 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1995
1996inferior NUM
1997 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1998
1999detach inferior NUM
2000 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2001
2002kill inferior NUM
2003 Kill inferior number NUM.
2004
d7713ae0
EZ
2005* New options
2006
3285f3fe
UW
2007set spu stop-on-load
2008show spu stop-on-load
2009 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2010
ff1a52c6
UW
2011set spu auto-flush-cache
2012show spu auto-flush-cache
2013 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2014 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2015
d7713ae0
EZ
2016set sh calling-convention
2017show sh calling-convention
2018 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2019
e0a3ce09 2020set debug timestamp
75feb17d 2021show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
2022 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2023
2024set disassemble-next-line
2025show disassemble-next-line
2026 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2027 the debuggee stops.
2028
2029set remote noack-packet
2030show remote noack-packet
2031 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2032 under "New remote packets."
2033
2034set remote query-attached-packet
2035show remote query-attached-packet
2036 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2037
2038set remote read-siginfo-object
2039show remote read-siginfo-object
2040 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2041 packet.
2042
2043set remote write-siginfo-object
2044show remote write-siginfo-object
2045 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2046 packet.
2047
40ab02ce
MS
2048set remote reverse-continue
2049show remote reverse-continue
2050 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2051
2052set remote reverse-step
2053show remote reverse-step
2054 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2055
d7713ae0
EZ
2056set displaced-stepping
2057show displaced-stepping
2058 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2059 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2060 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2061
2062set debug displaced
2063show debug displaced
2064 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2065
2066maint set internal-error
2067maint show internal-error
2068 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2069
2070maint set internal-warning
2071maint show internal-warning
2072 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 2073
ccd213ac
DJ
2074set exec-wrapper
2075show exec-wrapper
2076unset exec-wrapper
2077 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 2078
aad4b048
JB
2079set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2080show multiple-symbols
2081 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2082 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2083 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2084
74960c60
VP
2085set breakpoint always-inserted
2086show breakpoint always-inserted
2087 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2088 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2089 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2090
0428b8f5
DJ
2091set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2092show arm fallback-mode
2093set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2094show arm force-mode
2095 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2096 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2097 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2098 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2099
10568435
JK
2100set disable-randomization
2101show disable-randomization
2102 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2103 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2104 multiple debugging sessions.
2105
d7713ae0
EZ
2106set non-stop
2107show non-stop
2108 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2109 a breakpoint.
2110
b3eb342c 2111set target-async
d7713ae0 2112show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
2113 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2114 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2115 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2116 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2117
6c7a06a3
TT
2118set target-wide-charset
2119show target-wide-charset
2120 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2121 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2122
84603566
SL
2123set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2124show tcp auto-retry
2125set tcp connect-timeout
2126show tcp connect-timeout
2127 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2128 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2129 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2130
17a37d48
PP
2131set libthread-db-search-path
2132show libthread-db-search-path
2133 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2134 libthread_db.
2135
d4db2f36
PA
2136set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2137show schedule-multiple
2138 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2139 the current process.
2140
4e5d721f
DE
2141set stack-cache
2142show stack-cache
2143 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2144 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2145 affecting correctness.
2146
910c5da8
JB
2147set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2148show interactive-mode
2149 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2150 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2151 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2152 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2153 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2154
2277426b
PA
2155* Removed commands
2156
2157info forks
2158 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2159 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2160 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2161 command.
2162
2163fork NUM
2164 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2165 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2166 alias for the `fork' command.
2167
2168process PID
2169 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2170 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2171 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2172
2173delete fork NUM
2174 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2175 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2176 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2177 fork' command.
2178
2179detach fork NUM
2180 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2181 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2182 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2183 fork' command.
2184
a80b95ba
TG
2185* New native configurations
2186
2187x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2188
b8bfd3ed
JB
2189x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2190
75a2d5e7
TT
2191* New targets
2192
c28c63d8 2193Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 2194x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 2195x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 2196S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 2197
6de3146c
PA
2198* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2199 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2200
d5cbbe6e
JB
2201* Removed commands
2202
2203catch load
2204catch unload
2205 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2206
75feb17d 2207*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 2208
af5ca30d
NH
2209* New native configurations
2210
2211NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 2212Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
2213
2214* New targets
2215
2216NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 2217Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 2218
7a404eba
PA
2219* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2220
2221 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2222 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2223 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2224 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2225
430ebac9
PA
2226* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2227(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2228
fe6fbf8b 2229* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 2230is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
2231
2232* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
2233including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2234and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 2235
10665d76
JB
2236* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2237accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2238more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2239
7cc46491
DJ
2240* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2241
d71340b8
DJ
2242* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2243registers on PowerPC targets.
2244
523c4513
DJ
2245* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2246targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2247
a6b151f1
DJ
2248* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2249commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2250
2d717e4f
DJ
2251* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2252extended-remote mode.
2253
24a836bd 2254* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
2255The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2256error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2257The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 2258
d0c678e6
UW
2259* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2260building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2261target architectures.
2262
d64a946d
TJB
2263* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2264Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2265now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2266stored in two consecutive float registers.
2267
ee163bf5
VP
2268* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2269breakpoints now.
2270
b93b6ca7 2271* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
2272Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2273include:
b93b6ca7
JB
2274 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2275 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2276 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2277 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2278 of an assignment
2279 - Improved command completion in Ada
2280 - Several bug fixes
2281
d001be7a
DJ
2282* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2283process.
2284
a6b151f1
DJ
2285* New commands
2286
6d53d0af
JB
2287set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2288show print frame-arguments
2289 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2290 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2291
a6b151f1
DJ
2292remote put
2293remote get
2294remote delete
2295 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2296
2297* New MI commands
2298
2299-target-file-put
2300-target-file-get
2301-target-file-delete
2302 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2303
2304* New remote packets
2305
2306vFile:open:
2307vFile:close:
2308vFile:pread:
2309vFile:pwrite:
2310vFile:unlink:
2311 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 2312
2d717e4f
DJ
2313vAttach
2314 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2315 mode.
