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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 10
5
6 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
7 for the ARC target.
8
9 * GDB now supports general memory tagging functionality if the underlying
10 architecture supports the proper primitives and hooks. Currently this is
11 enabled only for AArch64 MTE.
12
13 This includes:
14
15 - Additional information when the inferior crashes with a SIGSEGV caused by
16 a memory tag violation.
17
18 - A new modifier 'm' for the "x" command, which displays allocation tags for a
19 particular memory range.
20
21 - Display of memory tag mismatches by "print", for addresses and
22 pointers, if memory tagging is supported by the architecture.
23
24 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
25 Library).
26
27 * MI changes
28
29 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
30
31 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
32 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
33 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
34 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
35 -qualified".
36
37 ** '-break-insert --force-condition' and '-dprintf-insert --force-condition'
38
39 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
40 '--force-condition' flag to forcibly define a condition even when
41 the condition is invalid at all locations of the breakpoint. This
42 is equivalent to the '-force-condition' flag of the CLI's "break"
43 command.
44
45 ** '-break-condition --force'
46
47 The MI -break-condition command now supports a '--force' flag to
48 forcibly define a condition even when the condition is invalid at
49 all locations of the selected breakpoint. This is equivalent to
50 the '-force' flag of the CLI's "cond" command.
51
52 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
53
54 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
55 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
56 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
57 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
58 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
59
60 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
61 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
62 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
63 been added.
64
65 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
66 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
67 name following a GNAT-specific format).
68
69 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
70 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
71 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
72 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
73 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
74 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
75
76 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
77 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
78 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
79 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
80
81 * For RISC-V targets, the target feature "org.gnu.gdb.riscv.vector" is
82 now understood by GDB, and can be used to describe the vector
83 registers of a target. The precise requirements of this register
84 feature are documented in the GDB manual.
85
86 * New commands
87
88 set debug event-loop
89 show debug event-loop
90 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
91
92 set print memory-tag-violations
93 show print memory-tag-violations
94 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
95 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
96 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
97
98 maintenance flush symbol-cache
99 maintenance flush register-cache
100 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
101 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
102
103 maintenance flush dcache
104 A new command to flush the dcache.
105
106 maintenance info target-sections
107 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
108
109 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
110 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
111 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
112 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
113 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
114 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
115 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
116 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
117 memory-tag check POINTER
118 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
119
120 set startup-quietly on|off
121 show startup-quietly
122 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
123 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
124 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
125 affect GDB.
126
127 set print type hex on|off
128 show print type hex
129 When 'on', the 'ptype' command uses hexadecimal notation to print sizes
130 and offsets of struct members. When 'off', decimal notation is used.
131
132 set python ignore-environment on|off
133 show python ignore-environment
134 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to ignore any
135 environment variables that would otherwise affect how Python
136 behaves. This command needs to be added to an early initialization
137 file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to affect GDB.
138
139 set python dont-write-bytecode auto|on|off
140 show python dont-write-bytecode
141 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to not write any
142 byte-code (.pyc files) to disk. This command needs to be added to
143 an early initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in
144 order to affect GDB. When 'off' byte-code will always be written.
145 When set to 'auto' (the default) Python will check the
146 PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable.
147
148 * Changed commands
149
150 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
151 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
152 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
153 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
154 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
155 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
156 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
157 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
158 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
159 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
160 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
161 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
162 load.
163
164 condition [-force] N COND
165 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
166 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
167 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
168 current locations of breakpoint N.
169
170 flushregs
171 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
172 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
173 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
174 symbol-cache' respectively.
175
176 set style version foreground COLOR
177 set style version background COLOR
178 set style version intensity VALUE
179 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
180
181 inferior [ID]
182 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
183 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
184 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
185 the current inferior.
186
187 maintenance info sections
188 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
189 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
190 even when -all-objects is passed.
191
192 ptype[/FLAGS] TYPE | EXPRESSION
193 The 'ptype' command has two new flags. When '/x' is set, hexadecimal
194 notation is used when printing sizes and offsets of struct members.
195 When '/d' is set, decimal notation is used when printing sizes and
196 offsets of struct members. Default behavior is given by 'show print
197 type hex'.
198
199 * Removed targets and native configurations
200
201 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
202
203 * New remote packets
204
205 qMemTags
206 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
207 QMemTags
208 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
209 memory range.
210
211 * Guile API
212
213 ** Improved support for rvalue reference values:
214 TYPE_CODE_RVALUE_REF is now exported as part of the API and the
215 value-referenced-value procedure now handles rvalue reference
216 values.
217
218 ** New procedures for obtaining value variants:
219 value-reference-value, value-rvalue-reference-value and
220 value-const-value.
221
222 * Python API
223
224 ** Inferior objects now contain a read-only 'connection_num' attribute that
225 gives the connection number as seen in 'info connections' and
226 'info inferiors'.
227
228 ** New method gdb.Frame.level() which returns the stack level of the
229 frame object.
230
231 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.level() which returns the stack level
232 of the frame object.
233
234 *** Changes in GDB 10
235
236 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
237 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
238 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
239 grace period.
240
241 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
242 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
243 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
244 and finally the description of the command.
245
246 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
247 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
248
249 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
250 debugging information as well as source code.
251
252 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
253 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
254 being debugged.
255
256 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
257 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
258
259 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
260
261 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
262
263 * Multi-target debugging support
264
265 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
266 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
267 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
268 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
269 debugging a core dump, etc.
270
271 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
272 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
273 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
274 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
275 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
276 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
277
278 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
279
280 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
281
282 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
283
284 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
285
286 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
287 powerpc-*-lynxos*
288 i[34567]86-*-nto*
289 bfin-*-*linux*
290 crisv32-*-linux*
291 cris-*-linux*
292 m32r*-*-linux*
293 tilegx-*-linux*
294 arm*-*-mingw32ce*
295 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
296
297 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
298 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
299
300 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
301 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
302 performance for programs with many symbols.
303
304 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
305 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
306
307 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
308
309 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
310 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
311 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
312 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
313 history.
314
315 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
316 64-bit GDB.
317
318 * New commands
319
320 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
321 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
322 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
323 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
324 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
325 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
326 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
327 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
328 attempt to detect a mismatch.
329
330 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
331 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
332 will be displayed.
333
334 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
335 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
336 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
337 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
338 reprinted.
339
340 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
341 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
342 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
343
344 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
345 show debug fortran-array-slicing
346 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
347
348 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
349 show fortran repack-array-slices
350 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
351 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
352 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
353 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
354 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
355 original parent value.
356
357 * Changed commands
358
359 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
360 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
361 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
362 provided explicitly by the user.
363 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
364 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
365 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
366 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
367 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
368 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
369 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
370 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
371
372 * New targets
373
374 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
375 BPF bpf-unknown-none
376
377 * Python API
378
379 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
380 in Python.
381
382 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
383 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
384 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
385 as well.
386
387 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
388 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
389
390 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
391 architecture of the pending frame.
392
393 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
394 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
395 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
396 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
397
398 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
399 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
400 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
401 discover the available register groups.
402
403 * Guile API
404
405 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
406
407 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
408 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
409 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
410 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
411 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
412
413 *** Changes in GDB 9
414
415 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
416
417 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
418 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
419 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
420 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
421 such as in system-wide init files.
422
423 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
424 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
425 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
426 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
427 current GDB settings.
428
429 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
430 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
431 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
432 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
433
434 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
435 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
436 postfix [PAC].
437
438 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
439 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
440
441 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
442 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
443 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
444
445 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
446 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
447 commands.
448
449 * Command names can now use the . character.
450
451 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
452
453 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
454 messages.
455
456 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
457
458 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
459 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
460
461 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
462 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
463 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
464
465 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
466
467 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
468 not visible in the current scope.
469
470 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
471 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
472 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
473 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
474 compiled with support for that language.
475
476 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
477 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
478 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
479
480 * Python API
481
482 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
483 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
484 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
485 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
486 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
487
488 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
489 type was defined in.
490
491 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
492 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
493 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
494 is given.
495
496 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
497 symbols with static linkage.
498
499 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
500 all static symbols with static linkage.
501
502 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
503 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
504
505 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
506 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
507
508 * New commands
509
510 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
511 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
512 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
513 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
514 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
515 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
516 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
517
518 define-prefix COMMAND
519 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
520
521 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
522 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
523 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
524 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
525 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
526 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
527 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
528 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
529 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
530 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
531 of array elements to print.
532
533 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
534 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
535
536 set may-call-functions [on|off]
537 show may-call-functions
538 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
539 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
540 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
541 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
542 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
543 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
544 in the program.
545
546 set print finish [on|off]
547 show print finish
548 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
549 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
550 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
551 default is `on'.
552
553 set print max-depth
554 show print max-depth
555 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
556 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
557 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
558 the old behavior back.
559
560 set print raw-values [on|off]
561 show print raw-values
562 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
563 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
564 of commands. The default is 'off'.
565
566 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
567 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
568 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
569
570 set style title foreground COLOR
571 set style title background COLOR
572 set style title intensity VALUE
573 Control the styling of titles.
574
575 set style highlight foreground COLOR
576 set style highlight background COLOR
577 set style highlight intensity VALUE
578 Control the styling of highlightings.
579
580 maint set worker-threads
581 maint show worker-threads
582 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
583 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
584 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
585 the names of linker symbols.
586
587 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
588 set style tui-border background COLOR
589 Control the styling of TUI borders.
590
591 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
592 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
593 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
594
595 maint set test-settings KIND
596 maint show test-settings KIND
597 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
598 infrastructure.
599
600 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
601 maint show tui-resize-message
602 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
603 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
604 TUI.
605
606 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
607 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
608 show print frame-info
609 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
610 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
611 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
612 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
613
614 set tui compact-source
615 show tui compact-source
616
617 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
618 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
619 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
620 line numbers from the source.
621
622 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
623 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
624 no REGEXP is given.
625
626 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
627 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
628 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
629 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
630 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
631 matches against the function name.
632
633 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
634 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
635 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
636 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
637 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
638 against the variable name.
639
640 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
641 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
642 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
643 "set debug remote".
644 The default is 512 bytes.
645
646 info connections
647 Lists the target connections currently in use.
648
649 * Changed commands
650
651 help
652 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
653 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
654 command names.
655
656 apropos [-v] REGEXP
657 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
658 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
659 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
660 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
661 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
662
663 printf
664 eval
665 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
666 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
667 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
668 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
669
670 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
671 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
672 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
673 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
674 parts of the files.
675
676 show style
677 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
678 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
679 the user visualize the different styles.
680
681 set print frame-arguments
682 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
683 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
684
685 set print raw-frame-arguments
686 show print raw-frame-arguments
687
688 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
689 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
690 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
691 release.
692
693 add-inferior [-no-connection]
694 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
695 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
696 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
697 current inferior. See also "info connections".
698
699 info inferior
700 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
701 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
702 "info connections" above.
703
704 maint test-options require-delimiter
705 maint test-options unknown-is-error
706 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
707 maint show test-options-completion-result
708 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
709 framework.
710
711 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
712 These commands are now case-sensitive.
713
714 * New command options, command completion
715
716 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
717 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
718 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
719 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
720 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
721 number of commands got support for new command options in this
722 release:
723
724 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
725 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
726 set by "set print" subcommands:
727
728 -address [on|off]
729 -array [on|off]
730 -array-indexes [on|off]
731 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
732 -null-stop [on|off]
733 -object [on|off]
734 -pretty [on|off]
735 -raw-values [on|off]
736 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
737 -static-members [on|off]
738 -symbol [on|off]
739 -union [on|off]
740 -vtbl [on|off]
741
742 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
743 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
744 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
745 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
746
747 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
748 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
749 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
750
751 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
752 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
753 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
754 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
755 |location-and-address|short-location
756 -past-main [on|off]
757 -past-entry [on|off]
758
759 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
760 exposed as command options too:
761
762 -full
763 -no-filters
764 -hide
765
766 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
767 support the following options:
768
769 -past-main [on|off]
770 -past-entry [on|off]
771
772 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
773 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
774
775 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
776 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
777 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
778 like for example:
779
780 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
781
782 The above is equivalent to:
783
784 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
785
786 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
787 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
788 variables" and "info functions".
789
790 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
791 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
792 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
793 from the results.
794
795 * Completion improvements
796
797 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
798 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
799 abbreviated.
800
801 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
802 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
803 commands.
804
805 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
806 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
807 completes on filenames.
808
809 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
810 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
811
812 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
813
814 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
815 elements unlimited".
816
817 * New MI commands
818
819 -complete
820 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
821 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
822 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
823
824 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
825 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
826 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
827
828 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
829 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
830 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
831
832 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
833 modules' command.
834
835 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
836 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
837 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
838
839 * Other MI changes
840
841 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
842
843 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
844 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
845 the following commands and events:
846
847 - -break-insert
848 - -break-info
849 - =breakpoint-created
850 - =breakpoint-modified
851
852 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
853 this behavior with previous MI versions.
854
855 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
856 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
857 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
858 present.
859
860 * Testsuite
861
862 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
863 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
864 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
865 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
866
867 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
868
869 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
870 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
871
872 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
873
874 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
875 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
876
877 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
878 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
879 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
880
881 * Removed targets and native configurations
882
883 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
884 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
885 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
886
887 * New Simulators
888
889 TI PRU pru-*-elf
890
891 * Removed targets and native configurations
892
893 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
894 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
895
896 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
897
898 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
899 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
900 HTM registers.
901
902 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
903 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
904 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
905 and operators.
906
907 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
908 (the C++ plug-in).
909
910 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
911 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
912 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
913
914 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
915 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
916
917 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
918 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
919 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
920 in the GDB user manual.
921
922 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
923 executed failed.