2316
2317vRun
2318 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2319
8d5f9c6f 2320*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 2321
19d378fc
MS
2322* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2323bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2324Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2325
3a40aaa0
UW
2326* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2327symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2328-Bsymbolic linker option.
2329
a6ec25f2
BW
2330* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2331recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2332is not supported.
2333
6dd09645
JB
2334* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2335frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2336
c9bb8148
DJ
2337* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
233832-bit or 64-bit register values.
2339
0d5de010
DJ
2340* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2341
23181151
DJ
2342* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2343target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2344a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2345
ea37ba09
DJ
2346* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2347automatically displayed as character or string data.
2348
2349* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2350arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2351as strings.
e1f48ead 2352
123dc839
DJ
2353* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2354for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 2355only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 2356
05a4558a
DJ
2357* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2358iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 2359
7c963485
PA
2360* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2361ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2362has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2363
b18be20d
DJ
2364* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2365
0ca420ce
UW
2366* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2367
31d99776
DJ
2368* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2369layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2370segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2371
a4642986
MR
2372* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2373immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2374
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2375* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2376"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2377packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2378where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2379Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
2380
2381* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2382(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
2383
2384* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2385according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 2386
c9bb8148
DJ
2387* New commands
2388
23776285
MR
2389set remoteflow
2390show remoteflow
2391 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2392 when debugging using remote targets.
2393
c9bb8148
DJ
2394set mem inaccessible-by-default
2395show mem inaccessible-by-default
2396 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2397 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2398 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2399 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2400 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2401
2402set breakpoint auto-hw
2403show breakpoint auto-hw
2404 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2405 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2406 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2407 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2408 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2409 including "next" and "finish".
2410
0e420bd8
JB
2411catch exception
2412catch exception unhandled
2413 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2414
2415catch assert
2416 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2417
f822c95b
DJ
2418set sysroot
2419show sysroot
2420 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2421 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2422 an alias to "set sysroot".
2423
83cc5c53
UW
2424info spu
2425 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2426 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2427 architecture.
2428
bd372731
MK
2429* New native configurations
2430
2431OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2432
23181151
DJ
2433set tdesc filename
2434unset tdesc filename
2435show tdesc filename
2436 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2437 not query the target for its built-in description.
2438
c9bb8148
DJ
2439* New targets
2440
54fe9172 2441OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 2442MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 2443Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 2444
6dd09645
JB
2445* New remote packets
2446
2447QPassSignals:
2448 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2449 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2450
23181151
DJ
2451qXfer:features:read:
2452 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2453 features.
6dd09645 2454
83cc5c53
UW
2455qXfer:spu:read:
2456qXfer:spu:write:
2457 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2458 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2459
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2460qXfer:libraries:read:
2461 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2462 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2463 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2464 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2465
483367ee
DJ
2466* Removed targets
2467
2468Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2469
d08950c4
UW
2470alpha*-*-osf1*
2471alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 2472d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
2473hppa*-*-hiux*
2474i[34567]86-ncr-*
2475i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2476i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2477i[34567]86-*-netware*
2478i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2479i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2480i[34567]86-*-sco*
2481i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2482i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2483i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2484i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2485i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2486i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2487i[34567]86-*-isc*
2488m68*-cisco*-*
2489m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 2490mips*-*-pe
483367ee 2491rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 2492sh*-*-pe
483367ee 2493
7ce59000
DJ
2494* Other removed features
2495
2496target abug
2497target cpu32bug
2498target est
2499target rom68k
2500
2501 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2502
ea35711c
DJ
2503target hms
2504target e7000
2505target sh3
2506target sh3e
2507
2508 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2509 H8/300.
2510
2511target ocd
2512
2513 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2514 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2515 interfaces.
2516
7ce59000
DJ
2517DWARF 1 support
2518
2519 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2520 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2521
54d61198
DJ
2522Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2523
2524 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2525 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2526 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2527 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2528
ea35711c
DJ
2529MIPS ".pdr" sections
2530
2531 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2532 in debugging information.
2533
2534Scheme support
2535
2536 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2537 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2538
1a69e1e4
DJ
2539set mips stack-arg-size
2540set mips saved-gpreg-size
2541
2542 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2543
6dd09645 2544*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 2545
ca3bf3bd
DJ
2546* New targets
2547
2548Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 2549Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 2550
6aec2e11
DJ
2551* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2552(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2553running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2554
2555* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2556Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2557supported.
2558
17218d91
DJ
2559* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2560broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2561
9ebce043
DJ
2562* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2563stub provides the required support.
2564
7d3d3ece
DJ
2565* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2566longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2567
4f8253f3
JB
2568* New commands
2569
2570set substitute-path
2571unset substitute-path
2572show substitute-path
2573 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2574 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2575 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2576 between compilation and debugging.
2577
9fa66fd7
AS
2578set trace-commands
2579show trace-commands
2580 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2581 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2582 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2583
1f5befc1
DJ
2584* REMOVED features
2585
2586The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2587
2ec3381a
DJ
2588Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2589an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2590
3d00d119
DJ
2591The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2592
be2a5f71
DJ
2593* New remote packets
2594
2595qSupported:
2596 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2597 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2598 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2599 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2600 target.
2601
0876f84a
DJ
2602qXfer:auxv:read:
2603 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2604 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2605
9ebce043
DJ
2606qXfer:memory-map:read:
2607 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2608 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2609
2610vFlashErase:
2611vFlashWrite:
2612vFlashDone:
2613 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2614
0876f84a
DJ
2615* Removed remote packets
2616
2617qPart:auxv:read:
2618 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2619 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2620
e374b601 2621*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 2622
96309189
MS
2623* New targets
2624
2625Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2626
2627Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2628
53e5f3cf
AS
2629* New commands
2630
2631init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2632 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2633
ac264b3b
MS
2634The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2635
2636checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2637
2638restart <n> Return the program state to a
2639 previously saved state.
2640
2641info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2642
2643delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2644
2645set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2646 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2647
2648info forks List forks of the user program that
2649 are available to be debugged.
2650
2651fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2652 forks of the user program that are
2653 available to be debugged.
2654
2655delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2656 that are available to be debugged (and
2657 kill the forked process).
2658
2659detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2660 that are available to be debugged (and
2661 allow the process to continue).
2662
3950dc3f
NS
2663* New architecture
2664
2665Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2666
0ea3f30e
DJ
2667* Improved Windows host support
2668
2669GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2670native console support, and remote communications using either
2671network sockets or serial ports.
2672
f79daebb
GM
2673* Improved Modula-2 language support
2674
2675GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2676basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2677pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2678printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2679written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2680GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2681
acab6ab2
MM
2682* REMOVED features
2683
2684The ARM rdi-share module.
2685
f4267320
DJ
2686The Netware NLM debug server.
2687
53e5f3cf 2688*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 2689
e0ecbda1
MK
2690* New native configurations
2691
02a677ac 2692OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
2693OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2694
d64a6579
KB
2695* New targets
2696
2697Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2698
b33a6190
AS
2699* New command line options
2700
2701--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2702--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2703 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2704--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2705 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2706 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2707 with the --command (-x) option.
2708
11dced61
AC
2709* Deprecated commands removed
2710
2711The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2712removed:
2713
2714 Command Replacement
2715 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2716 othernames set arm disassembler
2717 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2718 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2719 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2720 regs info registers
2721
6fe85783
MK
2722* New BSD user-level threads support
2723
2724It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2725library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2726configurations are:
2727
2728FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2729FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2730OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2731
2732Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2733are not yet supported.
2734
5260ca71
MS
2735* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2736(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2737
e84ecc99
AC
2738* REMOVED configurations and files
2739
2740VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 2741Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 2742National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 2743
31e35378
JB
2744* New "set print array-indexes" command
2745
2746After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2747when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2748behavior.
2749
e85e5c83
MK
2750* VAX floating point support
2751
2752GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2753
d91e9901
AS
2754* User-defined command support
2755
2756In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2757to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2758section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2759
f2cb65ca
MC
2760*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2761
f47b1503
AS
2762* New command line option
2763
2764GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2765debugging.
2766
f2cb65ca
MC
2767* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2768
2769GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2770information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2771by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2772proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2773to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 2774
d08c0230
AC
2775* Internationalization
2776
2777When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2778internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2779continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2780
117ea3cf
PH
2781* Ada
2782
2783Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2784implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2785into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2786
d08c0230
AC
2787* New native configurations
2788
2789GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2790
2791* Remote 'p' packet
2792
2793GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2794packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2795
2796* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2797
2798GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2799The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2800features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2801i386 application).
2802
2803GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2804compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2805continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2806configurations:
2807
2808hppa-*-hpux
2809ia64-*-aix
2810mips-*-irix*
2811*-*-lynx
2812mips-*-linux-gnu
2813sds protocol
2814xdr protocol
2815powerpc bdm protocol
2816
2817Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2818made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2819
2820* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2821
2822Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2823been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2824configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2825permanently REMOVED.
2826
2827h8300-*-*
2828mcore-*-*
2829mn10300-*-*
2830ns32k-*-*
2831sh64-*-*
2832v850-*-*
2833
ebb7c577
AC
2834*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2835
2836* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2837
2838When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2839heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2840been fixed.
2841
2842* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2843
2844When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2845fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2846IRIX long double values).
2847
2848* VAX and "next"
2849
2850A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2851command. This problem has been fixed.
2852
860660cb 2853*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 2854
0dea2468
AC
2855* Fix for ``many threads''
2856
2857On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2858rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2859error message:
2860
2861 ptrace: No such process.
2862 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2863
2864This problem has been fixed.
2865
2c07db7a
AC
2866* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2867
2868Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2869GDB to dump core).
2870
c23968a2
JB
2871* New ``start'' command.
2872
2873This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2874
71009278
MK
2875* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2876
2877Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2878live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2879platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2880
2881FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2882FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2883NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2884NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2885NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2886OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2887OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2888OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2889OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2890
3c0b7db2
AC
2891* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2892
2893Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2894These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2895of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2896call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2897signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2898
73cc75f3
AC
2899Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2900features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2901include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 2902
7243600a
BF
2903* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2904
6f606e1c
MK
2905* New native configurations
2906
97dc871c 2907GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 2908OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
2909OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2910OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 2911OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2912NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 2913OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2914
a1b461bf
AC
2915* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2916
2917GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2918The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2919including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2920migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2921compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2922work, was also included.
2923
2924GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2925module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2926
2927h8300-*-*
2928mcore-*-*
2929mn10300-*-*
2930ns32k-*-*
2931sh64-*-*
2932v850-*-*
2933xstormy16-*-*
2934
2935Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2936made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2937
3c7012f5
AC
2938* REMOVED configurations and files
2939
2940Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2941Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2942Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2943Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2944Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2945AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2946Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2947decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2948riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2949sonymips mips-sony-*
2950sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2951
e5fe55f7
AC
2952*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2953
2954* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2955
2956The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2957GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2958command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2959program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2960with GDB".
2961
2962* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2963
2964Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2965libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2966cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2967GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2968shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2969the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2970are created.
2971
2972Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2973
2974* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2975
2976The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2977non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2978compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2979
2980* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2981
2982Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2983wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2984
2985* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2986
2987The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2988permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2989systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2990
2991* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2992
2993Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2994has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2995
2996* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2997
2998GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2999its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3000panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3001
3002* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3003
3004When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3005by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3006not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3007
faae5abe 3008*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 3009
9175c9a3
MC
3010* Removed --with-mmalloc
3011
3012Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3013conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3014
3cc87ec0
MK
3015* Changes in AMD64 configurations
3016
3017The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3018the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3019and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3020you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3021
f0424ef6
MK
3022* Revised SPARC target
3023
3024The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3025FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
3026support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3027from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3028(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 3029
59659be2
ILT
3030* New C++ demangler
3031
3032GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3033names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3034with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3035programs.
3036
9e08b29b
DJ
3037* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3038
3039GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3040arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3041encountered these.