924
925 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
926
927 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
928 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
929 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
930 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
931 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
932 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
933 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
934 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
935 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
936 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
937 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
938 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
939
940 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
941 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
942 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
943 information.
944
945 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
946 lucid.
947
948 * New commands
949
950 set debug compile-cplus-types
951 show debug compile-cplus-types
952 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
953 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
954 for other languages.
955
956 set debug skip
957 show debug skip
958 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
959 displayed.
960
961 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
962 Apply a command to some frames.
963 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
964 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
965
966 taas COMMAND
967 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
968 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
969
970 faas COMMAND
971 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
972 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
973
974 tfaas COMMAND
975 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
976 output).
977 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
978
979 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
980 maint show dwarf unwinders
981 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
982
983 info proc files
984 Display a list of open files for a process.
985
986 * Changed commands
987
988 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
989 These commands all now take a frame specification which
990 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
991 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
992 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
993 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
994 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
995
996 target remote FILENAME
997 target extended-remote FILENAME
998 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
999 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
1000
1001 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1002 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1003 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1004 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1005 These commands can now print only the searched entities
1006 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
1007 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
1008 printing headers or informations messages.
1009
1010 info functions
1011 info types
1012 info variables
1013 rbreak
1014 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
1015 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
1016 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
1017 the shown entities.
1018
1019 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1020 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
1021 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
1022 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
1023
1024 set tui tab-width NCHARS
1025 show tui tab-width NCHARS
1026 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
1027
1028 set style enabled [on|off]
1029 show style enabled
1030 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
1031 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
1032
1033 set style sources [on|off]
1034 show style sources
1035 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
1036 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
1037 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
1038
1039 set style filename foreground COLOR
1040 set style filename background COLOR
1041 set style filename intensity VALUE
1042 Control the styling of file names.
1043
1044 set style function foreground COLOR
1045 set style function background COLOR
1046 set style function intensity VALUE
1047 Control the styling of function names.
1048
1049 set style variable foreground COLOR
1050 set style variable background COLOR
1051 set style variable intensity VALUE
1052 Control the styling of variable names.
1053
1054 set style address foreground COLOR
1055 set style address background COLOR
1056 set style address intensity VALUE
1057 Control the styling of addresses.
1058
1059 * MI changes
1060
1061 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
1062 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
1063 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
1064 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
1065 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
1066
1067 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
1068 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
1069
1070 * New native configurations
1071
1072 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1073 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1074
1075 * New targets
1076
1077 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1078 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
1079 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
1080 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1081 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
1082 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1083
1084 * Removed targets
1085
1086 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
1087 before Windows XP.
1088
1089 * Python API
1090
1091 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
1092
1093 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
1094 space associated to that inferior.
1095
1096 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
1097 of objfiles associated to that program space.
1098
1099 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
1100 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
1101 the gdb core.
1102
1103 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
1104 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
1105 correct and did not work properly.
1106
1107 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
1108 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
1109
1110 * Configure changes
1111
1112 --enable-ubsan
1113
1114 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
1115 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
1116 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
1117 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
1118 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
1119
1120 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
1121
1122 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1123 for the MIPS target.
1124
1125 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
1126 offset to all sections.
1127
1128 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
1129 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
1130 address of individual sections using '-s'.
1131
1132 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
1133 (address of the text section).
1134
1135 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
1136 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
1137 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
1138 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
1139 default.
1140
1141 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
1142 for the rest of the current command.
1143
1144 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
1145 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
1146
1147 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
1148 files created on FreeBSD systems.
1149
1150 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
1151 alignof.
1152
1153 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
1154 the vector length while the process is running.
1155
1156 * New commands
1157
1158 set debug fbsd-nat
1159 show debug fbsd-nat
1160 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
1161
1162 set|show varsize-limit
1163 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
1164 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
1165 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
1166
1167 set|show record btrace cpu
1168 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
1169 branch trace decode.
1170
1171 maint check libthread-db
1172 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
1173 library
1174
1175 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
1176 maint show check-libthread-db
1177 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
1178 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
1179 perform such checks.
1180
1181 * Python API
1182
1183 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
1184
1185 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
1186 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
1187
1188 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
1189
1190 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
1191 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
1192 of convenience variables.
1193
1194 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
1195 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
1196 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
1197
1198 * New targets
1199
1200 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
1201
1202 * Removed targets and native configurations
1203
1204 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
1205 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
1206 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
1207 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
1208
1209 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
1210
1211 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
1212 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
1213 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
1214 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
1215 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
1216 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
1217 reported.
1218
1219 * Configure changes
1220
1221 --enable-codesign=CERT
1222 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
1223 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
1224 gdb to work properly.
1225
1226 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
1227 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
1228
1229 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
1230
1231 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
1232 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
1233 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
1234
1235 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
1236 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
1237
1238 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
1239 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
1240 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
1241 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
1242 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
1243
1244 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
1245 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
1246 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
1247 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
1248
1249 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
1250 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
1251
1252 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
1253 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
1254 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
1255
1256 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
1257 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
1258 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
1259
1260 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
1261 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
1262 environment" command.
1263
1264 * Completion improvements
1265
1266 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
1267 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
1268 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
1269 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
1270 correctly:
1271
1272 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
1273 (gdb) b function(int)
1274
1275 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
1276 C++ anonymous namespaces:
1277
1278 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
1279 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
1280 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
1281 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
1282
1283 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
1284 completion support, that better understands what you're
1285 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
1286 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
1287 setting a breakpoint.
1288
1289 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
1290
1291 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
1292
1293 * New command line options (gcore)
1294
1295 -a
1296 Dump all memory mappings.
1297
1298 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
1299
1300 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
1301 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
1302 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
1303
1304 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
1305
1306 A::B::func()
1307 B::func()
1308
1309 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
1310 on both symbols.
1311
1312 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
1313 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
1314 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
1315 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
1316 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
1317 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
1318 a breakpoint from Python.
1319
1320 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1321
1322 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1323 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
1324 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
1325
1326 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
1327
1328 function[abi:cxx11](int)
1329 ^^^^^^^^^^^
1330
1331 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
1332 no tag, like:
1333
1334 (gdb) b function(int)
1335
1336 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
1337
1338 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
1339
1340 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
1341
1342 * Python Scripting
1343
1344 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
1345 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
1346 description of these.
1347
1348 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
1349 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
1350 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
1351
1352 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
1353 manual for a further description of this feature.
1354
1355
1356 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1357
1358 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
1359 specified initial working directory.
1360
1361 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
1362 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
1363
1364 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
1365 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
1366
1367 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
1368 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
1369
1370 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
1371 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1372 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1373 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1374 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1375
1376 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1377 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1378 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1379
1380 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1381 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1382 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1383 in the *stopped notification.
1384
1385 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1386 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1387
1388 * New remote packets
1389
1390 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1391 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1392 the inferior when starting it.
1393
1394 QEnvironmentUnset
1395 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1396 before starting the remote inferior.
1397
1398 QEnvironmentReset
1399 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1400 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1401
1402 QStartupWithShell
1403 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1404
1405 QSetWorkingDir
1406 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1407 working directory.
1408
1409 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1410 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1411
1412 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1413 filter the tests to be run.
1414
1415 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1416 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1417
1418 * New commands
1419
1420 set|show cwd
1421 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1422
1423 set|show compile-gcc
1424 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1425 with the 'compile' commands.
1426
1427 set debug separate-debug-file
1428 show debug separate-debug-file
1429 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1430
1431 set dump-excluded-mappings
1432 show dump-excluded-mappings
1433 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1434 dumped when generating a core file.
1435
1436 maint info selftests
1437 List the registered selftests.
1438
1439 starti
1440 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1441
1442 set|show debug or1k
1443 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1444
1445 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1446 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1447 type printer will show.
1448
1449 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1450 `o' for nexti.
1451
1452 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1453
1454 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1455 'int'.
1456
1457 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1458 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1459 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1460 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1461
1462 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1463 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1464 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1465 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1466 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1467 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1468
1469 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1470 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1471 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1472
1473 (gdb) p var
1474 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1475 (gdb) p (float) var
1476 $3 = 3.14
1477
1478 * New native configurations
1479
1480 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1481 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1482
1483 * New targets
1484
1485 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1486 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1487 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1488
1489 * Removed targets and native configurations
1490
1491 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1492
1493 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1494
1495 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1496 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1497 available in future Intel CPUs.
1498
1499 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1500
1501 * Python Scripting
1502
1503 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1504 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1505
1506 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1507 instructions.
1508
1509 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1510
1511 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1512
1513 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1514 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1515 removed.
1516
1517 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1518
1519 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1520 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1521
1522 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1523
1524 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1525 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1526 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1527 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1528 features.
1529
1530 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1531
1532 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1533 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1534 debugger.
1535
1536 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1537
1538 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1539 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1540
1541 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1542
1543 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1544
1545 define mycommand
1546 set $i = 0
1547 while $i < $argc
1548 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1549 set $i = $i + 1
1550 end
1551 end
1552
1553 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1554
1555 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1556 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1557
1558 * New native configurations
1559
1560 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1561
1562 * New targets
1563
1564 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1565 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1566
1567 * Removed targets and native configurations
1568
1569 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1570 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1571
1572 * New commands
1573
1574 flash-erase
1575 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1576
1577 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1578 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1579
1580 * New options
1581
1582 set disassembler-options
1583 show disassembler-options
1584 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1585 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1586 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1587 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1588 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1589
1590 * New MI commands
1591
1592 -target-flash-erase
1593 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1594 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1595
1596 -file-list-shared-libraries
1597 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1598 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1599
1600 -catch-handlers
1601 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1602 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1603
1604 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1605
1606 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1607
1608 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1609 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1610 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1611 option will be removed in a future release.
1612
1613 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1614 GDB connection.
1615
1616 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1617 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1618
1619 (gdb) bt
1620 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1621 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1622 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1623 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1624 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1625 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1626 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1627 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1628 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1629
1630 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1631 arrays of dynamic types.
1632
1633 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1634 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1635 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1636 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1637 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1638 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1639
1640 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1641 descriptions.
1642
1643 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1644 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1645 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1646
1647 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1648
1649 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1650 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1651 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1652 signal received and code location.
1653
1654 For example:
1655
1656 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1657 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1658 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1659 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1660
1661 * Rust language support.
1662 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1663 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1664 Rust.
1665
1666 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1667
1668 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1669 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1670 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1671 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1672 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1673 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1674 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1675 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1676 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1677 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1678 line.
1679
1680 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1681
1682 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1683 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1684
1685 * New commands
1686
1687 skip -file file
1688 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1689 skip -function function
1690 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1691 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1692 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1693 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1694
1695 maint info line-table REGEXP
1696 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
1697
1698 maint selftest
1699 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1700
1701 new-ui INTERP TTY
1702 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1703 using the TTY file for input/output.
1704
1705 * Python Scripting
1706
1707 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1708 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1709 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1710 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1711 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1712
1713 signal-event EVENTID
1714 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1715 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1716 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1717 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1718 signalling an event.
1719
1720 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1721 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1722 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1723
1724 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1725 been removed:
1726
1727 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1728 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1729 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1730 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1731 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1732 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1733
1734 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1735 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1736 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1737 bytecode into native code.
1738
1739 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1740 recording. For example:
1741
1742 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1743
1744 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1745
1746 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1747
1748 * New targets
1749
1750 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1751
1752 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1753
1754 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1755
1756 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1757
1758 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1759 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1760 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1761
1762 (gdb) info threads
1763 Id Target Id Frame
1764 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1765 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1766 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1767 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1768
1769 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1770 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1771 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1772
1773 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1774 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1775 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1776
1777 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1778 IDs.
1779
1780 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1781 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1782
1783 (gdb) thread 2.1
1784 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1785 (gdb)
1786
1787 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1788 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1789 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1790 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1791 threads 2.*".
1792
1793 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1794 all threads.
1795
1796 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1797 the current thread.
1798
1799 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1800 current inferior.
1801
1802 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1803 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1804 example:
1805
1806 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1807 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1808
1809 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1810
1811 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1812
1813 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1814 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1815
1816 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1817 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1818 clients.
1819
1820 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1821 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1822 at the same time.
1823
1824 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1825 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1826 into native code.
1827
1828 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1829
1830 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1831 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1832 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1833
1834 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1835 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1836
1837 * New commands
1838
1839 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1840 maint show target-non-stop
1841 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1842 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1843 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1844
1845 maint set bfd-sharing
1846 maint show bfd-sharing
1847 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1848
1849 set debug bfd-cache
1850 show debug bfd-cache
1851 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1852
1853 set debug fbsd-lwp
1854 show debug fbsd-lwp
1855 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1856
1857 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1858 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1859 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1860
1861 set remote thread-events
1862 show remote thread-events
1863 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1864
1865 set ada print-signatures on|off
1866 show ada print-signatures"
1867 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1868 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
1869
1870 set max-value-size
1871 show max-value-size
1872 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1873 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1874 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1875
1876 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1877 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1878 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1879 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1880 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1881 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1882
1883 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1884 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1885
1886 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1887 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1888
1889 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1890
1891 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1892 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1893 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1894 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1895 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1896 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1897
1898 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1899 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1900
1901 catch handlers
1902 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1903
1904 * New remote packets
1905
1906 exec stop reason
1907 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1908
1909 exec-events feature in qSupported
1910 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1911 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1912 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1913 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1914
1915 vCtrlC
1916 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1917 non-stop mode.
1918
1919 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1920 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1921
1922 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1923 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1924
1925 QThreadEvents
1926 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1927 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1928 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1929 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1930 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1931 stop for that same thread.
1932
1933 N stop reply
1934 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1935 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1936 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1937
1938 QCatchSyscalls
1939 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1940 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1941
1942 syscall_entry stop reason
1943 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1944
1945 syscall_return stop reason
1946 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1947
1948 * Extended-remote exec events
1949
1950 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1951 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1952 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1953
1954 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1955 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1956 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1957
1958 * Thread names in remote protocol
1959
1960 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1961 thread.