3042
8dfe8985
DC
3043* C++ nested types and namespaces
3044
3045GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3046improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3047is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3048Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3049namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3050"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3051frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3052if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3053GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3054
cced5e27
MK
3055* New native configurations
3056
3057NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 3058OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 3059OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
3060OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3061OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 3062
b4b4b794
KI
3063* New debugging protocols
3064
3065M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3066
7989c619
AC
3067* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3068
3069The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3070and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3071tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3072
5994185b
AC
3073* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3074
3075Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3076been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3077configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3078permanently REMOVED.
3079
3080Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3081Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3082Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3083Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3084Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3085AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3086Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
3087decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3088riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3089sonymips mips-sony-*
3090sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 3091
0ddabb4c
AC
3092* REMOVED configurations and files
3093
3094SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3095SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
3096Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3097Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3098H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3099HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3100HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3101HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3102PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 3103386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
3104Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3105 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3106 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
3107SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3108SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
3109Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3110Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 3111
c7f1390e
DJ
3112*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3113
1fe43d45
AC
3114* Objective-C
3115
3116Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3117integrated into GDB.
3118
e6beb428
AC
3119* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3120
3121DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3122information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3123By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3124backtraces.
3125
3126The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3127have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3128DWARF 2 CFI support.
3129
3130* Hosted file I/O.
3131
3132GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3133file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3134remote protocol documentation for details.
3135
3136* All targets using the new architecture framework.
3137
3138All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3139architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3140to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3141ppc32 on ppc64).
3142
3143* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3144
3145GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3146per-thread variables.
3147
3148* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3149
3150GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3151GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3152
3153* Separate debug info.
3154
3155GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3156automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3157of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3158system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3159and optional debug files.
3160
3161* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3162
3163DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3164describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3165debugger.
3166
3167GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3168for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3169
3170* Java
3171
3172A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3173Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3174considered "useable".
3175
85f8f974
DJ
3176* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3177
3178The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3179commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3180kernel.
3181
0fac0b41
DJ
3182* GDB supports logging output to a file
3183
3184There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3185used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 3186
6ad8ae5c
DJ
3187* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3188
3189The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3190disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3191command.
3192
e286caf2 3193* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
3194
3195The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3196registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3197
d28f9cdf
DJ
3198* Profiling support
3199
3200A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3201be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3202session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3203"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3204data, for more informative profiling results.
3205
da0f9dcd
AC
3206* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3207
3208The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3209option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 3210"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
3211
3212Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3213removed.
3214
fb9b6b35
JJ
3215Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3216Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3217Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3218 in a subsequent -var-update.
3219
954a4db8
MK
3220* New native configurations.
3221
3222FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3223
6760f9e6
JB
3224* Multi-arched targets.
3225
b4263afa 3226HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 3227Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 3228
1b831c93
AC
3229* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3230
3231Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3232been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3233configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3234permanently REMOVED.
3235
8b0e5691 3236Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 3237Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 3238H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
3239HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3240HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3241HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 3242PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
3243Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3244 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3245 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
3246Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3247Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 3248
5835abe7
NC
3249* REMOVED configurations and files
3250
3251V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
3252Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3253IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3254i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3255i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3256i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3257HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3258 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3259 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3260Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3261Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3262Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3263OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3264I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 3265
a094c6fb
AC
3266* MIPS $fp behavior changed
3267
3268The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3269the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3270context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3271address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3272The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3273
299ffc64 3274*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 3275
46248966
AC
3276* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3277
3278When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3279`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3280in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3281library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3282shared libs like mad''.
3283
b9d14705 3284* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 3285
b9d14705
DJ
3286Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3287the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3288arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3289powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 3290
e0e9281e
JB
3291* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3292
3293GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3294and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3295they expand.
3296
dd73b9bb
AC
3297The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3298invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3299
3300The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3301macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3302
e0e9281e
JB
3303Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3304information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3305your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3306information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3307
2250ee0c
CV
3308* Multi-arched targets.
3309
6e3ba3b8
JT
3310DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3311DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 3312NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 3313National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
3314Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3315Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 3316
cd9bfe15 3317* New targets.
e33ce519 3318
456f8b9d
DB
3319Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3320
e33ce519 3321
da8ca43d
JT
3322* New native configurations
3323
3324Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 3325SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 3326MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 3327UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 3328
cd9bfe15
AC
3329* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3330
3331Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3332been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3333configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3334permanently REMOVED.
3335
92eb23c5 3336Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 3337OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 3338IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 3339Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 3340Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 3341Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
3342i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3343i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3344i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
3345HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3346 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3347 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 3348I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 3349
db034ac5
AC
3350* OBSOLETE languages
3351
3352CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3353
cd9bfe15
AC
3354* REMOVED configurations and files
3355
3356AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3357A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3358AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3359AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3360AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3361
3362testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3363
20f01a46
DH
3364* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3365
3366This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3367commands. The default is 1024.
3368
a5941fbf
MK
3369* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3370
3371Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3372
89743e04
MS
3373* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3374
3375These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3376to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3377from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 3378
9fb14e79
JB
3379* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3380
3381The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3382including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3383of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3384
2037aebb
AC
3385*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3386
3387* New targets.
3388
3389Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3390
3391* Bug fixes
3392
3393gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3394mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3395Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3396
3397gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3398dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3399Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3400
3401Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3402Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3403By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3404
3405i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3406avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3407By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3408
37057839 3409*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 3410
1a703748
MS
3411* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3412
3413This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3414really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3415In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3416target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3417This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3418(notably embedded) targets.
3419
cefd4ef5
MS
3420* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3421
55241689
AC
3422This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3423process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3424GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3425hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 3426
352ed7b4
MS
3427* New command line option
3428
3429GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3430
3431* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3432
3433There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3434command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3435a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3436be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3437open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3438issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3439a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3440it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3441GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3442is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3443
fe419ffc
RE
3444* Changes in ARM configurations.
3445
3446Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3447configuration is fully multi-arch.
3448
eb7cedd9
MK
3449* New native configurations
3450
fe419ffc 3451ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 3452x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 3453AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 3454Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 3455
c9f63e6b
CV
3456* New targets
3457
3458Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3459
9b4ff276
AC
3460* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3461
3462Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3463been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3464configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3465permanently REMOVED.
3466
3467AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3468A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3469AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3470AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3471AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3472
b4ceaee6 3473testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 3474
e2caac18
AC
3475* REMOVED configurations and files
3476
3477TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 3478WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
3479PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3480PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3481PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 3482Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
3483Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3484 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 3485SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 3486Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
3487Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3488ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 3489Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 3490
c2a727fa
TT
3491* Changes to command line processing
3492
3493The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3494for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3495
467d8519
TT
3496* Changes to key bindings
3497
3498There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3499
7072a954
AC
3500*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3501
3502Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3503
3504Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3505corrupted.
3506
3507Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3508
3509Numerous documentation fixes.
3510
3511Numerous testsuite fixes.
3512
34f47bc4 3513*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
3514
3515* New native configurations
3516
3517Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3518x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 3519MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
3520MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3521ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 3522s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 3523
bf64bfd6
AC
3524* New targets
3525
def90278 3526Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 3527CRIS cris-axis
55241689 3528UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 3529
17e78a56 3530* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
3531
3532x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 3533Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
3534Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3535 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
3536TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3537WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 3538Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
3539PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3540PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3541PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 3542SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
3543Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3544ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 3545Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 3546
17e78a56
AC
3547stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3548kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3549
7fcca85b
AC
3550Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3551been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3552configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3553permanently REMOVED.
3554
a196c81c 3555* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
3556
3557Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3558Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3559Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3560ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3561Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 3562ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 3563
6d6b80e5 3564* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 3565
6d6b80e5 3566GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
3567sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3568present.
3569
bf64bfd6
AC
3570* Other news:
3571
e23194cb
EZ
3572* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3573
3574* The MI enabled by default.
3575
3576The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3577revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3578engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3579using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3580which is now deprecated.
3581
3582* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3583
3584GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3585main features are supported:
3586
3587 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3588
3589 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3590 extension;
3591
3592 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3593
3594 - a Pascal expression parser.
3595
3596However, some important features are not yet supported.
3597
3598 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3599
3600 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3601
3602 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3603 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3604
3605 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3606
3607 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3608
3609* Changes in completion.
3610
3611Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3612to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3613users expect at the shell prompt.
3614
3615Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3616`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3617program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3618files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3619be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3620considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3621name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3622
3623`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3624
3625* New platform-independent commands:
3626
3627It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3628hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3629documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3630
3631* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3632
d7275149
MK
3633Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3634revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3635many threads as your system allows you to have.
3636
e23194cb
EZ
3637Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3638
d7275149
MK
3639Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3640multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
3641
3642* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
3643
3644Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3645
e23194cb
EZ
3646GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3647debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3648supported.)
3649
3650* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3651
3652Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3653breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3654implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3655put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3656and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3657registers.
3658
3659The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3660debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3661watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3662
3663* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3664
3665New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3666the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3667
3668New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3669display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3670IDT.
3671
3672New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3673from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3674New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3675a given linear address.
3676
3677GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3678program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3679which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3680
3681DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3682
6c56c069
EZ
3683It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3684
e23194cb
EZ
3685* Changes in documentation.
3686
3687All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3688Documentation License.
3689
3690Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3691manual.
3692
3693TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3694
3695Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3696manual.
3697
3698The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3699documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3700hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3701
5d6640b1
AC
3702* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3703
3704The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3705``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3706contents of this file.
3707
1a1d8446
AC
3708* gdba.el deleted
3709
3710GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 3711
9debab2f 3712*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 3713
c63ce875
EZ
3714* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3715
3716Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3717programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3718displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3719greater level of detail.
3720
3721* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3722
3723It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3724bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3725on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3726written.
3727
3728* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3729
3730The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3731necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3732machines ``out of the box''.
3733
3734The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3735possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3736signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3737would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3738interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3739
3740It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3741standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3742even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3743and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3744terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3745
3746The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3747enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3748also works.
3749
3750DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3751GDB.
3752
3753It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3754directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3755times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3756breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3757
ed9a39eb
JM
3758* New native configurations
3759
3760ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 3761PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 3762
7a292a7a
SS
3763* New targets
3764
96baa820 3765Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
3766x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3767PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
3768TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3769
085dd6e6
JM
3770* OBSOLETE configurations
3771
3772Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3773Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 3774Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 3775ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 3776Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 3777
9debab2f
AC
3778Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3779but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3780these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3781be permanently REMOVED.
3782
5330533d
SS
3783* Gould support removed
3784
3785Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3786
bc9e5bbf
AC
3787* New features for SVR4
3788
3789On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3790without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3791load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3792
3793* Many C++ enhancements
3794
3795C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3796in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3797
adf40b2e
JM
3798* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3799
3800A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3801sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3802with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3803``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3804
3805 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3806 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3807
43e526b9
JM
3808* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3809
3810A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3811expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3812instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3813
3814The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3815added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3816
96baa820
JM
3817* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3818
3819The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3820``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3821include ``set remote P-packet''.
3822
11cf8741
JM
3823* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3824
3825The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3826accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3827``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3828
7876dd43
DB
3829* ``apropos'' command added.
3830
3831The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3832documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3833try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3834
bc9e5bbf
AC
3835* New MI interface
3836
3837A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3838interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
3839process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3840"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3841enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
3842
3843 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3844
c906108c
SS
3845*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3846
3847* New native configurations
3848
3849HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3850HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 3851M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
3852
3853* New targets
3854
3855Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3856Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3857Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3858
3859* OBSOLETE configurations
3860
3861Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3862
3863Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3864but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3865these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3866be permanently REMOVED.
3867
3868* ANSI/ISO C
3869
3870As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3871buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3872containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3873use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3874available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3875configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3876information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3877already.
3878
3879* Readline 2.2
3880
3881GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3882
3883* set extension-language
3884
3885You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3886languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3887you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3888 set extension-language .c c++
3889The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3890and their associated languages.
3891
3892* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3893
3894When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3895you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3896PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3897
3898 set processor NAME
3899
3900sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3901following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3902
3903 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3904 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3905 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3906 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3907 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3908 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3909 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3910 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3911 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3912 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3913 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3914
3915At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3916special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3917registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3918only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3919
3920* HP-UX support
3921
3922Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3923more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3924library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3925support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3926for xdb and dbx commands.
3927
3928* Catchpoints
3929
3930HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3931generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3932to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3933
3934This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3935argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3936output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3937
3938* Debugging across forks
3939
3940On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3941in the inferior.