1962
1963 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1964
1965 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1966 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1967 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1968 fork and exec catchpoints.
1969
1970 * Remote syscall events
1971
1972 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1973 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1974
1975 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1976 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1977 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1978
1979 * MI changes
1980
1981 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1982 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1983 left.
1984
1985 * Python Scripting
1986
1987 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1988 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1989 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1990 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1991 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1992 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1993
1994 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1995
1996 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1997 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1998 including advance SIMD instructions.
1999
2000 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
2001
2002 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
2003 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
2004 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
2005 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
2006 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
2007 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
2008 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
2009
2010 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2011 cpu information :
2012 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
2013
2014 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
2015 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
2016 remote serial I/O.
2017
2018 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
2019 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
2020 and may include things like its command line arguments.
2021
2022 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
2023 is now available on all platforms.
2024
2025 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
2026 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
2027 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
2028 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
2029 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
2030 backward compatibility.
2031
2032 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
2033 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
2034 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
2035 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
2036
2037 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
2038 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
2039 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
2040 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
2041 packets" below.
2042
2043 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
2044
2045 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
2046
2047 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
2048 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
2049 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
2050 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
2051 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
2052 See "New remote packets" below.
2053
2054 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
2055 available register groups, including target specific groups.
2056
2057 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
2058 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
2059 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
2060 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
2061 are ignored.
2062
2063 * Guile Scripting
2064
2065 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
2066
2067 * Python Scripting
2068
2069 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
2070 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
2071 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
2072 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
2073 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
2074 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
2075 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
2076 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
2077 "const" version of the value respectively.
2078
2079 * New commands
2080
2081 maint print symbol-cache
2082 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
2083
2084 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
2085 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
2086
2087 maint flush-symbol-cache
2088 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
2089
2090 record btrace bts
2091 record bts
2092 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
2093
2094 compile print
2095 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
2096
2097 tui enable
2098 tui disable
2099 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
2100
2101 show mpx bound
2102 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
2103 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
2104
2105 record btrace pt
2106 record pt
2107 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
2108
2109 maint info btrace
2110 Print information about branch tracing internals.
2111
2112 maint btrace packet-history
2113 Print the raw branch tracing data.
2114
2115 maint btrace clear-packet-history
2116 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
2117
2118 maint btrace clear
2119 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
2120 anew by the next "record" command.
2121
2122 * New options
2123
2124 set debug dwarf-die
2125 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
2126 show debug dwarf-die
2127 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
2128
2129 set debug dwarf-read
2130 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
2131 show debug dwarf-read
2132 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
2133
2134 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
2135 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2136 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
2137 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2138
2139 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
2140 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2141 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
2142 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2143
2144 set debug dwarf-line
2145 show debug dwarf-line
2146 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
2147
2148 set max-completions
2149 show max-completions
2150 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
2151 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
2152 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
2153 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
2154
2155 set history remove-duplicates
2156 show history remove-duplicates
2157 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
2158
2159 maint set symbol-cache-size
2160 maint show symbol-cache-size
2161 Control the size of the symbol cache.
2162
2163 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
2164 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2165 BTS format.
2166 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2167 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2168
2169 set debug linux-namespaces
2170 show debug linux-namespaces
2171 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
2172
2173 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
2174 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2175 Intel Processor Trace format.
2176 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2177 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2178
2179 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
2180 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
2181 packet history.
2182
2183 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
2184 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
2185
2186 * Python/Guile scripting
2187
2188 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
2189 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
2190
2191 * New remote packets
2192
2193 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
2194 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
2195
2196 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
2197 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
2198
2199 Qbtrace:pt
2200 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
2201 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
2202 qSupported query.
2203
2204 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
2205 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
2206 Trace format.
2207
2208 swbreak stop reason
2209 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
2210 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
2211 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
2212 mode operation.
2213
2214 hwbreak stop reason
2215 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
2216 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
2217
2218 vFile:fstat:
2219 Return information about files on the remote system.
2220
2221 qXfer:exec-file:read
2222 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
2223 create a process running on the remote system.
2224
2225 vFile:setfs:
2226 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
2227 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
2228 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
2229 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
2230
2231 fork stop reason
2232 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
2233
2234 vfork stop reason
2235 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
2236
2237 vforkdone stop reason
2238 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
2239 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
2240
2241 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
2242 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
2243 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
2244 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
2245 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
2246 whether these features are enabled.
2247
2248 * Extended-remote fork events
2249
2250 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
2251 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
2252 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
2253 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
2254
2255 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
2256 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
2257 the btrace record target.
2258 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
2259
2260 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
2261 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
2262
2263 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
2264 targets.
2265
2266 * Removed command line options
2267
2268 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
2269
2270 * Removed targets and native configurations
2271
2272 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
2273 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2274
2275 * New configure options
2276
2277 --with-intel-pt
2278 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
2279 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
2280
2281 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
2282 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
2283 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
2284 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
2285
2286 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
2287
2288 * Python Scripting
2289
2290 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
2291
2292 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
2293
2294 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
2295
2296 * Python Scripting
2297
2298 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
2299 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
2300 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
2301 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
2302 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
2303 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
2304 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
2305 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
2306 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
2307 selecting a new file to debug.
2308 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
2309 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
2310
2311 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
2312 inferior.
2313
2314 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
2315 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
2316 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
2317 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
2318
2319 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2320
2321 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2322 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2323 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2324 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2325
2326 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
2327 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
2328 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
2329 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
2330 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
2331 interface with this new feature are:
2332
2333 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
2334 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
2335
2336 * New commands
2337
2338 demangle [-l language] [--] name
2339 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
2340 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
2341 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
2342 as "maint demangler-warning".
2343
2344 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
2345 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
2346
2347 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
2348 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
2349 scripts.
2350
2351 maint print user-registers
2352 List all currently available "user" registers.
2353
2354 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
2355 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
2356 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
2357
2358 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
2359 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
2360 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
2361 provided.
2362
2363 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
2364 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
2365 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
2366 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
2367 at resume time.
2368
2369 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
2370 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
2371 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2372 switched threads meanwhile.
2373
2374 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2375
2376 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2377 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2378 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2379 is now the default mode.
2380
2381 * New options
2382
2383 set debug symbol-lookup
2384 show debug symbol-lookup
2385 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2386
2387 * MI changes
2388
2389 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2390 inferiors that have exited.
2391
2392 * New targets
2393
2394 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2395
2396 * Removed targets
2397
2398 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2399
2400 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2401 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2402 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2403 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2404 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2405
2406 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2407 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2408 its alias "share", instead.
2409
2410 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
2411
2412 * New command line options
2413
2414 -D data-directory
2415 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2416
2417 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2418 as specified in ISO C99.
2419
2420 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2421 with or without disassembly.
2422
2423 * Guile scripting
2424
2425 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2426 available is determined at configure time.
2427 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2428 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2429
2430 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2431
2432 guile [code]
2433 gu [code]
2434 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2435
2436 guile-repl
2437 gr
2438 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2439
2440 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2441 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2442
2443 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2444 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2445
2446 * New options
2447
2448 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2449 show print symbol-loading
2450 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2451 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2452 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2453 becomes less useful.
2454
2455 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2456 show guile print-stack
2457 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2458
2459 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2460 show auto-load guile-scripts
2461 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2462
2463 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2464 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2465 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2466 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2467 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2468 usage of this option.
2469
2470 set auto-connect-native-target
2471
2472 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2473 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2474 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2475
2476 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2477 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2478 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2479
2480 maint set target-async (on|off)
2481 maint show target-async
2482 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2483 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2484 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2485 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2486
2487 set mi-async (on|off)
2488 show mi-async
2489 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2490 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2491
2492 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2493 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2494
2495 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2496 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2497 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2498 "set target-async on" command.
2499
2500 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2501
2502 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2503 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2504 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2505 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2506 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2507
2508 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2509 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2510 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2511
2512 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2513 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2514 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2515 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2516 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2517 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2518 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2519
2520 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2521 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2522
2523 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2524 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2525 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2526
2527 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2528 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2529 memory or registers.
2530
2531 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2532
2533 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2534 remote. It now works with all targets.
2535
2536 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2537 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2538 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2539 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2540 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2541 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2542 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2543 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2544 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2545 target-stack".
2546
2547 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2548 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2549 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2550
2551 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2552
2553 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2554 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2555 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2556
2557 * New remote packets
2558
2559 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2560 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2561 branch trace incrementally.
2562
2563 * Python Scripting
2564
2565 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2566 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2567 available.
2568 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2569 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2570 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2571 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2572 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2573
2574 * New targets
2575 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2576
2577 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2578 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2579 its alias "share", instead.
2580
2581 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2582 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2583 instead.
2584
2585 * MI changes
2586
2587 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2588 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2589 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2590 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2591 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2592 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2593 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2594 commands and CLI execution commands.
2595
2596 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2597
2598 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2599 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2600 recording has been added.
2601
2602 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2603
2604 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2605 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2606
2607 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2608 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2609 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2610 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2611 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2612 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2613 "void".
2614
2615 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2616
2617 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2618
2619 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2620 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2621 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2622 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2623
2624 (gdb) p $rax
2625 $1 = <not saved>
2626
2627 (gdb) info registers rax
2628 rax <not saved>
2629
2630 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2631 "*value not available*".
2632
2633 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2634 to binaries.
2635
2636 * Python scripting
2637
2638 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2639 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2640 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2641 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2642 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2643 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2644
2645 * New targets
2646
2647 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2648 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2649 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2650
2651 * Removed native configurations
2652
2653 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2654 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2655
2656 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2657 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2658 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2659 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2660 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2661 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2662 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2663
2664 * New commands:
2665 catch rethrow
2666 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2667 maint check-psymtabs
2668 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2669 maint check-symtabs
2670 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2671 maint expand-symtabs
2672 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2673
2674 show configuration
2675 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2676
2677 maint set|show per-command
2678 maint set|show per-command space
2679 maint set|show per-command time
2680 maint set|show per-command symtab
2681 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2682
2683 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2684 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2685 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2686 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2687 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2688
2689 info exceptions
2690 info exceptions REGEXP
2691 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2692 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2693 are listed.
2694
2695 * New options
2696
2697 set debug symfile off|on
2698 show debug symfile
2699 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2700 symbol tables within those files
2701
2702 set print raw frame-arguments
2703 show print raw frame-arguments
2704 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2705 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2706
2707 set remote trace-status-packet
2708 show remote trace-status-packet
2709 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2710
2711 set debug nios2
2712 show debug nios2
2713 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2714
2715 set range-stepping
2716 show range-stepping
2717 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2718
2719 set startup-with-shell
2720 show startup-with-shell
2721 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2722 directly.
2723
2724 set code-cache
2725 show code-cache
2726 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2727 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2728
2729 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2730 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2731 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2732 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2733 "set height 0".
2734
2735 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2736 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2737 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2738
2739 * New command-line options
2740 --configuration
2741 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2742
2743 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2744 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2745
2746 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2747 GDB command gcore.
2748
2749 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2750
2751 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2752 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2753
2754 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2755 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2756
2757 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2758 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2759 due to an uncaught signal.
2760
2761 * MI changes
2762
2763 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2764 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2765 command, which should contain "language-option".
2766
2767 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2768 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2769
2770 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2771 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2772 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2773 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2774 "undefined-command-error-code".
2775
2776 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2777 Trace Format now.
2778
2779 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2780
2781 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2782 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2783 are displayed.
2784
2785 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2786 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2787
2788 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2789 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2790 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2791
2792 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2793 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2794 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2795 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2796 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2797 "exec-run-start-option".
2798
2799 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2800 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2801
2802 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2803 the new "info exceptions" command.
2804
2805 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2806 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2807 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2808 ** ElinOS
2809 ** Wind River Linux
2810
2811 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2812 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2813 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2814 below.
2815
2816 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2817 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2818
2819 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2820 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2821 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2822
2823 * New remote packets
2824
2825 vCont;r
2826
2827 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2828 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2829 involvemement at each single-step.
2830
2831 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2832 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2833 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2834 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2835 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2836 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2837 speedup.
2838
2839 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2840
2841 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2842 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2843
2844 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2845 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2846 trace state variables.
2847
2848 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2849 target.
2850
2851 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2852 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2853
2854 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2855
2856 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2857 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2858 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2859 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2860
2861 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2862
2863 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2864 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2865 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2866 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2867
2868 set|show record full insn-number-max
2869 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2870 set|show record full memory-query
2871
2872 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2873 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2874 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2875 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2876 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2877
2878 record btrace
2879
2880 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2881 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2882
2883 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2884 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2885 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2886
2887 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2888 instruction granularity
2889
2890 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2891 function granularity
2892
2893 * New native configurations
2894
2895 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2896 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2897 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2898 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2899
2900 * New targets
2901
2902 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2903 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2904 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2905 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2906 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2907
2908 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2909 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2910 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2911 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2912 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2913 --data-directory command-line option.
2914
2915 * New command line options:
2916
2917 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2918 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2919
2920 * Removed command line options
2921
2922 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2923 Emacs.
2924
2925 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2926 type formatting.
2927
2928 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2929
2930 * Python scripting
2931
2932 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2933
2934 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2935
2936 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2937
2938 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2939
2940 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2941 of architecture in the Python API.
2942
2943 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2944 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2945
2946 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2947
2948 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2949 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2950 ** $_strlen(str)
2951 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2952
2953 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2954 given an argument.
2955
2956 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2957 default for GCC since November 2000.
2958
2959 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2960
2961 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2962 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2963
2964 * New configure options
2965
2966 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2967 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2968 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2969 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2970 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2971 options allow the user to override that default.
2972 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2973 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2974 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2975
2976 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2977
2978 catch signal
2979 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2980 conditions to be attached.
2981
2982 maint info bfds
2983 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2984
2985 python-interactive [command]
2986 pi [command]
2987 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2988 and print the result of expressions.
2989
2990 py [command]
2991 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2992
2993 enable type-printer [name]...
2994 disable type-printer [name]...
2995 Enable or disable type printers.
2996
2997 * Removed commands
2998
2999 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
3000 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
3001 instead.
3002
3003 * New options
3004
3005 set print type methods (on|off)
3006 show print type methods
3007 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
3008 The default is to show them.
3009
3010 set print type typedefs (on|off)
3011 show print type typedefs
3012 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
3013 The default is to show them.
3014
3015 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
3016 show filename-display
3017 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
3018 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
3019
3020 set trace-buffer-size
3021 show trace-buffer-size
3022 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
3023
3024 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
3025 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
3026 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
3027
3028 set debug aarch64
3029 show debug aarch64
3030 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
3031 The default is off.
3032
3033 set debug coff-pe-read
3034 show debug coff-pe-read
3035 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
3036 exported symbols.
3037
3038 set debug mach-o
3039 show debug mach-o
3040 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
3041 processing.
3042
3043 set debug notification
3044 show debug notification
3045 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
3046
3047 * MI changes
3048
3049 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
3050 "=cmd-param-changed".
3051 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
3052 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
3053 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
3054 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
3055 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
3056 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
3057 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
3058 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
3059 "=memory-changed".
3060 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
3061 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
3062 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
3063 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3064 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
3065 library load/unload events.
3066 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
3067 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
3068 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
3069 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
3070 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
3071 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
3072 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
3073 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
3074
3075 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
3076 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
3077 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
3078 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
3079
3080 * New remote packets
3081
3082 QTBuffer:size
3083 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
3084 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3085
3086 Qbtrace:bts
3087 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
3088 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
3089 qSupported query.
3090
3091 Qbtrace:off
3092 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
3093 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3094
3095 qXfer:btrace:read
3096 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
3097 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3098
3099 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
3100
3101 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
3102 for more x32 ABI info.
3103
3104 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
3105
3106 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
3107
3108 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3109 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
3110 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
3111 "info os files" lists file descriptors
3112 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
3113 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
3114 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
3115 "info os msg" lists message queues
3116 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
3117
3118 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
3119 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
3120 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
3121 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
3122 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
3123 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
3124
3125 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
3126 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
3127 record/replay support.
3128
3129 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
3130
3131 * Python scripting
3132
3133 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
3134 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
3135
3136 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
3137
3138 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
3139 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
3140
3141 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
3142
3143 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
3144 the source at which the symbol was defined.
3145
3146 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
3147 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
3148 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
3149 symbol's value.
3150
3151 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
3152 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
3153
3154 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
3155 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
3156 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
3157
3158 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
3159 object associated with a PC value.
3160
3161 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
3162 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
3163
3164 * Go language support.
3165 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
3166 language.
3167
3168 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
3169 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
3170
3171 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
3172 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
3173
3174 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
3175 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
3176 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
3177 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
3178 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
3179 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
3180
3181 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
3182 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
3183 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
3184 build/libcpp/expr.c.
3185
3186 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
3187 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
3188
3189 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
3190 since December 2007.
3191
3192 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
3193 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
3194 command does. For instance:
3195
3196 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
3197
3198 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
3199 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
3200 created, using the "condition" command.
3201
3202 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
3203 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
3204
3205 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
3206
3207 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
3208 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
3209 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
3210 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
3211 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
3212 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
3213 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
3214 files with older .gdb_index sections.
3215
3216 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
3217 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
3218 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
3219 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
3220 the .gdb_index section.
3221
3222 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
3223
3224 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
3225 target.
3226
3227 * MI changes
3228
3229 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
3230
3231 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
3232
3233 * New commands
3234
3235 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3236 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3237 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
3238
3239 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
3240 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
3241
3242 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
3243 several hits.
3244
3245 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
3246 C++ and Java objects.
3247
3248 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
3249 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
3250 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
3251 configured with '--with-python'.
3252
3253 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
3254 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
3255 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
3256 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
3257 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
3258 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
3259 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
3260
3261 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
3262 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
3263 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
3264 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
3265
3266 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
3267 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
3268 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
3269 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
3270
3271 ** "set print symbol"
3272 "show print symbol"
3273 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
3274 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
3275 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
3276
3277 * Deprecated commands
3278
3279 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
3280 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
3281
3282 * New targets
3283
3284 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3285 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
3286
3287 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
3288 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
3289 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
3290 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
3291 evaluates to true.
3292
3293 * New options
3294
3295 set mips compression
3296 show mips compression
3297 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
3298 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
3299 mips16
3300 micromips
3301 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
3302
3303 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
3304 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
3305 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
3306 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
3307 available mode.
3308 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
3309 target.
3310
3311 set auto-load off
3312 Disable auto-loading globally.
3313
3314 show auto-load
3315 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
3316
3317 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
3318 show auto-load gdb-scripts
3319 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
3320
3321 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
3322 show auto-load python-scripts
3323 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
3324
3325 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
3326 show auto-load local-gdbinit
3327 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
3328
3329 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
3330 show auto-load libthread-db
3331 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
3332
3333 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3334 show auto-load scripts-directory
3335 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
3336 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
3337 of the directories listed by this option.
3338 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3339
3340 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3341 show auto-load safe-path
3342 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
3343 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3344
3345 set debug auto-load on|off
3346 show debug auto-load
3347 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
3348
3349 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
3350 show dprintf-style
3351 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
3352 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
3353 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
3354 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
3355
3356 set dprintf-function <expr>
3357 show dprintf-function
3358 set dprintf-channel <expr>
3359 show dprintf-channel
3360 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
3361 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
3362
3363 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
3364 show disconnected-dprintf
3365 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
3366 after GDB disconnects.
3367
3368 * New configure options
3369
3370 --with-auto-load-dir
3371 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3372 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3373 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3374 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3375 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3376
3377 --with-auto-load-safe-path
3378 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3379 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3380
3381 --without-auto-load-safe-path
3382 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3383 security feature.
3384
3385 * New remote packets
3386
3387 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3388
3389 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3390 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3391 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3392 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3393
3394 QProgramSignals:
3395
3396 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3397 program without GDB involvement.
3398
3399 * New command line options
3400
3401 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3402 before loading inferior.
3403 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3404 execute it before loading inferior.
3405
3406 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
3407
3408 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3409 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3410 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3411 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3412 inferior changes.
3413
3414 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3415 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3416
3417 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3418 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3419 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3420 target hardware watchpoint.
3421
3422 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3423 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3424 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3425 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3426
3427 * Python scripting
3428
3429 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3430 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3431 existing one.
3432
3433 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3434 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3435 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3436 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3437 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3438 the stack trace.
3439
3440 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3441 Python API.
3442
3443 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3444 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3445 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3446 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3447 corresponding value.
3448
3449 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3450 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3451 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3452 on GDB start-up.
3453
3454 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3455 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3456 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3457 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3458
3459 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3460
3461 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3462 "gdb.breakpoints".
3463
3464 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3465 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3466 available in the CLI.
3467
3468 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3469 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3470 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3471 "some_type.items()".
3472
3473 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3474 new object file.
3475
3476 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3477 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3478 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3479 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3480 any anonymous fields.
3481
3482 * MI changes
3483
3484 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3485 "solib-event".
3486
3487 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3488 "=breakpoint-modified".
3489
3490 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3491
3492 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3493 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3494 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3495 lives.
3496
3497 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3498 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3499 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3500 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3501 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3502
3503 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3504 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3505
3506 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3507 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3508 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3509 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3510 use this option to specify where to find it.
3511
3512 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3513 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3514 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3515 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3516 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3517 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3518 section in the user manual for more details.
3519
3520 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3521 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3522 become available after that.
3523
3524 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3525
3526 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3527 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3528 gcc version 4.7.
3529
3530 * New commands
3531
3532 !SHELL COMMAND
3533 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3534 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3535
3536 * Changed commands
3537
3538 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3539 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3540 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3541
3542 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3543 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3544 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3545
3546 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3547 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3548 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3549 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3550 name starts with a hyphen.
3551
3552 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3553 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3554 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3555 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3556 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3557 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3558 number of bytes that will be collected.
3559
3560 tstart [NOTES]
3561 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3562 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3563 setting the variable trace-notes.
3564
3565 tstop [NOTES]
3566 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3567 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3568 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3569 trace-stop-notes.
3570
3571 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3572 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3573 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3574 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3575 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3576 is running.
3577
3578 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3579 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3580 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3581
3582 * New options
3583
3584 set debug dwarf2-read
3585 show debug dwarf2-read
3586 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3587 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3588
3589 set debug symtab-create
3590 show debug symtab-create
3591 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3592 creation. The default is off.
3593
3594 set extended-prompt
3595 show extended-prompt
3596 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3597 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3598 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3599 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3600 prompt is displayed.
3601
3602 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3603 show print entry-values
3604 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3605 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3606 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3607
3608 set debug entry-values
3609 show debug entry-values
3610 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3611 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3612
3613 set basenames-may-differ
3614 show basenames-may-differ
3615 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3616 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3617 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3618 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3619 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3620 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3621 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3622 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3623
3624 set trace-user
3625 show trace-user
3626 set trace-notes
3627 show trace-notes
3628 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3629 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3630 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3631 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3632
3633 set trace-stop-notes
3634 show trace-stop-notes
3635 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3636 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3637 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3638 started by someone else.
3639
3640 * New remote packets
3641
3642 QTEnable
3643
3644 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3645
3646 QTDisable
3647
3648 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3649
3650 QTNotes
3651
3652 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3653
3654 qTP
3655
3656 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3657
3658 qTMinFTPILen
3659
3660 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3661 be placed.
3662
3663 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3664 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3665
3666 * New targets
3667
3668 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3669
3670 * New Simulators
3671
3672 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3673
3674 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3675
3676 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3677
3678 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3679
3680 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3681 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3682 matches the given regular expression.
3683
3684 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3685
3686 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3687 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3688
3689 * New command line options
3690
3691 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3692 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3693
3694 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3695 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3696
3697 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3698 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3699 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3700
3701 * GDB now understands thread names.
3702
3703 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3704 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3705
3706 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3707 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3708
3709 * OpenCL C
3710 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3711 has been integrated into GDB.
3712
3713 * Python scripting
3714
3715 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3716 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3717 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3718
3719 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3720 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3721 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3722 and allows for more dynamic content.
3723
3724 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3725 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3726 have an is_valid method.
3727
3728 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3729 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3730 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3731
3732 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3733
3734 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3735 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3736 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3737 that function like so:
3738
3739 result = some_value (10,20)
3740
3741 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3742 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3743 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3744
3745 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3746 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3747 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3748 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3749 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3750
3751 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3752 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3753
3754 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3755
3756 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3757 selected thread.
3758
3759 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3760 holds the thread's name.
3761
3762 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3763 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3764 occurring in the process being debugged.
3765 The following events are currently supported:
3766 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3767 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3768 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3769
3770 * C++ Improvements:
3771
3772 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3773 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3774
3775 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3776
3777 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3778 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3779 was added to GCC 4.5.
3780
3781 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3782 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3783 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3784 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3785 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3786 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3787
3788 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3789 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3790 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3791 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3792 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3793
3794 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3795 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3796 execution to a label.
3797
3798 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3799 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3800 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3801 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3802
3803 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3804 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3805 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3806 of scope.
3807
3808 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3809
3810 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3811 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3812 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3813 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3814 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3815 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3816
3817 (gdb) info threads
3818 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3819
3820 While now you see this:
3821
3822 (gdb) info threads
3823 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3824
3825 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3826 dumps.
3827
3828 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3829 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3830 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3831 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3832
3833 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3834 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3835 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3836 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3837 section in the user manual for more details.
3838
3839 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3840
3841 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3842 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3843
3844 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3845
3846 * New native configurations
3847
3848 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3849
3850 * New targets:
3851
3852 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3853
3854 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3855 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3856 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3857 in the GDB user manual.
3858
3859 * Guile support was removed.
3860
3861 * New features in the GNU simulator
3862
3863 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3864
3865 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3866
3867 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3868
3869 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3870
3871 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3872 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3873 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3874 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3875 was always disabled for such configurations.
3876
3877 * C++ Improvements:
3878
3879 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3880
3881 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3882 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3883 For example:
3884 namespace A
3885 {
3886 class B { };
3887 void foo (B) { }
3888 }
3889 ...
3890 A::B b
3891 foo(b)
3892 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3893 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3894 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3895
3896 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3897
3898 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3899 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3900 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3901 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3902 entry.
3903 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3904 mentioned flavors of operators.
3905
3906 ** static const class members
3907
3908 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3909 class definition has been fixed.
3910
3911 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3912
3913 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3914 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3915 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3916 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3917 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3918 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3919
3920 * Static tracepoints
3921
3922 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3923 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3924 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3925 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3926 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3927 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3928 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3929 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3930 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3931 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3932 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3933 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3934 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3935 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3936 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3937 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3938 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3939 the "New remote packets" section below.
3940
3941 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3942
3943 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3944 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3945 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3946 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3947
3948 * Observer mode
3949
3950 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3951 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3952 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3953 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3954 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3955 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3956 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3957
3958 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3959 current thread.
3960
3961 * New remote packets
3962
3963 qGetTIBAddr
3964
3965 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3966
3967 qRelocInsn
3968
3969 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3970 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3971 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3972 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3973 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3974 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3975
3976 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
3977
3978 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3979
3980 qTSTMat
3981
3982 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3983 program.
3984
3985 qXfer:statictrace:read
3986
3987 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3988 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3989 to gdb's qSupported query.