3942
3943* TUI
3944
3945HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3946it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3947configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3948
3949* GDB remote protocol additions
3950
3951A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3952Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3953fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3954allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3955
3956For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3957full 64-bit address. The command
3958
3959 set remoteaddresssize 32
3960
3961can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3962the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3963will be discarded.
3964
3965In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3966command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3967
3968 maint packet heythere
3969
3970sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3971disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3972time.
3973
3974The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3975target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3976downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3977
3978* Tracing can collect general expressions
3979
3980You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3981further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3982doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3983
3984* mask-address variable for Mips
3985
3986For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3987a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3988of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3989
3990* Higher serial baud rates
3991
3992GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3993230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3994to achieve all of these rates.)
3995
3996* i960 simulator
3997
3998The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3999builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4000
4001
4002*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4003
4004* New native configurations
4005
4006Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4007Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4008Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4009PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4010PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4011Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4012Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4013
4014* New targets
4015
4016Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4017Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4018Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4019Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4020MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4021MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4022MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4023Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4024Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4025Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4026NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4027
4028* New debugging protocols
4029
4030ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4031M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4032DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4033PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4034PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4035Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4036
4037* DWARF 2
4038
4039All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4040format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4041information.
4042
4043* Java frontend
4044
4045GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4046only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4047
4048* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4049
4050For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4051loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4052locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4053
4054* Live range splitting
4055
4056GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4057range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4058more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4059
4060* Hurd support
4061
4062GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4063updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4064
4065* ARM Thumb support
4066
4067GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4068instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4069instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4070accordingly.
4071
4072* MIPS16 support
4073
4074GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4075instruction set.
4076
4077* Overlay support
4078
4079GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4080linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4081will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4082control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4083additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4084in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4085
4086* info symbol
4087
4088The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4089the symbol at the specified address.
4090
4091* Trace support
4092
4093The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4094asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4095extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4096includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4097file tracepoint.c for more details.
4098
4099* MIPS simulator
4100
4101Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4102by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4103of most MIPS variants.
4104
4105* Sparc simulator
4106
4107Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4108by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4109Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4110
4111* set architecture
4112
4113For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4114basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4115architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4116the possible architectures.
4117
4118*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4119
4120* New native configurations
4121
4122Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4123M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4124PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4125PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4126PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4127RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4128
4129* New targets
4130
4131ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4132I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4133MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4134MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4135PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4136Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4137Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4138
4139* PowerPC simulator
4140
4141The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4142contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4143PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4144basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4145performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4146
4147* Solaris 2.5
4148
4149GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4150
4151* Windows 95/NT native
4152
4153GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4154To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4155which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4156Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4157ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4158
4159* dont-repeat command
4160
4161If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4162command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4163useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4164extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4165
4166* Send break instead of ^C
4167
4168The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4169rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4170GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4171
4172* Remote protocol timeout
4173
4174The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4175that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4176to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4177
4178* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4179
4180By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4181loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4182stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4183when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4184in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4185
4186Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4187/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4188automatically on hpux10.
4189
4190* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4191
4192Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4193
4194* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4195
4196When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4197may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4198the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4199every character. The default value is 1050.
4200
4201* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4202
4203If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4204a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4205replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4206details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4207remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4208to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4209
4210* Speedups for remote debugging
4211
4212GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4213the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4214and more efficient S-record downloading.
4215
4216* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4217
4218GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4219Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4220
4221*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4222
4223* Psymtabs for XCOFF
4224
4225The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4226can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4227
4228* Remote targets use caching
4229
4230Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4231remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4232it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4233debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4234off' turns the the data cache off.
4235
4236* Remote targets may have threads
4237
4238The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4239in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4240gdb/remote.c for details.
4241
4242* NetROM support
4243
4244If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4245support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4246acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4247write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4248support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4249another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4250sequence is something like
4251
4252 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4253 load <prog>
4254 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4255
4256* Macintosh host
4257
4258GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4259may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4260it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4261available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4262device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4263directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4264scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4265mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4266
4267* Autoconf
4268
4269GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4270but does simplify configuration and building.
4271
4272* hpux10
4273
4274GDB now supports hpux10.
4275
4276*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4277
4278* New native configurations
4279
4280x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4281x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4282NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4283Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4284
4285* New targets
4286
4287A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4288HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4289CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4290PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4291WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4292
4293* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4294
4295GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4296possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4297filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4298the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4299if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4300
4301* Arguments to user-defined commands
4302
4303User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4304Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4305trivial example:
4306define adder
4307 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4308
4309To execute the command use:
4310adder 1 2 3
4311
4312Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4313Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4314use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4315
4316* New `if' and `while' commands
4317
4318This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4319commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4320expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4321execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4322terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4323`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4324if the expression is zero.
4325
4326* Fortran source language mode
4327
4328GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4329Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4330variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4331with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4332Fortran compilers.
4333
4334* Better HPUX support
4335
4336Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4337running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4338processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4339for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4340that behavior do the following before running the program:
4341
4342 adb -w a.out
4343 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4344 control-d
4345
4346This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4347To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4348
4349 adb -w a.out
4350 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4351 control-d
4352
4353You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4354the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4355external linkage.
4356
4357GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4358HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4359
4360* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4361
4362You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4363commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4364current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4365"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4366associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4367configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4368
4369* New DOS host serial code
4370
4371This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4372no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4373a PC's serial port.
4374
4375*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4376
4377* New "complete" command
4378
4379This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4380were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4381
4382* Trailing space optional in prompt
4383
4384"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4385allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4386
4387* Breakpoint hit counts
4388
4389"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4390has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4391can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4392to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4393less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4394that breakpoint.
4395
4396* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4397
4398"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4399an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4400arrays actually contain only short strings.