3990
3991 QAllow
3992
3993 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3994
3995 QTDPsrc
3996
3997 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3998 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3999
4000 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
4001 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
4002 a directory.
4003
4004 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4005
4006 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
4007 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
4008 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
4009 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
4010
4011 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
4012 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
4013 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
4014 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
4015 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
4016 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
4017 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
4018
4019 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
4020 for static tracepoints support.
4021
4022 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
4023
4024 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
4025 it understands register description.
4026
4027 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
4028
4029 * X86 general purpose registers
4030
4031 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
4032 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
4033 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
4034 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
4035 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
4036
4037 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
4038 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
4039 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
4040 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
4041 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
4042 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
4043
4044 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
4045 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
4046 in the specified file.
4047
4048 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
4049 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
4050 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
4051 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
4052 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
4053 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
4054 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
4055 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
4056 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
4057 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
4058
4059 * New commands
4060
4061 eval template, expressions...
4062 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
4063 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
4064
4065 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
4066 show target-file-system-kind
4067 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
4068 names.
4069
4070 save breakpoints <filename>
4071 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
4072 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
4073 definitions, use the `source' command.
4074
4075 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
4076 is now deprecated.
4077
4078 info static-tracepoint-markers
4079 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
4080
4081 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
4082 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
4083 function, line, address, or marker ID.
4084
4085 set observer on|off
4086 show observer
4087 Enable and disable observer mode.
4088
4089 set may-write-registers on|off
4090 set may-write-memory on|off
4091 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
4092 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
4093 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
4094 set may-interrupt on|off
4095 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
4096 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
4097 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
4098 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
4099 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
4100 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
4101 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
4102
4103 set record memory-query on|off
4104 show record memory-query
4105 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
4106 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
4107
4108 * Changed commands
4109
4110 disassemble
4111 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
4112
4113 * Python scripting
4114
4115 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
4116 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
4117 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
4118 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
4119 GDB using Python' in the manual.
4120
4121 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
4122 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
4123 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
4124 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
4125
4126 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
4127 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
4128
4129 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
4130
4131 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
4132
4133 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
4134
4135 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
4136 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
4137 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
4138
4139 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
4140 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
4141 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
4142 regular breakpoints.
4143
4144 * New targets
4145
4146 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
4147
4148 * D language support.
4149 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
4150 language.
4151
4152 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
4153 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
4154 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
4155 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
4156 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
4157
4158 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
4159 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
4160 conditions of the form:
4161
4162 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
4163
4164 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
4165 interface mentioned above.
4166
4167 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
4168
4169 * C++ Improvements
4170
4171 ** Namespace Support
4172
4173 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
4174 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
4175 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
4176 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
4177 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
4178
4179 ** Bug Fixes
4180
4181 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
4182 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
4183 qualified name.
4184
4185 ** Cast Operators
4186
4187 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
4188 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
4189
4190 * New targets
4191
4192 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
4193 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
4194
4195 * New Simulators
4196
4197 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
4198 Renesas RX rx
4199
4200 * Multi-program debugging.
4201
4202 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
4203 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
4204 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
4205 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
4206 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
4207 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
4208 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
4209 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
4210
4211 * New tracing features
4212
4213 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
4214
4215 ** Trace state variables
4216
4217 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
4218 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
4219 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
4220 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
4221 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
4222 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
4223 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
4224 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
4225 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
4226 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
4227
4228 ** Fast tracepoints
4229
4230 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
4231 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
4232 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
4233 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
4234 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
4235 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
4236 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
4237 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
4238 the regular trace command.
4239
4240 ** Disconnected tracing
4241
4242 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
4243 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
4244 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
4245 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
4246 connection is lost unexpectedly.
4247
4248 ** Trace files
4249
4250 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
4251 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
4252 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
4253 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
4254 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
4255 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
4256 <name>".
4257
4258 ** Circular trace buffer
4259
4260 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
4261 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
4262 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
4263 not be available for all target agents.
4264
4265 * Changed commands
4266
4267 disassemble
4268 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
4269 the arguments to be comma-separated.
4270
4271 info variables
4272 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
4273 which only declare a variable are not shown.
4274
4275 source
4276 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
4277 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
4278 support.
4279
4280 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
4281 "set script-extension" (see below).
4282
4283 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4284
4285 record save [<FILENAME>]
4286 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
4287 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
4288
4289 record restore <FILENAME>
4290 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
4291 earlier time, for replay debugging.
4292
4293 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
4294 Add a new inferior.
4295
4296 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
4297 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
4298 inferior has loaded.
4299
4300 remove-inferior ID
4301 Remove an inferior.
4302
4303 maint info program-spaces
4304 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
4305
4306 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
4307 show remote interrupt-sequence
4308 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
4309 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
4310 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
4311 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
4312 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
4313
4314 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
4315 show remote interrupt-on-connect
4316 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
4317 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
4318 Linux kernel.
4319
4320 set remotebreak [on | off]
4321 show remotebreak
4322 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
4323
4324 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
4325 Create or modify a trace state variable.
4326
4327 info tvariables
4328 List trace state variables and their values.
4329
4330 delete tvariable $NAME ...
4331 Delete one or more trace state variables.
4332
4333 teval EXPR, ...
4334 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
4335 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
4336
4337 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
4338 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
4339
4340 * New expression syntax
4341
4342 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
4343 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
4344
4345 * New options
4346
4347 set follow-exec-mode new|same
4348 show follow-exec-mode
4349 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
4350 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
4351 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
4352
4353 set default-collect EXPR, ...
4354 show default-collect
4355 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
4356 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
4357 such as registers or a critical global variable.
4358
4359 set disconnected-tracing
4360 show disconnected-tracing
4361 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
4362 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
4363 upon disconnection.
4364
4365 set circular-trace-buffer
4366 show circular-trace-buffer
4367 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
4368 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
4369 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
4370 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
4371
4372 set script-extension off|soft|strict
4373 show script-extension
4374 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4375 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4376 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4377 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4378 evaluation failed.
4379 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4380
4381 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4382 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4383 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4384 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4385 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4386 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4387 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4388 is on.
4389
4390 * Python API Improvements
4391
4392 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4393 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4394 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4395
4396 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4397 `is_base_class' attribute.
4398
4399 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4400
4401 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4402 evaluate an expression.
4403
4404 * New remote packets
4405
4406 QTDV
4407 Define a trace state variable.
4408
4409 qTV
4410 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4411
4412 QTDisconnected
4413 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4414
4415 QTBuffer:circular
4416 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4417
4418 qTfP, qTsP
4419 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4420
4421 * Bug fixes
4422
4423 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4424
4425 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4426 much more reliable. In particular:
4427 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4428 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4429 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4430 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4431 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4432 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4433 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4434 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4435 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4436 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4437 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4438 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4439 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4440 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4441 non-threaded programs.
4442
4443 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4444 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4445 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4446 executable program.
4447
4448 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4449
4450 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4451 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4452 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4453 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4454 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4455
4456 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4457 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4458 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4459 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4460 for tracepoint actions.
4461
4462 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4463 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4464 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4465
4466 * Process record and replay
4467
4468 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4469 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4470 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4471 execute commands.
4472
4473 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4474 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4475 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4476 reverse execution.
4477
4478 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4479 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4480 2.6.28 or later.
4481
4482 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4483 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4484 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4485 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4486 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4487 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4488 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4489 the installation instructions for more information.
4490
4491 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4492 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4493 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4494 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4495
4496 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4497 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4498
4499 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4500 now complete on file names.
4501
4502 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4503 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4504 For instance, consider:
4505
4506 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4507 # struct example variable;
4508 (gdb) p variable.
4509
4510 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4511 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4512
4513 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4514 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4515
4516 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4517 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4518 macros.
4519
4520 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4521 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4522 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4523
4524 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4525 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4526 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4527 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4528
4529 * New remote packets
4530
4531 qSearch:memory:
4532 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4533
4534 QStartNoAckMode
4535 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4536 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4537 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4538
4539 vKill
4540 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4541 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4542
4543 qXfer:osdata:read
4544 Obtains additional operating system information
4545
4546 qXfer:siginfo:read
4547 qXfer:siginfo:write
4548 Read or write additional signal information.
4549
4550 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4551
4552 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4553 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4554 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4555
4556 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4557 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4558
4559 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4560 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4561 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4562
4563 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4564 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4565
4566 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4567
4568 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4569
4570 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4571 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4572
4573 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
4574 list of section offsets.
4575
4576 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4577 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4578 have also been fixed.
4579
4580 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4581 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4582 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4583
4584 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4585 example, given:
4586
4587 template<typename T> class C { };
4588 C<char const *> c;
4589
4590 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4591
4592 ptype C<char const *>
4593 ptype C<char const*>
4594 ptype C<const char *>
4595 ptype C<const char*>
4596
4597 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4598
4599 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4600 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4601
4602 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4603 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4604 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4605
4606 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4607 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4608
4609 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4610 gdbserver.
4611
4612 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4613 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4614
4615 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4616 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4617 as appropriate.
4618
4619 * Python scripting
4620
4621 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4622 available is determined at configure time.
4623
4624 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4625
4626 * Ada tasking support
4627
4628 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4629 been introduced:
4630
4631 info tasks
4632 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4633 info task N
4634 Print detailed information about task number N.
4635 task
4636 Print the task number of the current task.
4637 task N
4638 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4639
4640 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4641 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4642
4643 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4644
4645 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4646 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4647 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4648 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4649 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4650 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4651 below.
4652
4653 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4654 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4655 information.
4656
4657 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4658 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4659 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4660 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4661 more information.
4662
4663 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4664
4665 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4666 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4667 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4668 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4669 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4670
4671 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4672 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4673 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4674 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4675 --enable-targets configure option.
4676
4677 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4678
4679 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4680 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4681 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4682 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4683 section in the user manual for more information.
4684
4685 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4686 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4687 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4688 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4689 extensions on linux targets.
4690
4691 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4692
4693 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4694 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4695 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4696 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4697 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4698 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4699 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4700 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4701 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4702
4703 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4704 val1 [, val2, ...]
4705 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4706
4707 maint set python print-stack
4708 maint show python print-stack
4709 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4710
4711 python [CODE]
4712 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4713
4714 macro define
4715 macro list
4716 macro undef
4717 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4718 interactively.
4719
4720 info os processes
4721 Show operating system information about processes.
4722
4723 info inferiors
4724 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4725
4726 inferior NUM
4727 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4728
4729 detach inferior NUM
4730 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4731
4732 kill inferior NUM
4733 Kill inferior number NUM.
4734
4735 * New options
4736
4737 set spu stop-on-load
4738 show spu stop-on-load
4739 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4740
4741 set spu auto-flush-cache
4742 show spu auto-flush-cache
4743 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4744 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4745
4746 set sh calling-convention
4747 show sh calling-convention
4748 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4749
4750 set debug timestamp
4751 show debug timestamp
4752 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4753
4754 set disassemble-next-line
4755 show disassemble-next-line
4756 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4757 the debuggee stops.
4758
4759 set remote noack-packet
4760 show remote noack-packet
4761 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4762 under "New remote packets."
4763
4764 set remote query-attached-packet
4765 show remote query-attached-packet
4766 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4767
4768 set remote read-siginfo-object
4769 show remote read-siginfo-object
4770 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4771 packet.
4772
4773 set remote write-siginfo-object
4774 show remote write-siginfo-object
4775 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4776 packet.
4777
4778 set remote reverse-continue
4779 show remote reverse-continue
4780 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4781
4782 set remote reverse-step
4783 show remote reverse-step
4784 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4785
4786 set displaced-stepping
4787 show displaced-stepping
4788 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4789 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4790 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4791
4792 set debug displaced
4793 show debug displaced
4794 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4795
4796 maint set internal-error
4797 maint show internal-error
4798 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4799
4800 maint set internal-warning
4801 maint show internal-warning
4802 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4803
4804 set exec-wrapper
4805 show exec-wrapper
4806 unset exec-wrapper
4807 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4808
4809 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4810 show multiple-symbols
4811 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4812 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4813 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4814
4815 set breakpoint always-inserted
4816 show breakpoint always-inserted
4817 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4818 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4819 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4820
4821 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4822 show arm fallback-mode
4823 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4824 show arm force-mode
4825 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4826 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4827 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4828 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4829
4830 set disable-randomization
4831 show disable-randomization
4832 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4833 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4834 multiple debugging sessions.
4835
4836 set non-stop
4837 show non-stop
4838 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4839 a breakpoint.
4840
4841 set target-async
4842 show target-async
4843 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4844 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4845 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4846 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4847
4848 set target-wide-charset
4849 show target-wide-charset
4850 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4851 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4852
4853 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4854 show tcp auto-retry
4855 set tcp connect-timeout
4856 show tcp connect-timeout
4857 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4858 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4859 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4860
4861 set libthread-db-search-path
4862 show libthread-db-search-path
4863 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4864 libthread_db.
4865
4866 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4867 show schedule-multiple
4868 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4869 the current process.
4870
4871 set stack-cache
4872 show stack-cache
4873 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4874 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4875 affecting correctness.
4876
4877 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4878 show interactive-mode
4879 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4880 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4881 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4882 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4883 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4884
4885 * Removed commands
4886
4887 info forks
4888 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4889 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4890 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4891 command.
4892
4893 fork NUM
4894 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4895 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4896 alias for the `fork' command.
4897
4898 process PID
4899 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4900 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4901 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4902
4903 delete fork NUM
4904 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4905 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4906 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4907 fork' command.
4908
4909 detach fork NUM
4910 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4911 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4912 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4913 fork' command.
4914
4915 * New native configurations
4916
4917 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4918
4919 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4920
4921 * New targets
4922
4923 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4924 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4925 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4926 S+core 3 score-*-*
4927
4928 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4929 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4930
4931 * Removed commands
4932
4933 catch load
4934 catch unload
4935 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4936
4937 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4938
4939 * New native configurations
4940
4941 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4942 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4943
4944 * New targets
4945
4946 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4947 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4948
4949 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4950
4951 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4952 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4953 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4954 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4955
4956 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4957 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4958
4959 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4960 is resolved.
4961
4962 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4963 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4964 and in inlined functions.
4965
4966 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4967 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4968 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4969
4970 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4971
4972 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4973 registers on PowerPC targets.
4974
4975 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4976 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4977
4978 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4979 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4980
4981 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4982 extended-remote mode.
4983
4984 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4985 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4986 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4987 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4988
4989 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4990 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4991 target architectures.
4992
4993 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4994 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4995 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4996 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4997
4998 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4999 breakpoints now.
5000
5001 * Improved support for debugging Ada
5002 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
5003 include:
5004 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
5005 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
5006 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
5007 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
5008 of an assignment
5009 - Improved command completion in Ada
5010 - Several bug fixes
5011
5012 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
5013 process.
5014
5015 * New commands
5016
5017 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
5018 show print frame-arguments
5019 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
5020 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
5021
5022 remote put
5023 remote get
5024 remote delete
5025 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5026
5027 * New MI commands
5028
5029 -target-file-put
5030 -target-file-get
5031 -target-file-delete
5032 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5033
5034 * New remote packets
5035
5036 vFile:open:
5037 vFile:close:
5038 vFile:pread:
5039 vFile:pwrite:
5040 vFile:unlink:
5041 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
5042
5043 vAttach
5044 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
5045 mode.
5046
5047 vRun
5048 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
5049
5050 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
5051
5052 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
5053 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
5054 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
5055
5056 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
5057 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
5058 -Bsymbolic linker option.
5059
5060 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
5061 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
5062 is not supported.
5063
5064 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
5065 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
5066
5067 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
5068 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
5069
5070 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
5071
5072 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
5073 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
5074 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
5075
5076 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
5077 automatically displayed as character or string data.
5078
5079 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
5080 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
5081 as strings.
5082
5083 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
5084 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
5085 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
5086
5087 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
5088 iWMMXt coprocessor.
5089
5090 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
5091 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
5092 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
5093
5094 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
5095
5096 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
5097
5098 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
5099 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
5100 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
5101
5102 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
5103 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
5104
5105 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
5106 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
5107 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
5108 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
5109 Windows and SymbianOS).
5110
5111 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
5112 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
5113
5114 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
5115 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
5116
5117 * New commands
5118
5119 set remoteflow
5120 show remoteflow
5121 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
5122 when debugging using remote targets.
5123
5124 set mem inaccessible-by-default
5125 show mem inaccessible-by-default
5126 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5127 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5128 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
5129 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
5130 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
5131
5132 set breakpoint auto-hw
5133 show breakpoint auto-hw
5134 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5135 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5136 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
5137 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
5138 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
5139 including "next" and "finish".
5140
5141 catch exception
5142 catch exception unhandled
5143 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
5144
5145 catch assert
5146 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
5147
5148 set sysroot
5149 show sysroot
5150 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
5151 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
5152 an alias to "set sysroot".
5153
5154 info spu
5155 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
5156 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
5157 architecture.
5158
5159 * New native configurations
5160
5161 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
5162
5163 set tdesc filename
5164 unset tdesc filename
5165 show tdesc filename
5166 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
5167 not query the target for its built-in description.
5168
5169 * New targets
5170
5171 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
5172 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
5173 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
5174
5175 * New remote packets
5176
5177 QPassSignals:
5178 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
5179 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
5180
5181 qXfer:features:read:
5182 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
5183 features.
5184
5185 qXfer:spu:read:
5186 qXfer:spu:write:
5187 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
5188 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
5189
5190 qXfer:libraries:read:
5191 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
5192 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
5193 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
5194 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
5195
5196 * Removed targets
5197
5198 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
5199
5200 alpha*-*-osf1*
5201 alpha*-*-osf2*
5202 d10v-*-*
5203 hppa*-*-hiux*
5204 i[34567]86-ncr-*
5205 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
5206 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
5207 i[34567]86-*-netware*
5208 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
5209 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
5210 i[34567]86-*-sco*
5211 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
5212 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
5213 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
5214 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
5215 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
5216 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
5217 i[34567]86-*-isc*
5218 m68*-cisco*-*
5219 m68*-tandem-*
5220 mips*-*-pe
5221 rs6000-*-lynxos*
5222 sh*-*-pe
5223
5224 * Other removed features
5225
5226 target abug
5227 target cpu32bug
5228 target est
5229 target rom68k
5230
5231 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
5232
5233 target hms
5234 target e7000
5235 target sh3
5236 target sh3e
5237
5238 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
5239 H8/300.
5240
5241 target ocd
5242
5243 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
5244 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
5245 interfaces.
5246
5247 DWARF 1 support
5248
5249 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
5250 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
5251
5252 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
5253
5254 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
5255 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
5256 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
5257 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
5258
5259 MIPS ".pdr" sections
5260
5261 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
5262 in debugging information.
5263
5264 Scheme support
5265
5266 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
5267 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
5268
5269 set mips stack-arg-size
5270 set mips saved-gpreg-size
5271
5272 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
5273
5274 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
5275
5276 * New targets
5277
5278 Xtensa xtensa-elf
5279 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
5280
5281 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
5282 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
5283 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
5284
5285 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
5286 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
5287 supported.
5288
5289 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
5290 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
5291
5292 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
5293 stub provides the required support.
5294
5295 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
5296 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
5297
5298 * New commands
5299
5300 set substitute-path
5301 unset substitute-path
5302 show substitute-path
5303 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
5304 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
5305 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
5306 between compilation and debugging.
5307
5308 set trace-commands
5309 show trace-commands
5310 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
5311 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
5312 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
5313
5314 * REMOVED features
5315
5316 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
5317
5318 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
5319 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
5320
5321 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
5322
5323 * New remote packets
5324
5325 qSupported:
5326 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
5327 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
5328 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
5329 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
5330 target.
5331
5332 qXfer:auxv:read:
5333 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
5334 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
5335
5336 qXfer:memory-map:read:
5337 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
5338 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
5339
5340 vFlashErase:
5341 vFlashWrite:
5342 vFlashDone:
5343 Erase and program a flash memory device.
5344
5345 * Removed remote packets
5346
5347 qPart:auxv:read:
5348 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
5349 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
5350
5351 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
5352
5353 * New targets
5354
5355 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
5356
5357 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5358
5359 * New commands
5360
5361 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
5362 only if it doesn't already have a value.
5363
5364 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
5365
5366 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
5367
5368 restart <n> Return the program state to a
5369 previously saved state.
5370
5371 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5372
5373 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5374
5375 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5376 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5377
5378 info forks List forks of the user program that
5379 are available to be debugged.
5380
5381 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5382 forks of the user program that are
5383 available to be debugged.
5384
5385 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5386 that are available to be debugged (and
5387 kill the forked process).
5388
5389 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5390 that are available to be debugged (and
5391 allow the process to continue).
5392
5393 * New architecture
5394
5395 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5396
5397 * Improved Windows host support
5398
5399 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5400 native console support, and remote communications using either
5401 network sockets or serial ports.
5402
5403 * Improved Modula-2 language support
5404
5405 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5406 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5407 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5408 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5409 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5410 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5411
5412 * REMOVED features
5413
5414 The ARM rdi-share module.
5415
5416 The Netware NLM debug server.
5417
5418 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5419
5420 * New native configurations
5421
5422 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5423 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5424
5425 * New targets
5426
5427 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5428
5429 * New command line options
5430
5431 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5432 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5433 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5434 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5435 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5436 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5437 with the --command (-x) option.
5438
5439 * Deprecated commands removed
5440
5441 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5442 removed:
5443
5444 Command Replacement
5445 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5446 othernames set arm disassembler
5447 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5448 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5449 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5450 regs info registers
5451
5452 * New BSD user-level threads support
5453
5454 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5455 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5456 configurations are:
5457
5458 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5459 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5460 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5461
5462 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5463 are not yet supported.
5464
5465 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5466 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5467
5468 * REMOVED configurations and files
5469
5470 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5471 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5472 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5473
5474 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5475
5476 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5477 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5478 behavior.
5479
5480 * VAX floating point support
5481
5482 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5483
5484 * User-defined command support
5485
5486 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5487 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5488 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5489
5490 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5491
5492 * New command line option
5493
5494 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5495 debugging.
5496
5497 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5498
5499 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5500 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5501 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5502 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5503 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5504
5505 * Internationalization
5506
5507 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5508 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5509 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5510
5511 * Ada
5512
5513 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5514 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5515 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5516
5517 * New native configurations
5518
5519 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5520
5521 * Remote 'p' packet
5522
5523 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5524 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5525
5526 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5527
5528 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5529 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5530 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5531 i386 application).
5532
5533 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
5534 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5535 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5536 configurations:
5537
5538 hppa-*-hpux
5539 ia64-*-aix
5540 mips-*-irix*
5541 *-*-lynx
5542 mips-*-linux-gnu
5543 sds protocol
5544 xdr protocol
5545 powerpc bdm protocol
5546
5547 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5548 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5549
5550 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5551
5552 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5553 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5554 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5555 permanently REMOVED.
5556
5557 h8300-*-*
5558 mcore-*-*
5559 mn10300-*-*
5560 ns32k-*-*
5561 sh64-*-*
5562 v850-*-*
5563
5564 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5565
5566 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5567
5568 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5569 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5570 been fixed.
5571
5572 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5573
5574 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5575 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5576 IRIX long double values).
5577
5578 * VAX and "next"
5579
5580 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5581 command. This problem has been fixed.
5582
5583 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5584
5585 * Fix for ``many threads''
5586
5587 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5588 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5589 error message:
5590
5591 ptrace: No such process.
5592 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5593
5594 This problem has been fixed.
5595
5596 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5597
5598 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5599 GDB to dump core).
5600
5601 * New ``start'' command.
5602
5603 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
5604
5605 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5606
5607 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5608 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5609 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5610
5611 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5612 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5613 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5614 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5615 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5616 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5617 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5618 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5619 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5620
5621 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5622
5623 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5624 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5625 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5626 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5627 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5628
5629 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5630 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5631 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5632
5633 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5634
5635 * New native configurations
5636
5637 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5638 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5639 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5640 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5641 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5642 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5643 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5644
5645 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5646
5647 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5648 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5649 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5650 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5651 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5652 work, was also included.
5653
5654 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5655 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5656
5657 h8300-*-*
5658 mcore-*-*
5659 mn10300-*-*
5660 ns32k-*-*
5661 sh64-*-*
5662 v850-*-*
5663 xstormy16-*-*
5664
5665 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5666 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5667
5668 * REMOVED configurations and files
5669
5670 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5671 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5672 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5673 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5674 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5675 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5676 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5677 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5678 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5679 sonymips mips-sony-*
5680 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5681
5682 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5683
5684 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5685
5686 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5687 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5688 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5689 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5690 with GDB".
5691
5692 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5693
5694 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5695 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5696 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5697 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5698 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5699 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5700 are created.
5701
5702 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5703
5704 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5705
5706 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5707 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5708 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5709
5710 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5711
5712 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5713 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5714
5715 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5716
5717 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5718 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5719 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5720
5721 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5722
5723 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5724 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5725
5726 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5727
5728 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5729 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5730 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5731
5732 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5733
5734 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5735 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5736 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5737
5738 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5739
5740 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5741
5742 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5743 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5744
5745 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5746
5747 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5748 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5749 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5750 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5751
5752 * Revised SPARC target
5753
5754 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5755 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5756 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5757 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5758 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5759
5760 * New C++ demangler
5761
5762 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5763 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5764 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5765 programs.
5766
5767 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5768
5769 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5770 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5771 encountered these.
5772
5773 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5774
5775 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5776 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5777 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5778 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5779 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5780 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5781 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5782 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5783 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5784
5785 * New native configurations
5786
5787 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5788 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5789 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5790 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5791 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5792
5793 * New debugging protocols
5794
5795 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5796
5797 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5798
5799 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5800 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5801 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5802
5803 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5804
5805 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5806 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5807 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5808 permanently REMOVED.
5809
5810 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5811 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5812 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5813 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5814 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5815 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5816 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5817 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5818 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5819 sonymips mips-sony-*
5820 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5821
5822 * REMOVED configurations and files
5823
5824 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5825 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5826 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5827 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5828 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5829 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5830 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5831 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5832 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5833 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5834 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5835 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5836 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5837 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5838 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5839 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5840 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5841
5842 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5843
5844 * Objective-C
5845
5846 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5847 integrated into GDB.
5848
5849 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5850
5851 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5852 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5853 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5854 backtraces.
5855
5856 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5857 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5858 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5859
5860 * Hosted file I/O.
5861
5862 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5863 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5864 remote protocol documentation for details.
5865
5866 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5867
5868 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5869 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5870 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5871 ppc32 on ppc64).
5872
5873 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5874
5875 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5876 per-thread variables.
5877
5878 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5879
5880 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5881 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5882
5883 * Separate debug info.
5884
5885 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5886 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5887 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5888 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5889 and optional debug files.
5890
5891 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5892
5893 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5894 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5895 debugger.
5896
5897 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5898 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5899
5900 * Java
5901
5902 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5903 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5904 considered "useable".
5905
5906 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5907
5908 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5909 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5910 kernel.
5911
5912 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5913
5914 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5915 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5916
5917 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5918
5919 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5920 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5921 command.
5922
5923 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5924
5925 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5926 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5927
5928 * Profiling support
5929
5930 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5931 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5932 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5933 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5934 data, for more informative profiling results.
5935
5936 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5937
5938 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5939 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5940 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5941
5942 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5943 removed.
5944
5945 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5946 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5947 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5948 in a subsequent -var-update.