4401
4402* Shared library breakpoints
4403
4404In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4405breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4406
4407* Hardware watchpoints
4408
4409There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4410targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4411
55241689 4412Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
4413
4414* Annotations
4415
4416Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4417and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4418
4419* Improved Irix 5 support
4420
4421GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4422
4423* Improved HPPA support
4424
4425GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4426
4427* New native configurations
4428
4429Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4430HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4431Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4432RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4433
4434* New targets
4435
4436OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4437MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4438Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4439
4440* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4441
4442There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4443This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4444
4445* Fixes
4446
4447As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4448and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4449
4450*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4451
4452* Irix 5 is now supported
4453
4454* HPPA support
4455
4456GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4457to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4458GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4459of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4460can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4461
4462
4463*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4464
4465* User visible changes:
4466
4467* Remote Debugging
4468
4469The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4470target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4471debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4472integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4473debugging info for the mips target).
4474
4475* DEC Alpha native support
4476
4477GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4478debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4479work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4480Alpha-specific notes.
4481
4482* Preliminary thread implementation
4483
4484GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4485
4486* LynxOS native and target support for 386
4487
4488This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4489to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4490for details).
4491
4492* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4493
4494This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4495mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4496call methods, ...etc.
4497
4498*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4499
4500 * User visible changes:
4501
4502Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4503supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4504other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4505somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4506
4507Filename completion now works.
4508
4509When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4510arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4511addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4512
4513All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4514vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4515should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4516your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4517to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4518
4519 * DEC alpha support
4520
4521This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4522cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4523
4524
4525*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4526
4527 * Testsuite
4528
4529This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4530The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4531via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4532
4533 * C++ demangling
4534
4535'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4536emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4537Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4538disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4539use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4540
4541 * Simulators
4542
4543GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4544So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4545Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4546
4547 * New targets supported
4548
4549H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4550H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4551SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4552Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4553IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4554
4555Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4556version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4557GO32 memory extender.
4558
4559 * New remote protocols
4560
4561MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4562
4563 * New source languages supported
4564
4565This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4566used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4567into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4568
4569
4570*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4571
4572 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4573
4574GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4575version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4576University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4577compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4578format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4579(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4580
4581Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4582
4583 * Faster and better demangling
4584
4585We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4586demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4587character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4588only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4589This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4590increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4591symbol lookups.
4592
4593`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4594from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4595compiler does not actually implement.
4596
4597 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4598
4599In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4600inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4601recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4602very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4603The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4604circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4605fix.
4606
4607The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4608release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4609
4610 * Improved configure script
4611
4612The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4613you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4614host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4615done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4616
4617We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4618version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4619`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4620The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4621only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4622We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4623
4624 * Documentation improvements
4625
4626There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4627produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4628before submitting changes.
4629
4630The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4631M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4632`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4633you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4634a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4635
4636*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4637We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4638been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4639or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4640`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4641around this problem.
4642
4643 * New features
4644
4645GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4646the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4647`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4648the target program.
4649
4650The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4651how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4652
4653 * New native hosts supported
4654
4655HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4656386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4657
4658 * New targets supported
4659
4660AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4661
4662 * New file formats supported
4663
4664BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4665HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4666
4667 * Major bug fixes
4668
4669Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4670
4671We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4672printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4673
4674We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4675for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4676release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4677
4678You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4679will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4680
4681We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4682for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4683especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4684libraries.
4685
4686The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4687information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4688command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4689any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4690when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4691
4692 * Internal improvements
4693
4694GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4695debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4696
4697GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4698Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4699symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4700contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4701shared code that handles any of them.
4702
4703 * New command line options
4704
4705We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4706
4707 * Mmalloc licensing
4708
4709The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4710General Public License.
4711
4712*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4713
4714 * Host/native/target split
4715
4716GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4717hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4718target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4719local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4720ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4721
4722The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4723GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4724is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4725code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4726any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4727built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4728handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4729
4730GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4731It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4732plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4733
4734 * New hosts supported
4735
4736HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4737386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4738386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4739
4740 * New targets supported
4741
4742Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
474368030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4744
4745 * New native hosts supported
4746
4747386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4748 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4749386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4750
4751 * New file formats supported
4752
4753BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4754supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4755format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4756
4757 * New commands
4758
4759`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4760`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4761These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4762
4763`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4764
4765You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4766scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4767prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4768executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4769
4770 * C++ improvements
4771
4772We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4773info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4774symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4775
4776Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4777
4778 * Major bug fixes
4779
4780The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4781fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4782by the compiler.
4783
4784We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4785support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4786
4787John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4788slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4789that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4790purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4791the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4792mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4793
4794Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4795about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4796completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4797we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4798
4799 * AMD 29k support
4800
4801A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4802specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4803calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4804usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4805in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4806
4807We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4808Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4809of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4810resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4811
4812 * Remote interfaces
4813
4814We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4815with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4816message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4817This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4818needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4819breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4820each instruction being stepped through.
4821
4822The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4823registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4824
4825There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4826find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4827Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4828processor with a serial port.
4829
4830 * Configuration
4831
4832Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4833`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4834supported, and what files each one uses.
4835
4836 * Library changes
4837
4838There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4839disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4840Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4841disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4842
4843The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4844Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4845can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4846grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4847
4848 * Documentation
4849
4850The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4851reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4852as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4853encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4854system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4855bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4856
4857And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4858
4859
4860*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4861
4862 * Better support for C++ function names
4863
4864GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4865names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4866(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4867single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4868Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4869
4870GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4871the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4872You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4873lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4874for the list of formats.
4875
4876 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4877
4878Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4879C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4880directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4881can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4882usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4883about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4884this problem.)
4885
4886 * New 'maintenance' command
4887
4888All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4889the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4890can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4891
4892 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4893 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4894 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4895 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4896 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4897 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4898
4899The following commands are new:
4900
4901 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4902 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4903 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4904
4905 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4906
4907We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4908(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4909be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4910read after argv processing.
4911
4912 * New hosts supported
4913
4914Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4915
55241689 4916GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
4917
4918We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4919is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4920for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4921masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4922fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4923It costs extra.
4924
4925 * New targets supported
4926
4927Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4928
4929 * More smarts about finding #include files
4930
4931GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4932all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4933greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4934especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4935the one that contains your sources.
4936
4937We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4938breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4939try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4940
4941 * Interesting infernals change
4942
4943GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4944section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4945target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4946stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4947
4948 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4949
4950There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4951 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4952 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4953
4954See the ChangeLog for details.