5949
5950 * New native configurations.
5951
5952 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5953
5954 * Multi-arched targets.
5955
5956 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5957 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5958
5959 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5960
5961 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5962 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5963 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5964 permanently REMOVED.
5965
5966 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5967 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5968 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5969 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5970 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5971 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5972 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5973 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5974 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5975 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5976 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5977 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5978
5979 * REMOVED configurations and files
5980
5981 V850EA ISA
5982 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5983 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5984 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5985 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5986 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5987 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5988 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5989 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5990 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5991 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5992 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5993 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5994 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5995
5996 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5997
5998 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5999 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
6000 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
6001 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
6002 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
6003
6004 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
6005
6006 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
6007
6008 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
6009 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
6010 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
6011 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
6012 shared libs like mad''.
6013
6014 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6015
6016 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
6017 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
6018 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
6019 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6020
6021 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
6022
6023 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
6024 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
6025 they expand.
6026
6027 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
6028 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
6029
6030 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
6031 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
6032
6033 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
6034 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
6035 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
6036 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
6037
6038 * Multi-arched targets.
6039
6040 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
6041 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
6042 NEC V850 v850-*-*
6043 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
6044 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
6045 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
6046
6047 * New targets.
6048
6049 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
6050
6051
6052 * New native configurations
6053
6054 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
6055 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
6056 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
6057 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
6058
6059 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6060
6061 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6062 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6063 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6064 permanently REMOVED.
6065
6066 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6067 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6068 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6069 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6070 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6071 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6072 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6073 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6074 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6075 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6076 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
6077 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6078 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6079
6080 * OBSOLETE languages
6081
6082 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
6083
6084 * REMOVED configurations and files
6085
6086 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6087 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6088 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6089 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6090 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6091
6092 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6093
6094 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
6095
6096 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
6097 commands. The default is 1024.
6098
6099 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
6100
6101 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
6102
6103 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
6104
6105 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
6106 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
6107 from a file into memory (restore).
6108
6109 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
6110
6111 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
6112 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
6113 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
6114
6115 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
6116
6117 * New targets.
6118
6119 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
6120
6121 * Bug fixes
6122
6123 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
6124 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
6125 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
6126
6127 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
6128 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
6129 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
6130
6131 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
6132 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
6133 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
6134
6135 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
6136 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
6137 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
6138
6139 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
6140
6141 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
6142
6143 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
6144 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
6145 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
6146 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
6147 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
6148 (notably embedded) targets.
6149
6150 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
6151
6152 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
6153 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
6154 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
6155 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
6156
6157 * New command line option
6158
6159 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
6160
6161 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6162
6163 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
6164 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
6165 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
6166 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
6167 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
6168 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
6169 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
6170 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
6171 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
6172 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
6173
6174 * Changes in ARM configurations.
6175
6176 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
6177 configuration is fully multi-arch.
6178
6179 * New native configurations
6180
6181 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
6182 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
6183 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
6184 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
6185
6186 * New targets
6187
6188 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
6189
6190 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6191
6192 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6193 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6194 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6195 permanently REMOVED.
6196
6197 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6198 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6199 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6200 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6201 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6202
6203 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6204
6205 * REMOVED configurations and files
6206
6207 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6208 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6209 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6210 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6211 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6212 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6213 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6214 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6215 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6216 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6217 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6218 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6219 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
6220
6221 * Changes to command line processing
6222
6223 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
6224 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
6225
6226 * Changes to key bindings
6227
6228 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
6229
6230 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
6231
6232 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
6233
6234 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
6235 corrupted.
6236
6237 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
6238
6239 Numerous documentation fixes.
6240
6241 Numerous testsuite fixes.
6242
6243 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
6244
6245 * New native configurations
6246
6247 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
6248 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
6249 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
6250 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6251 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
6252 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
6253
6254 * New targets
6255
6256 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
6257 CRIS cris-axis
6258 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
6259
6260 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6261
6262 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
6263 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6264 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6265 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6266 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6267 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6268 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6269 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6270 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6271 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6272 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6273 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6274 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6275 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
6276
6277 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
6278 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
6279
6280 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6281 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6282 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6283 permanently REMOVED.
6284
6285 * REMOVED configurations and files
6286
6287 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6288 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6289 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6290 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6291 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6292 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
6293
6294 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
6295
6296 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
6297 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
6298 present.
6299
6300 * Other news:
6301
6302 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
6303
6304 * The MI enabled by default.
6305
6306 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
6307 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
6308 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
6309 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
6310 which is now deprecated.
6311
6312 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
6313
6314 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
6315 main features are supported:
6316
6317 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
6318
6319 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
6320 extension;
6321
6322 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
6323
6324 - a Pascal expression parser.
6325
6326 However, some important features are not yet supported.
6327
6328 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
6329
6330 - there are some problems with boolean types;
6331
6332 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
6333 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
6334
6335 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
6336
6337 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
6338
6339 * Changes in completion.
6340
6341 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
6342 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
6343 users expect at the shell prompt.
6344
6345 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
6346 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
6347 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
6348 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
6349 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
6350 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
6351 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
6352
6353 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
6354
6355 * New platform-independent commands:
6356
6357 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
6358 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
6359 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
6360
6361 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
6362
6363 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
6364 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
6365 many threads as your system allows you to have.
6366
6367 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
6368
6369 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
6370 multi-threaded programs though.
6371
6372 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
6373
6374 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6375
6376 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6377 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6378 supported.)
6379
6380 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6381
6382 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6383 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6384 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6385 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6386 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6387 registers.
6388
6389 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6390 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6391 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6392
6393 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6394
6395 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6396 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6397
6398 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6399 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6400 IDT.
6401
6402 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6403 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6404 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6405 a given linear address.
6406
6407 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6408 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6409 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6410
6411 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6412
6413 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6414
6415 * Changes in documentation.
6416
6417 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6418 Documentation License.
6419
6420 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6421 manual.
6422
6423 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6424
6425 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6426 manual.
6427
6428 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6429 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6430 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6431
6432 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6433
6434 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6435 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6436 contents of this file.
6437
6438 * gdba.el deleted
6439
6440 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6441
6442 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6443
6444 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6445
6446 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6447 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6448 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6449 greater level of detail.
6450
6451 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6452
6453 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6454 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6455 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6456 written.
6457
6458 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6459
6460 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6461 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6462 machines ``out of the box''.
6463
6464 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6465 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6466 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6467 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6468 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6469
6470 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6471 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6472 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6473 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6474 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6475
6476 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6477 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6478 also works.
6479
6480 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6481 GDB.
6482
6483 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6484 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6485 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6486 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6487
6488 * New native configurations
6489
6490 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6491 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6492
6493 * New targets
6494
6495 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6496 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6497 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6498 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6499
6500 * OBSOLETE configurations
6501
6502 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6503 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6504 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6505 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6506 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6507
6508 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6509 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6510 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6511 be permanently REMOVED.
6512
6513 * Gould support removed
6514
6515 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6516
6517 * New features for SVR4
6518
6519 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6520 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6521 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6522
6523 * Many C++ enhancements
6524
6525 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6526 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6527
6528 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6529
6530 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6531 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6532 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6533 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6534
6535 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6536 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6537
6538 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6539
6540 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6541 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6542 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6543
6544 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6545 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6546
6547 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6548
6549 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6550 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6551 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6552
6553 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6554
6555 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6556 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6557 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6558
6559 * ``apropos'' command added.
6560
6561 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6562 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6563 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6564
6565 * New MI interface
6566
6567 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6568 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6569 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6570 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6571 enabled by configuring with:
6572
6573 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6574
6575 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6576
6577 * New native configurations
6578
6579 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6580 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6581 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6582
6583 * New targets
6584
6585 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6586 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6587 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6588
6589 * OBSOLETE configurations
6590
6591 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6592
6593 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6594 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6595 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6596 be permanently REMOVED.
6597
6598 * ANSI/ISO C
6599
6600 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6601 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6602 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6603 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6604 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6605 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6606 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6607 already.
6608
6609 * Readline 2.2
6610
6611 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6612
6613 * set extension-language
6614
6615 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6616 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6617 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6618 set extension-language .c c++
6619 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6620 and their associated languages.
6621
6622 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6623
6624 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6625 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6626 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6627
6628 set processor NAME
6629
6630 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6631 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6632
6633 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6634 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6635 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6636 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6637 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6638 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6639 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6640 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6641 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6642 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6643 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6644
6645 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6646 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6647 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6648 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6649
6650 * HP-UX support
6651
6652 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6653 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6654 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6655 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6656 for xdb and dbx commands.
6657
6658 * Catchpoints
6659
6660 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6661 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6662 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6663
6664 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6665 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6666 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6667
6668 * Debugging across forks
6669
6670 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6671 in the inferior.
6672
6673 * TUI
6674
6675 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6676 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6677 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6678
6679 * GDB remote protocol additions
6680
6681 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6682 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6683 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6684 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6685
6686 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6687 full 64-bit address. The command
6688
6689 set remoteaddresssize 32
6690
6691 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6692 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6693 will be discarded.
6694
6695 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6696 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6697
6698 maint packet heythere
6699
6700 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6701 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6702 time.
6703
6704 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6705 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6706 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6707
6708 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6709
6710 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6711 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6712 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6713
6714 * mask-address variable for Mips
6715
6716 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6717 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6718 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6719
6720 * Higher serial baud rates
6721
6722 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6723 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6724 to achieve all of these rates.)
6725
6726 * i960 simulator
6727
6728 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6729 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6730
6731
6732 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6733
6734 * New native configurations
6735
6736 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6737 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6738 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6739 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6740 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6741 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6742 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6743
6744 * New targets
6745
6746 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6747 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6748 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6749 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6750 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6751 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6752 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6753 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6754 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6755 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6756 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6757
6758 * New debugging protocols
6759
6760 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6761 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6762 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6763 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6764 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6765 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6766
6767 * DWARF 2
6768
6769 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6770 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6771 information.
6772
6773 * Java frontend
6774
6775 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6776 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6777
6778 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6779
6780 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6781 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6782 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6783
6784 * Live range splitting
6785
6786 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6787 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6788 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6789
6790 * Hurd support
6791
6792 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6793 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6794
6795 * ARM Thumb support
6796
6797 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6798 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6799 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6800 accordingly.
6801
6802 * MIPS16 support
6803
6804 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6805 instruction set.
6806
6807 * Overlay support
6808
6809 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6810 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6811 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6812 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6813 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6814 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6815
6816 * info symbol
6817
6818 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6819 the symbol at the specified address.
6820
6821 * Trace support
6822
6823 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6824 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6825 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6826 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6827 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6828
6829 * MIPS simulator
6830
6831 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6832 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6833 of most MIPS variants.
6834
6835 * Sparc simulator
6836
6837 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6838 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6839 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6840
6841 * set architecture
6842
6843 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6844 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6845 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6846 the possible architectures.
6847
6848 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6849
6850 * New native configurations
6851
6852 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6853 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6854 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6855 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6856 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6857 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6858
6859 * New targets
6860
6861 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6862 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6863 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6864 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6865 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6866 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
6867 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6868
6869 * PowerPC simulator
6870
6871 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6872 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6873 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6874 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6875 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6876
6877 * Solaris 2.5
6878
6879 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6880
6881 * Windows 95/NT native
6882
6883 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6884 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6885 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6886 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6887 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6888
6889 * dont-repeat command
6890
6891 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6892 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6893 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6894 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6895
6896 * Send break instead of ^C
6897
6898 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6899 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6900 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6901
6902 * Remote protocol timeout
6903
6904 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6905 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6906 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6907
6908 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6909
6910 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6911 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6912 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6913 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6914 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6915
6916 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6917 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6918 automatically on hpux10.
6919
6920 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6921
6922 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6923
6924 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6925
6926 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6927 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6928 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6929 every character. The default value is 1050.
6930
6931 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6932
6933 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6934 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6935 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6936 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6937 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6938 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6939
6940 * Speedups for remote debugging
6941
6942 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6943 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6944 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6945
6946 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6947
6948 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6949 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6950
6951 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6952
6953 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6954
6955 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6956 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6957
6958 * Remote targets use caching
6959
6960 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6961 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6962 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6963 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6964 off' turns the data cache off.
6965
6966 * Remote targets may have threads
6967
6968 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6969 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6970 gdb/remote.c for details.
6971
6972 * NetROM support
6973
6974 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6975 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6976 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6977 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6978 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6979 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6980 sequence is something like
6981
6982 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6983 load <prog>
6984 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6985
6986 * Macintosh host
6987
6988 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6989 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6990 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6991 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6992 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6993 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6994 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6995 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6996
6997 * Autoconf
6998
6999 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
7000 but does simplify configuration and building.
7001
7002 * hpux10
7003
7004 GDB now supports hpux10.
7005
7006 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
7007
7008 * New native configurations
7009
7010 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
7011 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
7012 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
7013 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
7014
7015 * New targets
7016
7017 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7018 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
7019 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
7020 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
7021 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7022
7023 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
7024
7025 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
7026 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
7027 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
7028 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
7029 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
7030
7031 * Arguments to user-defined commands
7032
7033 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
7034 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
7035 trivial example:
7036 define adder
7037 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
7038
7039 To execute the command use:
7040 adder 1 2 3
7041
7042 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
7043 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
7044 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
7045
7046 * New `if' and `while' commands
7047
7048 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
7049 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
7050 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
7051 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
7052 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
7053 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
7054 if the expression is zero.
7055
7056 * Fortran source language mode
7057
7058 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
7059 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
7060 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
7061 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
7062 Fortran compilers.
7063
7064 * Better HPUX support
7065
7066 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
7067 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
7068 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
7069 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
7070 that behavior do the following before running the program:
7071
7072 adb -w a.out
7073 __dld_flags?W 0x5
7074 control-d
7075
7076 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
7077 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
7078
7079 adb -w a.out
7080 __dld_flags?W 0x4
7081 control-d
7082
7083 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
7084 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
7085 external linkage.
7086
7087 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
7088 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
7089
7090 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
7091
7092 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
7093 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
7094 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
7095 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
7096 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
7097 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
7098
7099 * New DOS host serial code
7100
7101 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
7102 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
7103 a PC's serial port.
7104
7105 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
7106
7107 * New "complete" command
7108
7109 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
7110 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
7111
7112 * Trailing space optional in prompt
7113
7114 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
7115 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
7116
7117 * Breakpoint hit counts
7118
7119 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
7120 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
7121 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
7122 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
7123 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
7124 that breakpoint.
7125
7126 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
7127
7128 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
7129 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
7130 arrays actually contain only short strings.
7131
7132 * Shared library breakpoints
7133
7134 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
7135 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
7136
7137 * Hardware watchpoints
7138
7139 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
7140 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
7141
7142 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
7143
7144 * Annotations
7145
7146 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
7147 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
7148
7149 * Improved Irix 5 support
7150
7151 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
7152
7153 * Improved HPPA support
7154
7155 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
7156
7157 * New native configurations
7158
7159 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
7160 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7161 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
7162 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
7163
7164 * New targets
7165
7166 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7167 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
7168 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
7169
7170 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
7171
7172 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
7173 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
7174
7175 * Fixes
7176
7177 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
7178 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
7179
7180 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
7181
7182 * Irix 5 is now supported
7183
7184 * HPPA support
7185
7186 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
7187 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
7188 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
7189 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
7190 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
7191
7192
7193 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
7194
7195 * User visible changes:
7196
7197 * Remote Debugging
7198
7199 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
7200 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
7201 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
7202 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
7203 debugging info for the mips target).
7204
7205 * DEC Alpha native support
7206
7207 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
7208 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
7209 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
7210 Alpha-specific notes.
7211
7212 * Preliminary thread implementation
7213
7214 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
7215
7216 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
7217
7218 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
7219 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
7220 for details).
7221
7222 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
7223
7224 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
7225 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
7226 call methods, ...etc.
7227
7228 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
7229
7230 * User visible changes:
7231
7232 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
7233 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
7234 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
7235 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
7236
7237 Filename completion now works.
7238
7239 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
7240 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
7241 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
7242
7243 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
7244 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
7245 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
7246 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
7247 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
7248
7249 * DEC alpha support
7250
7251 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
7252 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
7253
7254
7255 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
7256
7257 * Testsuite
7258
7259 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
7260 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
7261 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
7262
7263 * C++ demangling
7264
7265 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
7266 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
7267 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
7268 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
7269 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
7270
7271 * Simulators
7272
7273 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
7274 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
7275 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
7276
7277 * New targets supported
7278
7279 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7280 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7281 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
7282 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7283 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
7284
7285 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
7286 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
7287 GO32 memory extender.
7288
7289 * New remote protocols
7290
7291 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
7292
7293 * New source languages supported
7294
7295 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
7296 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
7297 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
7298
7299
7300 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
7301
7302 * HP Precision Architecture supported
7303
7304 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
7305 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
7306 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
7307 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
7308 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
7309 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
7310
7311 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
7312
7313 * Faster and better demangling
7314
7315 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
7316 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
7317 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
7318 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
7319 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
7320 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
7321 symbol lookups.
7322
7323 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
7324 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
7325 compiler does not actually implement.
7326
7327 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
7328
7329 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
7330 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
7331 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
7332 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
7333 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
7334 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
7335 fix.
7336
7337 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
7338 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
7339
7340 * Improved configure script
7341
7342 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
7343 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
7344 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
7345 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
7346
7347 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
7348 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
7349 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
7350 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
7351 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
7352 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
7353
7354 * Documentation improvements
7355
7356 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
7357 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
7358 before submitting changes.
7359
7360 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
7361 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
7362 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
7363 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
7364 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
7365
7366 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
7367 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
7368 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
7369 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
7370 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
7371 around this problem.
7372
7373 * New features
7374
7375 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7376 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7377 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7378 the target program.
7379
7380 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7381 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7382
7383 * New native hosts supported
7384
7385 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7386 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7387
7388 * New targets supported
7389
7390 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7391
7392 * New file formats supported
7393
7394 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7395 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7396
7397 * Major bug fixes
7398
7399 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7400
7401 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7402 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7403
7404 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7405 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7406 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7407
7408 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7409 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7410
7411 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7412 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7413 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7414 libraries.
7415
7416 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7417 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7418 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7419 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7420 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7421
7422 * Internal improvements
7423
7424 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7425 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7426
7427 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7428 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7429 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7430 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7431 shared code that handles any of them.
7432
7433 * New command line options
7434
7435 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7436
7437 * Mmalloc licensing
7438
7439 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7440 General Public License.
7441
7442 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7443
7444 * Host/native/target split
7445
7446 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7447 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7448 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7449 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7450 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7451
7452 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7453 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7454 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7455 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7456 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7457 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7458 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7459
7460 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7461 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7462 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7463
7464 * New hosts supported
7465
7466 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7467 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7468 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7469
7470 * New targets supported
7471
7472 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7473 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7474
7475 * New native hosts supported
7476
7477 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7478 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7479 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7480
7481 * New file formats supported
7482
7483 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7484 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7485 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7486
7487 * New commands
7488
7489 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7490 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7491 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7492
7493 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7494
7495 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7496 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7497 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7498 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7499
7500 * C++ improvements
7501
7502 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7503 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7504 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7505
7506 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7507
7508 * Major bug fixes
7509
7510 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7511 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7512 by the compiler.
7513
7514 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7515 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7516
7517 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7518 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7519 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7520 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7521 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7522 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7523
7524 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7525 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7526 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7527 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7528
7529 * AMD 29k support
7530
7531 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7532 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7533 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7534 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7535 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7536
7537 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7538 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7539 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7540 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7541
7542 * Remote interfaces
7543
7544 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7545 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7546 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7547 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7548 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7549 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7550 each instruction being stepped through.
7551
7552 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7553 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7554
7555 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7556 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7557 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7558 processor with a serial port.
7559
7560 * Configuration
7561
7562 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7563 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7564 supported, and what files each one uses.
7565
7566 * Library changes
7567
7568 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7569 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7570 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7571 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7572
7573 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7574 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7575 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7576 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7577
7578 * Documentation
7579
7580 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7581 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7582 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7583 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7584 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7585 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7586
7587 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7588
7589
7590 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7591
7592 * Better support for C++ function names
7593
7594 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7595 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7596 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7597 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7598 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7599
7600 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7601 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7602 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7603 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7604 for the list of formats.
7605
7606 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7607
7608 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7609 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7610 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7611 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
7612 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7613 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7614 this problem.)
7615
7616 * New 'maintenance' command
7617
7618 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7619 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7620 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7621
7622 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7623 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7624 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7625 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7626 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7627 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7628
7629 The following commands are new:
7630
7631 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7632 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7633 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7634
7635 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7636
7637 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7638 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7639 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7640 read after argv processing.
7641
7642 * New hosts supported
7643
7644 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7645
7646 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7647
7648 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7649 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7650 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7651 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7652 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7653 It costs extra.
7654
7655 * New targets supported
7656
7657 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7658
7659 * More smarts about finding #include files
7660
7661 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7662 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7663 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7664 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7665 the one that contains your sources.
7666
7667 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7668 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7669 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7670
7671 * Interesting infernals change
7672
7673 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7674 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7675 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7676 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7677
7678 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7679
7680 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7681 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7682 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7683
7684 See the ChangeLog for details.
7685
7686 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7687
7688 * New machines supported (host and target)
7689
7690 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7691
7692 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7693
7694 * New malloc package
7695
7696 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7697 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
7698 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7699 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7700 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7701 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7702
7703 * info proc
7704
7705 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7706 'help info proc' for details.
7707
7708 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7709
7710 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7711 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7712 possible.
7713
7714 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7715
7716 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7717 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7718 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7719 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7720 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7721 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7722
7723 * Cross byte order fixes
7724
7725 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7726 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7727
7728 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7729
7730 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7731 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7732 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7733 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7734 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7735 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7736 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7737 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7738 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7739 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7740
7741 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7742 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7743 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7744 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7745
7746 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7747 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7748 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7749 use is:
7750
7751 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7752
7753 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7754 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7755 shared across multiple host platforms.
7756
7757 * longjmp() handling
7758
7759 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7760 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7761 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7762 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7763
7764 * Solaris 2.0
7765
7766 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7767 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7768 reading symbols.
7769
7770 * Bug fixes
7771
7772 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7773 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7774 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7775
7776 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7777
7778 * New machines supported (host and target)
7779
7780 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7781 (except core files)
7782 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7783 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7784
7785 * New machines supported (target)
7786
7787 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7788
7789 * C++ support
7790
7791 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7792 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7793 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7794
7795 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7796 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7797 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7798 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7799 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7800 released.
7801
7802 * New features for SVR4
7803
7804 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7805 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7806 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7807
7808 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7809 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7810 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7811
7812 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7813 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7814
7815 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7816
7817 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7818 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7819 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7820 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7821 same code linked statically.
7822
7823 * New Getopt
7824
7825 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7826 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7827 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7828 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7829 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7830 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7831
7832 * Bugs fixed
7833
7834 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7835 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7836 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7837
7838
7839 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7840
7841 * New machines supported (host and target)
7842
7843 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7844 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7845 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7846
7847 * Almost SCO Unix support
7848
7849 We had hoped to support:
7850 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7851 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7852 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7853 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7854
7855 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7856
7857 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7858 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7859 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7860 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7861 reqired (if any).
7862
7863 * New Readline
7864
7865 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7866 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7867 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7868
7869 * Bugs fixed
7870
7871 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7872 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7873 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7874
7875 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7876
7877 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7878 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7879 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7880
7881 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7882 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7883 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7884 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7885 version 2.
7886
7887 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7888 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7889 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7890 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7891 situation somewhat.
7892
7893 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7894 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7895 methods.
7896
7897 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7898 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7899 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7900
7901
7902 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7903
7904 * Improved configuration
7905
7906 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7907 Porting BFD is simpler.
7908
7909 * Stepping improved
7910
7911 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7912 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7913 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7914 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7915
7916 * Bug fixing
7917
7918 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7919
7920 * New host supported (not target)
7921
7922 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7923
7924
7925 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7926
7927 * Multiple source language support
7928
7929 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7930 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7931 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7932 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7933 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7934 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7935
7936 * GDB and Modula-2
7937
7938 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7939 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7940 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7941 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7942
7943 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7944 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7945 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7946
7947 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7948 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7949
7950 * set write on/off
7951
7952 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7953 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7954 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7955 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7956 effect immediately.
7957
7958 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7959
7960 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7961 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7962 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7963 examining core files.
7964
7965 * set listsize
7966
7967 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7968 The default is 10.
7969
7970 * New machines supported (host and target)
7971
7972 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7973 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7974 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7975
7976 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7977
7978 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7979
7980 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7981
7982 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7983 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7984 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7985
7986 * New remote interfaces
7987
7988 AMD 29000 Adapt
7989 AMD 29000 Minimon
7990
7991
7992 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7993
7994 * New Facilities
7995
7996 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7997
7998 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7999 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
8000 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
8001 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
8002 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
8003 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
8004 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
8005 stub on the target system.
8006
8007 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
8008
8009 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
8010 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
8011 object file types such as a.out and coff.
8012
8013 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
8014 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
8015
8016
8017 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
8018
8019 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
8020 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
8021
8022 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
8023 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
8024 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
8025
8026 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
8027 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
8028 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
8029 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
8030
8031 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
8032 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
8033 it is already running. Default is ON.
8034
8035 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
8036 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
8037 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
8038 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
8039 Default is ON.
8040
8041 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
8042 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
8043 or the value of the environment variable
8044 GDBHISTFILE.
8045
8046 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
8047 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
8048 HISTSIZE.
8049
8050 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
8051 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
8052 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
8053
8054 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
8055 history expansion will be performed on
8056 command line input. The default is OFF.
8057
8058 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
8059 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
8060 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
8061
8062 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
8063 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
8064 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8065 variable TERM.
8066
8067 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
8068 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
8069 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8070 variable TERM.
8071
8072 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
8073 ``set width'' instead.
8074
8075 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
8076 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
8077 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
8078 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
8079
8080 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
8081 is OFF.
8082
8083 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
8084 "raw" form if off.
8085
8086 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
8087 like instructions.
8088
8089 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
8090
8091
8092 * Support for Epoch Environment.
8093
8094 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
8095 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
8096 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
8097 window.
8098
8099
8100 * Support for Shared Libraries
8101
8102 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
8103 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
8104 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
8105 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
8106 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
8107 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
8108 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
8109 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
8110
8111 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
8112 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
8113 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
8114
8115 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
8116
8117
8118 * Watchpoints
8119
8120 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
8121 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
8122 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
8123 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
8124 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
8125 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
8126
8127 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
8128
8129 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
8130
8131 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8132 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8133 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8134
8135
8136 * C++ multiple inheritance
8137
8138 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
8139 for C++ programs.
8140
8141 * C++ exception handling
8142
8143 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
8144 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
8145 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
8146 handler's context).
8147
8148 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
8149 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
8150 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
8151
8152 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
8153 current stack frame.
8154
8155
8156 * Minor command changes
8157
8158 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
8159 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
8160 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
8161
8162 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
8163 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
8164 frames without printing.
8165
8166 * New directory command
8167
8168 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
8169 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
8170 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
8171 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
8172 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
8173
8174 * Configuring GDB for compilation
8175
8176 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
8177 for more details.
8178
8179 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
8180 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
8181 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
8182 where the program that you are debugging will run.