4955
4956*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4957
4958 * New machines supported (host and target)
4959
4960IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4961
4962SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4963
4964 * New malloc package
4965
4966GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4967Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4968capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4969This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4970pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4971more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4972
4973 * info proc
4974
4975The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4976'help info proc' for details.
4977
4978 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4979
4980The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4981Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4982possible.
4983
4984 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4985
4986Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4987support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4988conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4989environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4990that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4991in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4992
4993 * Cross byte order fixes
4994
4995Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4996targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4997
4998 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4999
5000If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5001system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5002`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5003program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5004called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5005Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5006and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5007the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5008option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5009starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5010
5011You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5012the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5013information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5014slower, but makes future operations faster.
5015
5016The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5017build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5018A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5019use is:
5020
5021 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5022
5023The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5024It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5025shared across multiple host platforms.
5026
5027 * longjmp() handling
5028
5029GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5030siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5031all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5032platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5033
5034 * Solaris 2.0
5035
5036Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5037this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5038reading symbols.
5039
5040 * Bug fixes
5041
5042As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5043People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5044crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5045
5046*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5047
5048 * New machines supported (host and target)
5049
5050SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5051 (except core files)
5052BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5053Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5054
5055 * New machines supported (target)
5056
5057AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5058
5059 * C++ support
5060
5061GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5062The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5063per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5064
5065GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5066`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5067extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5068good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5069will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5070released.
5071
5072 * New features for SVR4
5073
5074GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5075shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5076only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5077
5078The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5079on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5080it prints the address mappings of the process.
5081
5082If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5083bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5084
5085 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5086
5087Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5088now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5089skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5090make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5091same code linked statically.
5092
5093 * New Getopt
5094
5095GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5096version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5097continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5098Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5099added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5100future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5101
5102 * Bugs fixed
5103
5104The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5105Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5106See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5107
5108
5109*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5110
5111 * New machines supported (host and target)
5112
5113Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5114NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5115Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5116
5117 * Almost SCO Unix support
5118
5119We had hoped to support:
5120SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5121(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5122that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5123about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5124
5125 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5126
5127GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5128debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5129is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5130send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5131reqired (if any).
5132
5133 * New Readline
5134
5135GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5136is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5137required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5138
5139 * Bugs fixed
5140
5141The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5142Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5143See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5144
5145 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5146
5147GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5148supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5149symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5150
5151Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5152mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5153debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5154mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5155version 2.
5156
5157Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5158really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5159line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5160variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5161situation somewhat.
5162
5163When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5164However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5165methods.
5166
5167We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5168DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5169encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5170
5171
5172*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5173
5174 * Improved configuration
5175
5176Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5177Porting BFD is simpler.
5178
5179 * Stepping improved
5180
5181The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5182of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5183in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5184function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5185
5186 * Bug fixing
5187
5188Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5189
5190 * New host supported (not target)
5191
5192Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5193
5194
5195*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5196
5197 * Multiple source language support
5198
5199GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5200It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5201and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5202language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5203You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5204`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5205
5206 * GDB and Modula-2
5207
5208GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5209currently under development at the State University of New York at
5210Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5211continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5212
5213Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5214debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5215symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5216
5217There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5218in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5219
5220 * set write on/off
5221
5222GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5223a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5224the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5225by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5226effect immediately.
5227
5228 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5229
5230When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5231shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5232The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5233examining core files.
5234
5235 * set listsize
5236
5237You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5238The default is 10.
5239
5240 * New machines supported (host and target)
5241
5242SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5243Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5244Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5245
5246 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5247
5248IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5249
5250 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5251
5252AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5253AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5254Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5255
5256 * New remote interfaces
5257
5258AMD 29000 Adapt
5259AMD 29000 Minimon
5260
5261
5262*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5263
5264 * New Facilities
5265
5266Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5267
5268Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5269target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5270is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5271remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5272remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5273also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5274using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5275stub on the target system.
5276
5277New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5278
5279GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5280library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5281object file types such as a.out and coff.
5282
5283There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5284refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5285
5286
5287 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5288
5289All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5290by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5291
5292For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5293``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5294Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5295
5296What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5297print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5298will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5299all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5300
5301confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5302 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5303 it is already running. Default is ON.
5304
5305editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5306 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5307 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5308 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5309 Default is ON.
5310
5311history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5312 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5313 or the value of the environment variable
5314 GDBHISTFILE.
5315
5316history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5317 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5318 HISTSIZE.
5319
5320history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5321 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5322 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5323
5324history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5325 history expansion will be performed on
5326 command line input. The default is OFF.
5327
5328radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5329 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5330 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5331
5332height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5333 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5334 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5335 variable TERM.
5336
5337width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5338 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5339 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5340 variable TERM.
5341
5342Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5343``set width'' instead.
5344
5345print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5346 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5347 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5348 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5349
5350print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5351 is OFF.
5352
5353print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5354 "raw" form if off.
5355
5356print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5357 like instructions.
5358
5359print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5360
5361
5362 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5363
5364The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5365new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5366are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5367window.
5368
5369
5370 * Support for Shared Libraries
5371
5372GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5373Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5374before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5375happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5376At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5377from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5378shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5379It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5380
5381sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5382 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5383 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5384
5385info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5386
5387
5388 * Watchpoints
5389
5390A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5391expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5392tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5393quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5394problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5395more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5396
5397watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5398
5399info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5400
5401delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5402disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5403enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5404
5405
5406 * C++ multiple inheritance
5407
5408When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5409for C++ programs.
5410
5411 * C++ exception handling
5412
5413Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5414ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5415the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5416handler's context).
5417
5418catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5419 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5420 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5421
5422info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5423 current stack frame.
5424
5425
5426 * Minor command changes
5427
5428The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5429command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5430is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5431
5432The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5433at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5434frames without printing.
5435
5436 * New directory command
5437
5438'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5439The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5440about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5441with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5442find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5443
5444 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5445
5446For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5447for more details.
5448
5449GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5450two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5451Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5452where the program that you are debugging will run.